Sole design and structure for athletic shoe
AssigneeMizuno Corporation
InventorsIsao Nakano, Takaya Kimura, Seiichi Goto, Akihiro Miyauchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sole structure for an athletic shoe includes a heel region and a forefoot region, a midsole of a soft elastic material including a midsole heel portion at the heel region, and an outsole of a harder material including an outsole heel portion at the heel region and an outsole forefoot portion that extends from the outsole heel portion to the forefoot region. The midsole heel portion has wavy corrugations on a lower surface thereof and a smooth plane on an upper surface thereof. The outsole heel portion includes a corrugated wavy plate with corrugations through its thickness, which are in phase with the wavy corrugations on the lower surface of the midsole heel portion.
Claims12
A sole structure for an athletic shoe, including a heel region and a forefoot region, and comprising:
- a midsole that is formed of a soft elastic material, and that comprises a midsole heel portion disposed at said heel region of said sole structure;
- and
- an outsole that is formed of a material harder than said soft elastic material, and that comprises an outsole heel portion disposed at said heel region of said sole structure, and an outsole forefoot portion that extends from said outsole heel portion to said forefoot region of said sole structure;
- wherein:
- said midsole heel portion has wavy corrugations on a lower surface thereof along at least one of a medial side portion and a lateral side portion thereof, and a smooth plane without wavy corrugations on an upper surface thereof;
- said wavy corrugations of said midsole heel portion include alternating successive concavities and convexities on said lower surface of said midsole heel portion;
- said outsole heel portion comprises a corrugated wavy plate with corrugations through its thickness along at least one of a medial side portion and a lateral side portion thereof, arranged in contact with a corrugated lower surface of said midsole heel portion, and an upraised side portion upraised from said corrugated wavy plate to encompass said midsole;
- and
- said wavy corrugations of said corrugated wavy plate of said outsole heel portion include alternating successive concavities and convexities on an upper surface of said corrugated wavy plate in phase with said alternating successive convexities and concavities on said lower surface of said midsole heel portion, and alternating successive convexities and concavities on a lower surface of said corrugated wavy plate in phase with said concavities and convexities on said upper surface of said corrugated wavy plate.
A sole structure of an athletic shoe comprising:
- a midsole disposed at least at a heel region of said shoe, said midsole having a midsole heel portion with an upper side surface and a lower side surface, said midsole heel portion being formed with corrugation at least either at a medial side or at a lateral side on said lower side surface;
- and
- an outsole that is disposed under said midsole and formed of a material with a hardness greater than that of said midsole, said outsole having an outsole heel portion and an outsole forefoot portion, said outsole heel portion being formed with corrugation that corresponds to said corrugation of said midsole heel portion, said outsole forefoot portion extending from said heel region to a forefoot region of said shoe.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.