Footwear with knit upper and method of manufacturing the footwear
AssigneeNIKE, Inc.
InventorBhupesh Dua
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An article of footwear with a knit upper and a method of manufacturing the footwear are disclosed. The upper is formed through a knitting process to include a plurality of sections formed of different yarns and knits to provide the sections with different physical properties. In portions of the upper where sections formed of different yarns are in adjacent wales, a tuck stitch is utilized to join the sections. The method utilizes a circular knitting machine having multiple feeds that work together to knit the upper into a unitary, seamless structure. The multiple feeds, each of which provide multiple types of yarns, produce the sections to have varying physical properties.
Claims27
A method of manufacturing an upper for an article of footwear, the method comprising steps of:
- knitting a first section of the upper from a first yarn having a first physical property;
- knitting a second section of the upper from a second yarn having a second physical property, the first physical property being different than the second physical property;
- forming the first section with the second yarn being substantially absent from the first section;
- forming the second section with the first yarn being substantially absent from the second section;
- and
- knitting tuck stitches between the first section and the second section to join the first section with the second section.
A method of manufacturing an article of footwear having a knit upper and a sole structure, the method comprising steps of:
- knitting a first section of the upper from a first yarn having a first stretchability;
- knitting a second section of the upper from a second yarn having a stretchability, the first stretchability being greater than the second stretchability;
- forming the first section with the second yarn being substantially absent from the first section;
- forming the second section with the first yarn being substantially absent from the second section;
- knitting tuck stitches between adjacent wales of the first section and the second section to join the first section with the second section;
- and
- attaching the sole structure to the upper.
A method of manufacturing an upper for an article of footwear, the method comprising steps of:
- knitting the upper to include a first section formed of a first yarn and a second section formed of a second yarn,
- selecting the first yarn to have a first physical property and the second yarn to have a second physical property, the first physical property being different than the second physical property;
- substantially limiting the first yarn to the first section and the second yarn to the second section;
- and
- knitting tuck stitches between the first section and the second section to join the first section with the second section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.