GB2298563A

GB2298563A - Removable golf shoe cleat

Info

Publication number: GB2298563A
Application number: GB9608462A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ernie L Deacon; Faris W Mcmullin
Original assignee: Softspikes LLC
Current assignee: Softspikes LLC
Priority date: 1992-04-24
Filing date: 1993-04-20
Publication date: 1996-09-11
Also published as: GB9608462D0

Description

REMOVABLE GOLF SHOE CLEATS This invention generally relates to cleat devices for golf shoes. More particularly, this invention relates to detachable cleats or "spikes" for golf shoes which are suitable for winter play.

During the winter months, some greens keepers of golf courses prohibit the use of standard metal golf shoe spikes because of their detrimental effect on the fairways and greens of the golf course. This is especially true in the northern states where the dormancy period of grass can exceed six to nine months.

Many avid golfers continue golfing regularly throughout the winter months, even though they cannot use spikes. Until the instant invention, the only alternative for winter6 golfers who usually wear spikes has been to wear tennis shoes which do not damage the golf course. Besides the problem of not providing sufficient traction to the golfer, this tennis shoes approach requires an additional investment by the golfer in a second pair of shoes.

Fig. 1 of the drawings shows a typical prior art metal spiked golf shoe, which is there denoted as 1. A plurality of metal spikes 4 are attached to the sole 2 of golf shoe 1.

Each metal spike 4 includes a molded unitary body 5 having a disk-shaped flange 7, and a threaded stud 9 formed on the upper surface of the flange. A pointed protuberance, or spike, 6 is formed on the bottom surface of the flange to provide traction for the wearer. A pair of installation tool engagement holes 8 are provided at diametrically opposing points in the bottom surface of flange 7 to facilitate the threaded engagement of the threaded studs 9 in each threaded hole 3 within the sole 2 of golf shoe 1.

A similar replaceable cleat golf shoe is taught in REDDIEN, U.S. Patent No. 4,330,950. This patent teaches manufacturing the cleats from a non-conducting material to prevent the spikes from acting as an electrical connection to ground in the case of an electrical storm.

JORDAN, U.S. Patent No. 3,583,082 teaches a removable track shoe cleat for use on synthetic type surfaces which incorporates a plurality of bristles protruding from the traction surface of each individual cleat or spike.

What is needed is a replaceable cleat or spike for use in place of a standard metal spike for a golf shoe which does 6 not cause damage to the golf course, especially in inclement or cold weather. Accordingly, one of the aims of the instant invention is to provide a spike which satisfies this need.

A second aim of this invention is to provide a removable athletic shoe cleat in the shape of a disk-like flange having integrally formed therein and extending down from the bottom surface, and a threaded stud extending axially up from the upper surface of the disk-like flange. Other aims are to provide an upper surface face to the disk-like flange which is either concave, dimpled, or sized to~interfit into a recess in the shoe sole. Other aims are to provide a bottom surface of the disk-like flange which is convex. Further aims are to provide for a shoe cleat. as set forth above, wherein the ridges that are integrally formed in the bottom surface of the flange are either rectangular in cross section, triangular in cross section, arcuate in cross section, or radially extending from the center.

According to the invention there is provided: A removable golf shoe cleat, for use in a golf shoe having a sole, said sole having a plurality of sole attachment means for attachment of removable cleats, said removable golf shoe cleat comprising: (a) a flange having an upper surface and an opposing lower surface; (b) flange attachment means extending from the upper surface of said flange for removably attaching said cleat to one of said sole attachment means of said sole of said shoe; and (c) a plurality of protrusions on said opposing lower surface of said flange, each of said protrusions being elongated in a direction substantially parallel to said sole; wherein: said protrusions provide traction against the ground without doing damage to the surface being walked on and without puncturing golf turf.

The invention also provides a removable golf shoe cleat, for use in a golf shoe having a sole with a plurality of sole attachment means for attachment of removable cleats, the cleat comprising: (a) a flange having an upper surface and an opposing lower surface; (b) flange attachment means extending from the upper surface of the flange for removably attaching the cleat to one of the sole attachment means of the sole of the shoe; and (c) a plurality of traction ribs extending from the opposing lower surface of the flange; and the ribs provide traction against the ground without damaging the surface being walked upon.

The invention also provides a golf shoe having a plurality of cleats as aforesaid.

A preferred embodiment of the invention resides in a replaceable cleat formed of a thermoplastic or similar material. The cleat has a plurality of ribs on the traction surface in place of standard pointed protuberances. The cleat is formed generally in a unitary body having a threaded stud axially protruding from the upper surface of a generally concavo-convex flange from the perspective of the sole. The ribs may be present in a variety of configurations, and may be formed with an arcuate, triangular or rectangular crosssection.

