Footwear article with collar elevator

An article of footwear, comprising:

• a footwear upper defining a foot-receiving cavity with a heel region and defining an ankle opening, the footwear upper including an ankle collar at the ankle opening;
• a sole structure secured to the footwear upper and underlying the foot-receiving cavity, the sole structure including a strobel and a midsole;
• and
• a collar support disposed inward of an exterior layer of the footwear upper at the heel region, and extending from the sole structure to the ankle opening;
• wherein the collar support is monolithic with a base disposed between the strobel and the midsole;
• and
• wherein the ankle collar is movable from a raised state positioned farther from the sole to a lowered state positioned closer to the sole during donning, and wherein the collar support has a resilient shoehorn structure operable to move a portion of the ankle collar rearward in a longitudinal direction as the ankle collar moves from the raised state to the lowered state, wherein the resilient shoehorn structure has a native preference to the raised state;
• and wherein the collar support has a first length in the raised state and a second length in the lowered state, and wherein the first length is longer that the second length.

An article of footwear, comprising:

• a footwear upper defining a foot-receiving cavity with a heel region and defining an ankle opening, the footwear upper including a medial side, a lateral side, and an ankle collar at the ankle opening;
• a sole structure secured to the footwear upper and underlying the foot-receiving cavity, the sole structure including a strobel and a midsole;
• and
• a collar support disposed inward of an exterior layer of the footwear upper at the heel region, and extending from the sole structure to the ankle opening, the collar support having a plurality of segments on each of the medial side and the lateral side having at least a first portion angled forwardly and upwardly away from the heel region and at least a second portion angled rearwardly and upwardly toward the heel region;
• wherein the collar support is monolithic with a base disposed between the strobel and the midsole;
• and
• wherein the ankle collar is movable from a raised state positioned farther from the sole to a lowered state positioned closer to the sole during donning, and wherein the collar support has a resilient shoehorn structure operable to move a portion of the ankle collar rearward in a longitudinal direction as the ankle collar moves from the raised state to the lowered state, and wherein the resilient shoehorn structure has a native preference to the raised state.