New Comfort System

Simcity3 · 24th July 2008, 03:58

Me and a friend is working on a new comfort system for high heels wich will give a softer sole and also give your feet fress air so they don't get smelly.

The System works like this:

Inside the heel a small air pump is located and from the pump a metal pin goes down and out of the heel in the bottom so every time you take a step a small amount of air is pumped into shoe. the will be located 2 places in the shoe, it's the red zones on the image, and when you lift your foot again the air will come out of the 2 small ballons inside your shoe supplying your foot with fress air. the shoe will almost look like a normal pair of heels the only thing you can see is the small tip at the bottom of the heel.

Problems we to fix before it works:

Since we put the pump and metal pin inside the heel we remove some of the heels strengt so we gotta come up with a sulution to make the heels stronger.

We also want to make sure that the small metal pin at the bottom of the heel will as unvisible as possible and as sound less as posible.

Feel free to ask questions about it.

on the image you can see the build up of the system i made it fast in paint so the image quality is not perfect.

Stilettoscot · 24th July 2008, 04:56

Like any idea in it's early stages, it's neither "brilliant" or "bad" right now. Once you can determine if it is really pheasable to do, only then can the idea be labelled. But, if it can happen, then it would be a good idea.

shoerepairer · 24th July 2008, 11:59

Whilst this is an interesting concept there are many shoe designs including Stilettos which use the pneumatic effects of weight shift during walking to flow air through vents in soles to promote constant humidity release.
I think the key elements your design has to be based around are

1. Safety (which from your post you are fully aware off)
2. Cost, is there a cheaper alternative ?
3. Usability,

From a safety prospective could the “pump” not be placed at the point where the sole first impacts the ground, this would resolve the issues with heel strength.

Cost wise this system would have to be built for less than a euro a pair for any manufacturer to invest in tooling to bring it to the market place.

Most manufacturers want there shoes to be repairable so they don’t end up with thousands of warranty claims because they didn’t last long in wear. Your design would have to work around this.

It would also be worth checking international & local design patents to make sure your not “stepping on any ones toes”

this is not designed to be a Negative reply, but a constructive one. Bantering some ideas & thoughts to you.

Good Luck!

Lee

Simcity3 · 24th July 2008, 16:39

Well we did try to build it up with an electric airpump but we hit some really serious problems with that.

1. The Pump made alot of noice
2. did not give enough air
3. the pump generated heat so a cooling system must have been added the we used more room inside the heel the with the manuel system.

The cost of this system is at the momment on 0.80 Euro of course it will be a bit higher at the end but it will never become more than 1.50 Euro.

Our system is repair able. you need to take the heel off then you can access it all. you only need to take of one screew to get the heel off and remover the old glue. then when putting the heel back on you need to put on glue and the 1 screew and your good to go.

And we also give 5 years waranty on the system.

the pump we uses is designed for a chainsaw to run a small piston that controls when the chain will get oil. The chainsaw manufactor gives 2 years waranty on their chainsaws but in it i will pump more than it will ever pump when someone is walking in the shoe.

Shoereparier thx for your usefull post.

3. Usability, when you posted this i siad to my friend what the heel is he talking about this system works all 360 days a year.

But then my friend said "Are you sure about that can it work with temperatures below 0?

So we try to put the pump in the freezer and what happend it was frozen could not move.

so this is another problem we need to fix.

shoerepairer · 25th July 2008, 09:03

by usability I meant, from a design & manufacturing point of view. the key to getting such a design into the high street is it "HAS" to have be used by the designers at the top end of the spectrum.
Once its been on the cat walk it will end up on the side walk. How usable is the design? it has to be an Elegant design to filter through.

Key to the "elegance" is the pin system you are employing to operate the pump, if this was the main focal point of the design, ie longer & aesthetically pleasing then you might just have a product that would get looked at.

Lee

Simcity3 · 27th July 2008, 16:51

we are putting this in already designed heels so they wont look any diffrent than all other's but if it get's a succes we migth start to design new heel and shoes.

And we also fixed the stability problem by adding 4 thin stainless metal poles inside the heel.

jmc · 28th July 2008, 03:09

You will need to have that pin strong enough that it will not bend if the heel strikes a hard surface at an angle, such as during a mis-step. A bent pin will most certainly bind inside the heel tube and this will disable the pump.

Another thing to think about -- pumping air into enclosed spaces between the shoe sole and the foot might result in obnoxious noises (i.e. "farting sounds") as the air escapes. Using multiple air outlets might help this.

The idea might have merit.

Richie · 28th July 2008, 04:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmc

Another thing to think about -- pumping air into enclosed spaces between the shoe sole and the foot might result in obnoxious noises (i.e. "farting sounds") as the air escapes. Using multiple air outlets might help this.

The idea might have merit.

Ha ha, that would give us a pair of "Feels", farting heels....
Bestilo's (Belching stilettos)

Guy N. Heels · 28th July 2008, 07:32

It's taken me quite some time to try and "get my mind around" this idea. But then, the meds I'm on will mess up anyone.

Nevertheless, I question the viability of this plan. It offers some advantages, but I think the disadvantages will probably outweigh those over time.

However, I would like to say that I once worked with some very high-powered systems that used quite a bit of stainless steel piping. From some of the problems discussed, I would suggest that stainless steel piping might offer some answers. But keep in mind that stainless is some pretty expensive stuff! If you should decide to go with stainless then you will definitely kite the price by more than a Euro.

Another thing is the concept of the heel itself. Unless yer just hide-bound for stilettoes, why not consider wedgies or some other style heel that would offer you much more room to work with and probably eliminate some stability problems - at least until you get most of the bugs worked-out? Then, over time, you could work your way into the stilettoes, which by their nature offer far less room to incorporate gadgetry and stuff.

HHfanatic · 31st July 2008, 13:07

Will the pump be run by batteries?