Specific embodiments of the present invention are now ribbed, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a partially exploded bottom perspective view of a typical prior art metal spiked golf shoe; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of an embodiment of our winter golf shoe spike; Fig. 3 is a bottom view of an embodiment of our winter golf shoe spike showing the traction surface; Fig. 4 is a side view of an embodiment of our winter golf shoe spike, the remaining side views being identical and unadorned; Fig. 5 is a side, cross-sectional view of the winter golf shoe spike depicted in Fig. 4.; and Fig. 6 is a top view of an embodiment of our winter golf shoe spike.

Referring again to the Figures, our winter golf shoe spike 10 is illustrated in detail in Figs. 2 - 6. Golf shoe spike 10 generally has a main cleat body 11 molded or otherwise formed of durable plastic material which is advantageously the same material used to manufacture the sole 2 of golf shoe 1. It should be noted that spike 10 may be manufactured from any suitable material or combination thereof, and it may easily be assembled from two or more separate pieces. For instance, the threaded stud 13, explained below, may be manufactured from a metal material such as aluminum, while the remainder of the cleat body 11 may be made of a synthetic plastic material.

Preferably, however, the main cleat body 11 is molded from a durable plastic type material in single unitary fashion.

The cleat body 11 is preferably made from a plastic material which is also very resilient, even in temperatures below about OOC. This way, the cleat maintains its resiliency for traction, and for protection of the turf, in cold weather. A preferred material for our cleat is polyether block urethane, available as Estane TM from B.F. Goodrich Co.

A threaded stud 13 is formed on the upper surface of generally concavo-convex flange 12 and protrudes axially therefrom. The threads on threaded stud 13 are sized to cooperate with the female threads of the threaded hole 3 in the sole 2 of golf shoe 1.

Threaded stud 13 may be a different cleat attachment means in other embodiments. For example, stud 13 may be a tipped prong that relies on a reversible snap-fit engagement with a slot or rim in hole 3. For now, however, we prefer the threaded stud for its firm and strong engagement with hole 3.

Optionally, the concave upper surface of flange 12 may be roughened, dimpled or furrowed to increase the friction between it and sole 2 when the cleat body 11 is tightened in position against the sole. Also, the concave feature of the upper surface tends to create more of a sharp edge there on 6 the perimeter of the flange 12 for a firmer engagement with sole 2. Also, the concave feature of the upper surface tends to create a disc spring effect on cleat body 11 when threaded stud 13 is run into threaded hole 3 and tightened. This way, there is tension placed on stud 13, and its threads bind more securely with those of hole 3.

There is a slight recess provided in many golf shoe styles in sole 2 for a short annular distance around hole 3. For these styles, the flange 12 may be advantageously sized to fit snugly within the annular recess, thereby providing an ever firmer fit.

A plurality of traction ribs 15 are formed on the bottom traction surface of generally concavo-convex flange 12. While the ribs 15 may be present in a variety of configurations, preferably they are arranged in a radial fashion emanating from near the center of concavo-convex flange 12. The cross sectional shape of ribs 15 may be arcuate, triangular, rectangular or a combination thereof. Preferably, ribs 15 are triangular, but with rounded edges to provide the best compromise between traction and damage to the turf.

By "generally concavo-convex from the perspective of sole 2 we mean that flange 12 bends slightly away from sole 2 at both its upper and its lower surfaces. These bends, however, may be different and they may be very slight. The upper bend aids in securely engaging the cleat body 11 to the shoe sole 2 as disclosed above. The lower bend aids in enlarging the surface area of the cleat to provide more room for traction ribs 15, and to provide more surface area over which to 6 distribute the weight of the golfer, two goals of our invention. The maximum lower bend would be for a hemispherical cleat, but we prefer one less pronounced than that, about one-half hemispherical. This way, the cleat is not so pronounced, and it does not do so much damage to the turf. The minimum lower bend would be for a flat cleat, but we prefer one more pronounced than that.This way, there is more angle on the sides of the cleat surface, and the ribs there are presented to the turf more aggressively for more traction.

By "flange" we mean a projecting rim or collar around threaded steel 13 to form a disk-like structure. This way, the flange 12 is relatively thin and the length of cleat body 11 from the flange's upper surface to the bottom of ribs 15 is not great, preferably about 6.35mm (0.25") or less. The flange may be circular, square, rectangular, or any other shape. Most common shoe styles are designed for circular cleat flanges.

