Footwear Uppers Including Bladders, Articles of Footwear Including Bladders in the Upper, and Methods of Forming Such Uppers and/or Articles of Footwear

A method of forming a footwear upper component, comprising:

• placing a bladder or a bladder precursor on a first fabric element, wherein the first fabric element includes a first surface having texturing, and wherein the bladder or the bladder precursor includes a first thermoplastic polymer layer and a second thermoplastic polymer layer overlapping the first thermoplastic polymer layer;
• and
• forming texturing on at least a portion of the first thermoplastic polymer layer by applying heat and pressure to form at least one of:
• (a) a seam that engages the first thermoplastic polymer layer with the second thermoplastic polymer layer and (ii) an engagement of at least the portion of the first thermoplastic polymer layer with the first fabric element, wherein the bladder or the bladder precursor defines a sealed interior chamber for containing a fluid, and wherein the texturing formed on the portion of the first thermoplastic polymer layer corresponds in surface contour features to the texturing included on the first surface of the first fabric element.

A footwear upper component, comprising:

• a first fabric element;
• and
• a bladder component that defines a sealed interior chamber for containing a fluid, wherein the bladder component includes:
• (a) a first major surface engaged with the first fabric element, wherein the first major surface defines at least part of a first perimeter seam surface and at least part of a first surface of the sealed interior chamber, (b) a second major surface opposite the first major surface, wherein the second major surface defines at least part of a second perimeter seam surface opposite the first perimeter seam surface and at least part of a second surface of the sealed interior chamber opposite the first surface of the sealed interior chamber, and (c) and a fluid chamber located between the first major surface and the second major surface, and wherein at least a portion of the second major surface includes molded-in texturing.