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US 7,478,488 B1Granted
Inflatable and ventilating upper for an article of footwear
AssigneeReebok International Ltd.
InventorsPaul Davis, Brian Christensen, Paul Litchfield
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An article of footwear includes a sole, an upper attached to the sole, where the upper includes an fluid system structure including an inflatable bladder and a ventilation system, and an inflation mechanism fluidly connected to at least one of the inflatable bladder and the ventilation system.
Claims14
An article of footwear, comprising:
- a sole;
- an upper attached to said sole, said upper having an inflatable bladder and a ventilation system formed between two sheets of thermoplastic material sealed together along a peripheral weld line, wherein said inflatable bladder and wherein said ventilation system are separately defined by interior weld lines and said ventilation system includes an interior passageway between the two sheets of thermoplastic material defined by the interior weld lines and a plurality of perforations in one of said two sheets of thermoplastic material;
- and
- an inflation mechanism fluidly connected to said ventilation system via an interior passageway defined by the interior weld lines such that fluid flows through the interior passageway and through said plurality of perforations into an interior of the article of footwear.
1 more element
An article of footwear, comprising:
- a sole;
- an upper attached to said sole, said upper having an inflatable bladder and a ventilation system formed from two sheets of thermoplastic material sealed together along a peripheral weld line, wherein said inflatable bladder and said ventilation system are separately defined by interior weld lines and wherein said ventilation system includes an interior passageway defined by the interior weld lines and a plurality of perforations in one of said two sheets of thermoplastic material;
- an inflation mechanism operated by the downward pressure of a wearer's foot, wherein said inflation mechanism includes a fluid inlet and a first fluid outlet fluidly connected to said inflatable bladder with a first valve allowing fluid to flow from said inflation mechanism to said inflatable bladder and restricting fluid from flowing from said inflatable bladder to said inflation mechanism and a second fluid outlet fluidly connected to said ventilation mechanism with a second valve allowing fluid to flow from said inflation mechanism to said ventilation system and restricting fluid from flowing from said ventilation system to said inflation mechanism, wherein said first valve is actuated at a lower pressure than said second valve.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.