Footwear.

Application filed June 28, 1910. Serial No. 569,350.

To dll whom it may concern:

. Be it known that I, Adam Muller, a subject of the King of Hungary, residing at Millvale borough, in the county of Allegheny 5 and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Footwear, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

¹⁰ J^his ™^venti^on relates to footwear, and the object of the invention is to provide a shoe, boot or slipper with a resilient insert or retaining piece for the upper part of a shoe that will retain the shoe, boot or slipper 15 upon the foot, without the use of buttons laces, clasps or other fastening devices.

I attain the above object by a resilient insert that can be readily embodied in the upper or upper part of the shoe, the resilient 20 insert being durable, inexpensive to install, neat in appearance and efficient for the purposes for which it is intended.

. The invention will be hereinafter specifically described and then claimed, and ref25 erence will now be had to the drawings forming part of this specification, wherein:—

Figure 1 is an elevation of a boot in accoi dance with this invention, Fig. 2 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view of a por30 tion of the upper or leg of the boot, Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a shoe in accordance with this invention, and Fig. 4 is a similar view of a slipper in accordance with this invention.

Reference will first be had to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings wherein the reference numeral 1 designates the upper or leg of a boot 2 The upper or leg has the rear side thereof directly above the heel 3 cut away 40 and stitched or otherwise connected, as at 4 to the edges of the upper or leg 1 is a resilient inverted V-shaped and corrugated insert, comprising two pieces of leather 5 with a piece of rubber or other material 6 interposed between the leather. The resili- 45 ent insert is corrugated whereby it can be stretched as a foot enters the boot, and after entering the boot the resilient insert contrants the lower part of the upper or leg sufficiently to grip the ankle of a limb and 50 prevent the boot from becoming accidentally displaced from the foot.

As shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings the resilient insert extends from Hie uppe? edge or the upper to the heel portion 7 of a shoe 55 and is substantially the same shape as the insert used in connection with the boot. The shoe can be designed with buttons, laces or other fastening devices, whereby the shoe will have the appearance of having been fas- 60 tened with such devices. The resilient insert used in connection with the slipper is also arranged at the rear end of the slipper and occupies part of the heel portion 7 thereof, the insert in this instance serving the 65 same function as the insert in connection with the boot or shoe. The resilient insert can a!so be used as a patch or as a portion of the shoe adapted to cover that part of the toot having a corn, bunion or other infection 70 that could not be covered by stiff or nonyieldable leather.