Footwear midsole with 3-D printed mesh having an anisotropic structure and methods of making the same

A sole for an article of footwear, the sole comprising:

• a three-dimensional mesh comprising:
• a plurality of interconnected anisotropic unit cells, each interconnected anisotropic unit cell comprising a plurality of struts, a plurality of nodes at which one or more struts are connected, and a plurality of sub-cells composed of two or more of the plurality of struts and one or more of the nodes of the unit cell;
• and
• a mechanically anisotropic region comprising the plurality of interconnected anisotropic unit cells, wherein the anisotropic unit cells comprise anisotropic lattice shear moduli comprising:
• a first lattice shear modulus measured in a forward direction, and a second lattice shear modulus measured in a rearward direction opposite the forward direction and greater than the first lattice shear modulus,
• wherein the plurality of sub-cells of each anisotropic unit cell comprise a plurality of soft sub-cells and a plurality of stiff sub-cells,
• wherein the plurality of soft sub-cells comprise a first isotropic lattice structure type and wherein the plurality of stiff sub-cells comprise a second isotropic lattice structure type different from the first isotropic lattice structure type, and
• wherein an arrangement of the plurality of stiff sub-cells and the plurality of soft sub-cells within each unit cell creates the anisotropic lattice shear moduli.

A sole for an article of footwear, the sole comprising:

• a three-dimensional mesh comprising:
• a plurality of interconnected unit cells, each interconnected unit cell comprising:
• a plurality of struts, a plurality of nodes at which one or more struts are connected, and a plurality of sub-cells each composed of two or more of the plurality of the struts and one or more of the nodes of the unit cell,
• wherein the plurality of sub-cells of each unit cell comprise a soft sub-cell and a stiff sub-cell, and
• wherein the soft sub-cell comprises a first isotropic lattice structure type and wherein the stiff sub-cell comprises a second isotropic lattice structure type different from the first isotropic lattice structure type, and
• wherein each unit cell comprises:
• a plurality of the soft sub-cells and a plurality of the stiff sub-cells,
• an upper-forward quadrant comprising at least one of the plurality of soft sub-cells,
• an upper-rearward quadrant comprising at least one of the plurality of stiff sub-cells,
• a lower-forward quadrant comprising at least one of the plurality of stiff sub-cells, and
• a lower-rearward quadrant comprising at least one of the plurality of soft sub-cells.