Article Of Footwear With Adjustable Stiffness
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsPatricia L. Smaldone, Stephen D. Pelletier, JR., Jeremy L. Connell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An article of footwear with adjustable stiffness is provided. The article of footwear in the form of a snowboard boot is provided with adjustable tensioning systems that are disposed on either side of an inner liner of the snowboard boot. The adjustable tensioning system includes a comb body structure having flex portions made of a plurality of extending fingers with a flexibility that can be controlled by the adjustable tensioning system. Depending on the level of tension applied by the tensioning system, or lack thereof, a range of flex profiles having varying amounts of stiffness are available to the wearer to adjust the overall stiffness of the snowboard boot.
Claims20
An adjustable tensioning system for an article of footwear comprising:
- a tension control device;
- a tensioning element, the tensioning element having a first end that is attached to the tension control device;
- a body structure, the body structure including an interior channel disposed along a longitudinal direction of the body structure;
- wherein the tensioning element is disposed through the interior channel in the body structure and is attached to an anchor at a second end of the tensioning element;
- and
- wherein the body structure is disposed along at least one of a medial side and a lateral side of the article of footwear.
An adjustable tensioning system for an article of footwear comprising:
- a tensioning element having a first end and a second end;
- a tension control device attached to the first end of the tensioning element;
- a body structure extending in a longitudinal direction away from the tension control device from a proximal end portion of the body structure to a distal end portion of the body structure;
- wherein the tensioning element extends from the first end at the tension control device, along the body structure in the longitudinal direction from the proximal end portion of the body structure, and to the distal end portion of the body structure;
- and
- wherein the tension control device adjusts tension applied to the tensioning element so that the tensioning element pulls the distal end portion of the body structure and the proximal end portion of the body structure longitudinally toward each other at varying tensions to adjust a stiffness of the body structure.
An adjustable tensioning system for an article of footwear comprising:
- a body structure that extends in a longitudinal direction along one of a medial side and a lateral side of the article of footwear from a proximal end portion of the body structure disposed at a rearward upper portion of the article of footwear to a distal end portion of the body structure disposed at a forward lower portion of the article of footwear;
- wherein the distal end portion of the body structure is movable with respect to the proximal end portion;
- a tensioning element extending along the body structure in the longitudinal direction from the proximal end portion of the body structure to the distal end portion of the body structure;
- and
- wherein the tensioning element moves the distal end portion and the proximal end portion longitudinally toward each other at varying tensions to adjust a distance between the distal end portion and the proximal end portion and thereby adjust a stiffness of the body structure
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.