Longitudinally expandable shoe

Claim 1

A longitudinally expandable shoe comprising: a heel assembly joined to a longitudinal sole assembly, said heel and sole assembly each having a set of flexible platelike portions respectively interleaving with one another, one set of said flexible plate-like portions having a plurality of coextensive longitudinal slots, the other set having a plurality of holes aligned substantially at right angles to the plate portion planes, each of said sets of flexible plate-like portions including outwardly facing first and second portions, and further comprising first and second metal plates joined to said first and second plate-like portions respectively, at least one of said first and second metal plates being formed with a longitudinal slit, the other of said first and second metal plates being formed with a threaded opening, a threaded bolt screwed into said opening passing through said slit, said arch support means having a portion facing away from the foot and being formed with a recess for receiving said bold, one end of said bolt being freely rotatable in said recess, and a nut screwed onto the other bolt end, whereby said arch support means is movable in directions toward and away from the other of said metal plates in dependence of the direction of ratation of said bolt, said nut serving to hold said bolt in a selected position; height adjustable arch support means joined with one end thereof to one end of said heel and sole assemblies for supporting the foot of a wearer; an upper having front and rear portions attached to said sole and heel assemblies respectively; elastic means joining the upper front and rear portions.