Footwear support structures

Abstract

Footwear as inserts to shoes or integral parts to shoes is made of rigid form with a sole portion to be placed in compression and an upper portion to flex in tension in response to foot motion and constructed to enable triangulation forces for sustaining a user's foot in motion.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A footwear article with one or more hard sole portions and constructed for placement one or more of forefoot, archs or hindfoot zones and one or more hard upper portions, including one such portion adjacent the first metararsal bone of a user's foot, the sole and upper portions being interactively connected and constructed and arranged to respond to downward pressure of a user's foot to manage triangulation of forces cause the one or more upper portions to sustain the user's foot in the forefoot zone and one or both of arch and hindfoot zones. 
     
     
         2 . The footwear article of  claim 1  wherein multiple upper portions are arranged for managing triangulation in response to downward pressure of the foot on the sole in one or more of forefoot, arch and hind foot zones or across two or more of such zones. 
     
     
         3 . The footwear article of  claim 2  wherein multiple upper portions are arranged in forefoot zones to manage triangulation without use of upper portions at the hind foot zone to manage such triangulation. 
     
     
         4 . The footwear article of  claim 1  wherein the one or more upper portions are provided as tabs including at the medial first metatarsal and at one or more other portions of the foot. 
     
     
         5 . The footwear article of  claim 1  as an integral part or parts of a shoe, boot, sneaker, sandal or like foot covering. 
     
     
         6 . The footwear article of  claim 1  as an insert for a shoe, boot, sneaker, sandal or like foot covering. 
     
     
         7 . A footwear article comprising a sole and upper constructed and arranged such that downward pressure of a wearer's foot in forefoot motion causes reaction force vectors in the sole and upper to converge to enable overall shifting of force in the footwear as the transfer of weight to the wearer's rear foot begins, and rolls to shift momentum forward,
 the footwear being constructed and arranged such that downward pressure of the foot and lateral to medial directional force on the foot in motion put a vertical upper portion of the footwear in tension to maintain a foot portion in position and sustain the foot.   
     
     
         8 . The footwear article of  claim 7  wherein a sole and multiple upper portions are provided including at the medial first metatarsal and/or more other portions of the foot. 
     
     
         9 . The footwear article of  claim 7  with multiple upper portions are arranged for managing triangulation in response to downward pressure of the foot on the sole in one or more of forefoot, arch and hind foot zones or across two or more of such zones. 
     
     
         10 . The footwear article of  claim 7  as an integral part or parts of a shoe, boot, sneaker, sandal or like foot covering. 
     
     
         11 . The footwear article of  claim 7  as an insert for a shoe, hoot, sneaker, sandal or like foot covering. 
     
     
         12 . The footwear article of  claim 7  comprising:
 means forming a layer of bowed sole material to define a spanning convex region within a sole portion, 
 means forming a concave striker plate below the said spanning layer with side runners on both medial and lateral sides engaging edges of the spanning layer, 
 whereby downward pressure on the spanning layer by a user's foot buckles it downwardly into the convex region and imparts force to the side runners to spread the impact force and produce a reactive response force sustaining the foot. 
 
     
     
         13 . The footwear article of  claim 12  where the spanning layer and strike plate are in a hind foot region and constructed and arranged to interact with a counter element. 
     
     
         14 . The footwear article of  claim 13  comprising a counter element interactively engaged with the striker plate's runners. 
     
     
         15 . The footwear article of  claim 12  whereby spanning layer and strike plate are in a forefoot region. 
     
     
         16 . The footwear article of  claim 12  wherein combinations of spanning layer and strike plate are in both hindfoot and forefoot regions. 
     
     
         17 . The footwear article of  claim 12  wherein a spanning sole layer in a hindfoot region imparts force to a sole portion and upper portion in the forefoot region. 
     
     
         18 . The footwear article of  claim 12  wherein the sole portion is in multiple sole portions integrally formed with each other. 
     
     
         19 . The footwear article of  claim 12  wherein the sole portion is in multiple sole portions integrally formed with each other operatively interconnected with each other. 
     
     
         20 . The footwear article of  claim 19  wherein the interconnected parts can be adjusted increasing or decreasing combined length. 
     
     
         21 . A footwear article for sustaining a foot in motion comprising a sole portion and multiple upper elastically deformable portion tab portions integral to the sole portion and located adjacent the first medial metatarsal bone and fifth lateral metatarsal to a user's foot and one or two tabs in the rearfoot region of a user's foot.