By "ribs" we mean more than one vertical ridges in the bottom surface of flange 12. The ridges have a crest that is at least one line, compared to the crest of the prior art spikes which are a point or a circle (for a truncated cone, for example). Preferably, the ridges are about as wide at their base as they are high. The ridges may be straight or curved in planes parallel to the shoe sole, and they may be chords, diameters, or radii of the bottom surface of the disk-like flange 12. Preferably, the ridges are between about 0.79mm (0.03125") and 3.18mm (0.125") high optionally, a pair of installation tool engagement holes 14 are provided at diametrically opposing points in the bottom surface of flange 12.The conventional installation tool has two prongs which fit into engagement holes 14, plus a shaft and a handle like a screwdriver to help impart rotary motion to cleat body 11. This way, the cleat body 11 may be conveniently driven in and out of the threaded hole 3 on threaded stud 13, and securely tightened in the in position against sole 2.

In use, the golfer simply removes the metal cleats on his or her golf shoes with the installation tool and replaces the metal cleats with the winter golf shoe spikes 10 of the instant invention.

While there is shown and described the present preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be distinctly understood that this invention is not limited thereto, but may be variously embodied to practice within the scope of the following claims.

Reference is hereby directed to our co-pending application 9308167.2 which claims other aspects of the invention disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A removable golf shoe cleat, for use in a golf shoe having a sole, said sole having a plurality of sole attachment means for attachment of removable cleats, said removable golf shoe cleat comprising: (a) a flange having an upper surface and an opposing lower surface; (b) flange attachment means extending from the upper surface of said flange for removably attaching said cleat to one of said sole attachment means of said sole of said shoe; and (c) a plurality of protrusions on said opposing lower surface of said flange, each of said protrusions being elongated in a direction substantially parallel to said sole; wherein: 6 said protrusions provide traction against the ground without doing damage to the surface being walked on and without puncturing golf turf.

2. A removable golf shoe cleat according to claim 1, wherein the protrusions comprise ribs.

3. A removable golf shoe cleat according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the flange and the protrusions have a combined profile of at most about 6.35mm (0.25 inch) as measured from said upper surface of said flange to a bottom portion of a most downwardly extending portion of said traction ribs.

4. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein said protuberances comprise a resilient material.

5. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein said protuberances comprise a durable plastic material.

6. A removable golf shoe cleat according to claim 5, wherein said durable plastic material comprises polyether block urethane.

7. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein: 6 said flange attachment means comprises a threaded stud extending from said upper surface of said flange of said cleat.

8. A removable golf shoe cleat according to claim 7, wherein said flange, said stud and said protuberances are a single unitary body.

9. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any of claims 1 to 8 wherein said protuberances extend from said opposing lower surface of said flange and distribute weight in a plurality of different directions to provide traction against the ground without puncturing golf course turf.

10. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any of claims 1 to 9, wherein said opposing bottom surface of said flange has a convex shape.

11. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any of claims 1 to 10 wherein each of said protuberances has a maximum height between about 0.79 mm (0.03125 inch) and about 3.18 mm (0.125 inch).

12. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any preceding claim, wherein the opposing lower surface of said flange of said cleat has a hemispherical shape.

13. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any of 6 claims 1 to 11 wherein the opposing lower surface of said flange of said cleat has a one-half hemispherical shape.

14. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any of claims 1 to 11, wherein said opposing lower surface of said flange of said cleat has a flat shape.

15. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any preceding claim, wherein said flange has a shape selected from the group consisting of circular, square, rectangular and combinations thereof.

16. A removable golf shoe cleat according to claim 4 wherein said resilient material substantially retains its resiliency at temperatures below about OOC.

17. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any preceding claim, wherein the protrusions have cross sections that are substantially triangular in shape and have rounded edges.

18. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any preceding claim, wherein each of said protrusions has a shape selected from the group consisting of straight ridges, curved ridges and combinations thereof.

19. A removable golf shoe cleat according to claim 18, wherein each of said protrusions has a configuration selected 6 from the group consisting of chords, diameters, radii and combinations thereof.

20. A removable golf shoe cleat according to claim 2, wherein the height and the width of the base of each rib is substantially equal.

21. A removable golf shoe cleat according to any preceding claim, wherein the flange attachment means is a threaded stud formed on said upper surface of the flange of the cleat; and the flange, the stud and the protrusions are a single unitary body made from a material selected from the group consisting of metal, durable plastic material, resilient material, polyether block urethane and combinations thereof.

22. A removable golf shoe cleat, for use in a golf shoe having a sole with a plurality of sole attachment means for attachment of removable cleats, the cleat comprising: (a) a flange having an upper surface and an opposing lower surface; (b) flange attachment means extending from the upper surface of the flange for removably attaching the cleat to one of the sole attachment means of the sole of the shoe; and (c) a plurality of traction ribs extending from the opposing lower surface of the flange; and the ribs provide traction against the ground 6 without damaging the surface being walked upon.

23. A golf shoe comprising a plurality of removable cleats according to any preceding claim.