Footwear midsole and method of manufacturing with embroidery machine
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsFanny Yung Ho, Guillermo Raffaele
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing a midsole for an article of footwear includes cutting a pattern of openings at least partway through a midsole with a cutting tool driven by an embroidery machine. An article of footwear includes a midsole defining a pattern of openings extending at least partway through the midsole. An inner surface of the midsole is contoured and the midsole includes upwardly-extending sidewalls. At least some of the openings extend relatively nonparallel with one another through the sidewalls and splay away from one another along longitudinal axes of the openings.
Claims11
A method of manufacturing an article of footwear, the method comprising:
- cutting a pattern of openings at least partway through a midsole preform having a preform shape with a cutting tool driven by an embroidery machine;
- wherein the midsole preform having the preform shape has a flat inner surface and a contoured outer surface and longitudinal axes of the openings extend relatively parallel with one another;
- after said cutting,
- disposing adhesive on the flat inner surface of the midsole preform;
- thermoforming the midsole preform into a midsole final formed shape;
- and
- adhering the flat inner surface of the midsole preform to a bottom of a footwear upper and to sidewalls of the footwear upper during said thermoforming so that the flat inner surface of the midsole preform having the preform shape is a contoured inner surface in the midsole final formed shape and at least some of the longitudinal axes of the openings extend relatively nonparallel with one another and splay away from one another in the midsole final formed shape.
A method of manufacturing an article of footwear, the method comprising:
- cutting a pattern of openings at least partway through a midsole preform having a preform shape with a cutting tool driven by an embroidery machine;
- wherein the midsole preform having the preform shape has a flat inner surface and a contoured outer surface and longitudinal axes of the openings extend relatively parallel with one another;
- after said cutting, thermoforming the midsole preform into a midsole final formed shape;
- wherein the flat inner surface of the midsole preform having the preform shape is a contoured inner surface in the midsole final formed shape and at least some of the longitudinal axes of the openings extend relatively nonparallel with one another and splay away from one another in the midsole final formed shape;
- and
- wherein the midsole preform in the midsole final formed shape is a foamed thermoplastic and a volume of the midsole preform in the midsole final formed shape is less than a volume of the midsole preform in the preform shape due to said thermoforming so that the openings are wider after said thermoforming than before said thermoforming.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.