Oh, patents! Louboutin’s removable heels

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Not all of Louboutin’s patents are design patents. Louboutin was also awarded a French utility patent for a shoe mechanism enabling to exchange heels. The French utility patent FR2613598 , granted in 1989 and titled Système de fixation pour talons amovibles (Mounting system for removable heels) thus recites a system enabling the person wearing the shoes to effortlessly and swiftly change heels, without the use of any extra tools such as a screwdriver or wrench. FR2613598 further states that the system might be actuated with a single hand, even a single finger!

Other advantages recited include being able to change heels when they have worn out, or being able to change heels according to outfit and function. Indeed, as long as the heels are the same height, they can be fashioned out of different materials, or of different widths, to accommodate both daytime and evening wear. Thus, the multiple heel shoe can become much more versatile.

The mounting system (illustrated below) comprises male and female parts that come together and are further connected with a push-button locking mechanism located in the heel portion.

The French abstract for FR2613598 titled Système de fixation pour talons amovibles is included below as well as a patent drawing of the mechanism. 

Système de fixation pour talons amovibles caractérisé en ce qu'il est constitué d'une partie male 1 fixée sous la tige, à l'endroit où le talon vient s'incorporer. Cette partie saillante est destinée à venir se loger dans un évidement borgne 2 prévu à cet effet dans la partie supérieure du talon. La partie saillante est munie radialement d'un ergot ou téton 11 qui, poussé par un élément élastique 8, viendra se loger dans un évidement 13 prévu a cet effet dans la partie femelle pour que le système soit solidement bloqué. Des moyens de déverrouillage par bouton 16 et d'orientation 3 sont en outre prévus.

Figure 1 - FR2613598

Oh, patents! Perugia's super high heel

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

In US2465817 titled High heel shoe, Perugia disclosed a comfortable, and aesthetically pleasing, 4-inch high heel shoe without the use of a platform to compensate for the increased height. 

The invention invoked a concave inner sole, designed to prevent the foot from slipping forward under pressure of the heel height. The concave inner sole thus replaced the need for what was perceived as unsightly platforms while still affording extra height, compared to the state of the art in the height of women’s shoes.

In US246817, the high heel and its concave inner sole were embodied in a pump, and described as applicable to other upper shoe designs such as Perugia's marketed, "mask mule" included as an illustration in this post. 

A patent drawing, showing the pump embodiment of the invention, extracted from US2465817, titled High-heel shoe, is also included.

Oh, patents! Perugia’s musical heel

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

In, 1927, Perugia invented a musical heel enabling the person wearing them to make sounds with every step. However, this invention was designed with performance artists in mind, and especially circus performers, who might each have different musical shoes, and thus produce music together in various combinations.

The invention, disclosed in FR625731, consisted in a hollow and compressible rubber heel functioning as a compressible air chamber. That is, with every step the air contained inside the chamber of the rubber heel is described as compressed and forced through a sound-making instrument (10). The sound-making instrument is described as consisting in a small opening and tube equipped with a membrane that vibrates to produce a sound when air is forced through. Thus, the sound-making instrument within the heel is disclosed as both air and vibration driven, whereas the compression mechanism is variously described as consisting in a spring, that is gusseted or not. 

Two 1927 patent drawings, extracted from Perugia's musical heel patent, are included. Figure 2 shows the empty heel, and Figure 3 shows one embodiment of the invention with a gusseted spring and the small opening and tube equipped with a vibrating membrane.

Oh, patents! Perugia's replaceable heel

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

One of Perguia’s famous heel inventions was disclosed in US2795866, titled Ladies’ shoes, granted in 1956, and assigned to Isaac Miller. This heel patent concerned a replaceable heel. The invention addressed the fashion-conscious need to change heels to match an outfit, or the need for comfort to better suit a particular purpose, such as  "hike or walk”.

The embodiment of the invention included a curved metal “tenon” and “mortise” slide, attached lengthwise on the outside of the shoe, under the arched and heel portions. The tenon served in this manner as a shank, and it was re-inforced by the metal mortise slide, attached to the shoe. A locking mechanism was also provided for the tenon and mortise system, in view of preventing the heel from slipping. Most importantly, the heel assembly system was designed so as to require no tools and no exertion when changing heels.

Patent figure drawings are included to the right, and below, a modern marketed version of the replaceable heel shoe.

Oh, Patents! Perugia’s heel construction

FR595482 - Fig. 1

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Many of Perugia’s patents are heel-related. This is probably because in 1925 Perugia actually changed the way women's heels were previously constructed.

FR595482 - Fig. 4

In the 1925 French patent, FR595482, Perugia disclosed the sheet metal housing of a shoe heel (Fig. 1), designed to receive two parts of a heel made of wood and assembled in a "T" shape (Fig. 4). This invention replaced the former method of heel construction consisting in nailing or gluing leather around a single block of wood, carved into the shape of a heel. The problematic situation consisted in the expense and time it took to carve the single piece of wood-block heel, and then to wrap it in leather, and to attach part of the shoe sole at the connection point with the rest of the shoe.

Perugia changed the former art, by designing a metal housing for two blocks of wood assembled as an angled “T” shaped heel (Fig 4). The metal housing could additionally be fashionably enameled to bypass covering it with leather. The empty spaces inside the housing could be filled with cork or other materials, and the metal housing was held together with metal threads or fasteners.

The invention thus afforded both a much lighter heel than single-block wooden heels. And, compared to a housing heel with no wood blocks inside, it also offered a more resistant heel as it still enclosed the wooden T-shaped blocks. The scope of the invention also extended to all sorts of heels, beyond women’s high heels.

FR608988 - Fig 4 

A year later, Perugia filed an improvement to his novel heel construction invention. This improvement, disclosed in FR608988, consisted in changing the ergonomic shape of the two pieces of wood, assembled as a “T” within the metal housing (Figure 4]. Essentially, the horizontal block of wood was fabricated in an augmented size, to provide more anchoring when attached to the heel part of the shoe, and the vertical block was more beveled to better accommodate the increased surface of the horizontal block and it's shape.

Both of these two early patents awarded in France to Perugia, in 1925 and 1926, were almost concurrently re-filed in the USA (as US1809918 and US1642889), in Switzerland (as CH124341 and CH118696), in Canada (as CA274538 and CA264938) and in Austria (AT108548 and AT106112), which suggests how important they were to the manufacture of shoe heels.

From then on, Perugia filed many more heel patents: design patents draping the metal housing “turban-style” (USD111857, USD112086 USD111858), and many additional utility patents such as the whimsical “music box heel” patent (FR625731) or a new heel height patent (US2465817), and a famous heel customization (US2795866) patent.