Footwear

Abstract

A shoe has a sealed insole containing water. The water is controlled to flow around the insole in one (anti-clockwise) direction. The rate of flow is adjustably controllable by ball valve arrangements.

I claim:  
     
         1 . An article of footwear having an insole comprising a sealed flexible walled cavity filled with fluid, for overlaying an elongate sole of the footwear, which cavity is divided longitudinally into a first and second separate elongate chamber extending along a length of the sole in communication with one another at both their ends so as to allow a flow of fluid around the cavity, and at least one manually adjustable one-way valve arranged to control a flow rate of liquid around the cavity.  
     
     
         2 . An article of footwear according to  claim 1 , including two adjustable valves, one for each of the first and second chambers, and positioned intermediate the lengths of the chambers and laterally opposite one another with respect to the insole.  
     
     
         3 . An article of footwear according to  claim 1 , in which the adjustable valve comprises one or more ball valves.  
     
     
         4 . An article of footwear according to  claim 3 , including a control member to urge the balls towards and away from respective flow ports to adjust a flow rate of fluid in use through the ports.  
     
     
         5 . An article of footwear according to  claim 4  in which the control member extends across an instep of the sole and, when adjusted, is arranged to urge respective balls of one control valve in the first chamber and respective balls of another control valve in the second chamber towards respective ports.  
     
     
         6 . An article of footwear according to  claim 5 , in which a control member for each valve is manually adjustable from outside the footwear.