The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 24, 2004
Filed:
Jan. 04, 2002
Nathan J. Messmer, San Francisco, CA (US);
Charles Bentley Warner, San Francisco, CA (US);
Deirdre O'Mara, San Francisco, CA (US);
Luca Innocente, Crocetta del Montello, IT;
Franco Bastasin, Crocetta del Montello, IT;
Giancarlo Pozzobon, Crocetta del Montello, IT;
Winterquest LLC, Stowe, VT (US);
Abstract
A binding for a snowshoe has a base secured to a footbed connected to the snowshoe frame, and a tongue piece above the footbed, connected at front to the footbed in a flexible hinge and positioned to engage the top of a user's boot, from the toe to the arch. At each side of the binding, between the tongue piece and the footpad, lacing extends in zig-zag configuration from the front to the back of the binding, passing through lacing eyes and slidable through the eyes with relatively low friction, for drawing the tongue piece down onto the boot. At the back of the binding, a heel strap is positioned to extend around the heel of the foot, and this heel strap is connected to the lacing at both sides, such that when the heel strap is tightened via slip-through type adjustment buckles, this pulls on the lacing to tighten the lacing at both sides and snug the tongue piece down against the boot, firmly engaging the boot in the binding. The left and right buckles can be attached to loops in the lacing to double the rate of drawing the lacing as compared to movement of the buckles. In one embodiment the binding has a laterally oriented connecting bracket at bottom for connection to a suspension strap on a snowshoe, as this bracket has a bias tilt angle such that the pitch of the binding and boot will be biased toe-down about 10° to 25°.