Automatic pump with release feature for article of footwear
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorsTimothy P. Hopkins, Todd W. Miller, Richard Kristian Hansen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An article of footwear includes an upper including a chamber and a compressible component disposed within the chamber and operable between a relaxed state and a constricted state. The article of footwear also includes a pump device fluidly coupled to the chamber. The pump device is operable to transition the compressible component from the relaxed state to the constricted state by removing fluid from the chamber at a first flow rate. The pump device includes a release feature operable to transition the compressible component from the constricted state to the relaxed state at a second flow rate.
Claims20
An article of footwear comprising:
- an upper including a chamber;
- a compressible component disposed within the chamber and operable between a relaxed state and a constricted state;
- and
- a pump device fluidly coupled to the chamber, the pump device operable to transition the compressible component from the relaxed state to the constricted state by removing fluid from the chamber at a first flow rate, the pump device including a release feature operable to transition the compressible component from the constricted state to the relaxed state at a second flow rate.
An article of footwear comprising:
- an upper including a chamber;
- a pump device fluidly coupled to the chamber, the pump device operable to transition the upper from a relaxed state to a constricted state by removing fluid from the chamber at a first rate;
- and
- a release feature fluidly coupled with the chamber and operable to transition the upper from the constricted state to the relaxed state at a second rate, the second rate defining a static release of the release feature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.