Athletic shoe construction

In an athletic shoe construction having a sole portion including a heel area, the improvement comprising in that said heel area has a cut out therein which includes a vertically extending deflection rib spaced from vertically extending sides of said cut out, a shock absorbing portion within said cut out and engaging vertical sides of said deflection rib with the top of the shock absorbing portion extending below the top of said rib, and a deformable shoe lasting material overlying said heel area engaging the top of said deflection rib and being spaced from said shock absorbing portion under no load conditions and engaging the top of said shock absorbing portion under load conditions.

In an athletic shoe construction having a sole portion connected to an upper portion and where the sole portion includes a heel area, an arch area, a forefoot area and an outer sole;

• the improvement comprising in that said outer sole has a plurality of flexible nubs on the outer side thereof, in that the spacing between the nubs is greater in the arch area than in the forefoot and the heel areas, in that the nubs in the arch area and in the heel area are circular in shape, and in that the nubs at the portion of the outer sole corresponding to the natural breakline between the metatarsus and the phalanges of a foot of a wearer are elliptical in shape with the major axes of the elliptical shapes extending substantially parallel to said natural breakline to facilitate flexing of said sole portion along said breakline.