Footwear upper with components for easier foot insertion
A shoe has a heel counter with heel cup. The heel cup has an upper portion with a top edge having medial elevated point and a lateral elevated point separated by a recessed point along a median line of the heel cup. The heel cup has a tapering thickness in a medial crest region and lateral crest region different from a thickness the trough region, providing differential flexibility. The shoe may have a tensioning system, wherein the tensioning system has a first tensioning system and a second tensioning system, and the first tensioning system is adjustable, and the second tensioning system is fixed. The second tensioning system may be located further from a shoe opening than the first tensioning system, and the first tensioning system is adjusted to a tension sufficient to allow a foot entry into the shoe without use of hands.
1 . A shoe comprising:
a heel counter having a uniformly molded internal heel cup, wherein the heel cup comprises
an upper portion with a top edge having medial elevated point and a lateral elevated point separated by a recessed point along a median line of the heel cup;
a tapering thickness in a medial crest region and lateral crest region being different from a thickness in a trough region, the trough region providing differential flexibility from at least one of the medial crest region and lateral crest region;
the upper portion of the heel cup having an overall downward incline with a first angle relative to a vertical line that is normal to a level plane of the floor, the heel cup having an uppermost portion extending rearward; and
wherein the heel cup is disposed between layers of the upper and attached to a foam layer; the foam layer following a top line edge of the heel cup so as not to completely occupy the region between the medial crest region and the lateral crest region, thereby leaving at least a portion of the trough region unfilled by the foam layer.
2 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein the heel cup is a compressible heel cup having an upper portion, the upper portion has a first configuration, and a second configuration wherein the second configuration is distorted under a load of a user's foot, when the user is donning the shoe, wherein in the second configuration, at least part of the upper portion is lowered relative to the first configuration and the upper portion is configured to return to the first configuration after the load of the user's foot is removed.
3 . The shoe of claim 2 , wherein the second configuration comprises the heel counter widening with a medial side and a lateral side of the heel counter moving outward away from a shoe opening.
4 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein a vertical cross section of the heel cup is on a plane intersecting at least one of the medial elevated point and a lateral elevated point and the vertical cross section has a first S wave shape.
5 . The shoe of claim 4 wherein the first S wave shape has a lower concavity and an upper concavity, and the lower concavity is deeper than the upper concavity.
6 . The shoe of claim 5 wherein the second S wave shape has an upper concavity that is deeper than a lower concavity.
7 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein a vertical cross section of the heel cup along the median line has a second S wave shape.
8 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the trough region is greater than thickness in the medial crest region and lateral crest region.
9 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein the tapering thickness extends from the medial crest region and lateral crest region toward the topline edge and gradually reduces in thickness.
10 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein the shoe further comprises a tensioning system, wherein the tensioning system has a first tensioning system and a second tensioning system, and the first tensioning system is adjustable, and the second tensioning system is fixed.
11 . The shoe of claim 10 , wherein the second tensioning system is located further from a shoe opening than the first tensioning system, and the first tensioning system is adjusted to a tension sufficient to allow a foot entry into the shoe without use of hands.
12 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein the medial crest region and the lateral crest region have different flexibilities.
13 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein the medial elevated point and the lateral elevated point have differing heights.
14 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the central portion provides for greater flexibility than the trough region.
15 . The shoe of claim 1 , wherein along the median line the trough region has a first thickness and a central portion of the heel cup has a second thickness; and the first thickness is greater than the second thickness.