Shoe With A Flat Formed Shoe Upper
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsAnthony Dean, Ciro Fusco, Thomas Berend
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Shoes specifically designed to facilitate production via efficient shoe manufacturing methods and systems are described. In embodiments, the shoe upper is designed by way of a flat forming process, whereby the upper pattern is kept in a two-dimensional shape for most of the upper assembly and then stitched or otherwise affixed into a three-dimensional form in the final stage of upper assembly.
Claims20
A shoe designed to facilitate a system for manufacturing shoes customized to an order placed by a customer, the shoe comprising:
- an upper, where the upper is manufactured by a flat forming construction process, the flat forming construction process comprising:
- layering a plurality of upper elements and hot-melt films in between a lining layer and an external layer;
- heat pressing the upper elements and the hot-melt films between the lining layer and the external layer to generate one or more basic laminated upper forms;
- and cutting out along pattern perimeters of the basic laminated upper forms.
An upper portion of a shoe assembled using a flat forming construction process according to a method comprising:
- while maintaining a two-dimensional shape, layering a lining layer, one or more upper components, and an external layer to form the upper portion of the shoe, wherein a size and a shape of the upper components vary based on one or more of which portion of the shoe is being assembled, a type of shoe, and a size of shoe being assembled;
- adhering the lining layer, the upper components, and the external layer together by way of a heat press, wherein hot-melt films are also layered in between the lining layer and the external layer to bond the layers together;
- and cutting out the upper portion of the shoe along an upper perimeter.
A shoe designed to facilitate a system for manufacturing customizable shoes, the shoe comprising:
- an upper whose components are manufactured by way of a flat forming process wherein the components of the upper maintain a two-dimensional shape throughout their formation, and wherein the upper comprises:
- a heel-quarter element that includes a heel area and multiple quarter panels;
- and a tongue-toe element that includes a tongue and a toe-box region, wherein the tongue-toe element is secured to the heel-quarter element to form a three-dimensional upper form.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.