Article of footwear with adjustable stiffness
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsPatricia L. Smaldone, Stephen D. Pelletier, Jr., Jeremy L. Connell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An article of footwear with adjustable stiffness is provided. The article of footwear in the form of a snowboard boot is provided with adjustable tensioning systems that are disposed on either side of an inner liner of the snowboard boot. The adjustable tensioning system includes a comb body structure having flex portions made of a plurality of extending fingers with a flexibility that can be controlled by the adjustable tensioning system. Depending on the level of tension applied by the tensioning system, or lack thereof, a range of flex profiles having varying amounts of stiffness are available to the wearer to adjust the overall stiffness of the snowboard boot.
Claims16
An article of footwear comprising:
- an upper having a lower portion operable to receive a foot of a user and an upper portion defining an ankle opening;
- a body structure extending from a first end on the lower portion of the upper to a second end on the upper portion of the upper and including a concave leading edge and a convex trailing edge disposed on an opposite side of the body structure from the concave leading edge, a plurality of fingers disposed between the first end and the second end and being spaced apart from each other along the convex trailing edge and connected to each other along the concave leading edge;
- and
- a cable extending from the first end of the body structure to the second end of the body structure and operable to selectively adjust a distance between the plurality of fingers.
An article of footwear comprising:
- an upper having a lower portion operable to receive a foot of a user and an upper portion defining an ankle opening;
- a body structure extending from a first end on the lower portion of the upper to a second end on the upper portion of the upper and including a concave leading edge and a convex trailing edge disposed on an opposite side of the body structure from the concave leading edge, a plurality of spaces disposed between the first end and the second end and defining a plurality of fingers, the plurality of fingers being spaced apart from each other along the convex trailing edge and connected to each other along the concave leading edge;
- and
- a cable extending from the first end of the body structure to the second end of the body structure, traversing the plurality of spaces, and operable to selectively adjust a width of the plurality of spaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.