A foamed article is made by infusing the article of thermoplastic elastomer with a supercritical fluid, then removing the article from the supercritical fluid and either (i) immersing the article in a heated fluid or (ii) irradiating the article with infrared or microwave radiation.

A shoe sole member formed by a foam includes cells having a certain size and being excellent in transparency in order to provide a shoe sole member being lightweight and excellent cushioning properties while having transparency.

An injection molding method includes providing a molding device including a first mold, a second mold over the first mold and a first mold cavity defined by the first mold and the second mold; injecting a first material into the first mold cavity; forming a first layer from the first material; replacing the second mold by a third mold, injecting a second material into a second mold cavity defined by the first mold and the third mold; and forming a second layer from the second material, wherein the second layer at least partially contacts the first layer. The first material is same as the second material.

Presented are manufacturing systems, methods, and devices for forming footwear using scrap or waste plastic materials. A method for manufacturing an article of footwear, such as an athletic shoe, begins with receiving a batch of recycled plastic, which may include thermoplastic elastomers or ethylene-vinyl acetate, and grinding the batch of recycled plastic material. The ground recycled material is processed, for example, by adding a foaming agent that activates at elevated temperatures. The processed recycled material is placed into the internal cavity of a final mold that is shaped like a segment of the footwear, such as a unitary sole structure. To form the footwear segment, the processed recycled material is heated past the threshold activation temperature of the foaming agent such that the foaming agent causes the recycled material to expand and fill the internal cavity of the final mold. The formed footwear segment is then extracted from the mold.

A footwear injection mould for Direct Injection moulding of footwear parts, where the mould comprises: a first mould cavity defining a first footwear part, a second mould cavity defining a second footwear part, a first side frame defining at least a part of a first side of the first and second mould cavities, a second side frame defining at least a part of a second side of the first and second mould cavities, and a bottom frame defining at least a part of the first and second mould cavities, where the first and/or the second side frame define(s) at least a part of a first injection channel which is in fluid communication with the first mould cavity and the second mould cavity.

An injection molded integral multicolor thermoplastic elastomeric foamed sole, comprising an integral sole made from thermoplastic elastomeric foaming bodies of at least two colors, and on surfaces thereof are provided grains of arbitrarily superposed injection strips; the foamed sole is made by: mixing, milling and heating thermoplastic elastomer raw materials of at least two colors, lubricants, and foaming auxiliaries to be thermoplastic elastomeric fused-masses, adding respectively gas-foaming agents at 0.2%-10% of thermoplastic elastomeric raw materials, compressive injecting gas-foaming agents respectively into thermoplastic elastomeric fused-masses, fully mixing to form thermoplastic elastomeric gas foamed polymers, and extruding foaming strips of thermoplastic elastomeric gas polymers of the at least two colors with an extrusion and injection process and/or co-extruding the foaming strips of thermoplastic elastomeric gas polymers of the at least two colors by a co-extrusion process into molds to form arbitrarily superposed strips, clamp molds, discharge gas and form.

Methods for manufacturing cushioning elements for sports apparel are described. A method is provided for manufacturing a cushioning element for sports apparel from randomly arranged particles of an expanded material. The method includes positioning a functional element within a mold and loading the mold with the particles of the expanded material, wherein the loading occurs through at least two openings within the mold and/or wherein the loading occurs between different movable parts of the mold.

A method of manufacturing an article that includes providing an element formed of an elastomeric material or composite; placing the surface of the element in contact with a substrate; and affixing the element to the substrate. The element includes an uncured, partially cured, or fully cured UV radiation curable elastomeric material and optionally one or more regions of an adhesive material. The element is affixed to the substrate while the surface of the element is in contact with a surface of the substrate by increasing a temperature of at least a portion of the element, applying pressure to at least a portion of the element, or exposing the uncured or partially cured UV radiation curable material to UV radiation in an amount and for a duration of time that is sufficient to partially cure the uncured material or to fully cure the partially cured material.

A method of making a midsole for an article of footwear includes forming a plurality of foam layers, arranging the plurality of foam layers in a mold to form the midsole, piercing the plurality of foam layers with pins, and introducing heat with the pins to bond the plurality of layers together.

The present invention relates to a method of forming an item of footwear (100) and an item of footwear (100). In particular, the item of footwear (100) is a boot formed of vulcanised rubber such as a Wellington boot. A method of forming an item of footwear (100) comprising the steps of providing a sole member (2) formed of a first rubber material having a first compressive resistance, the sole member (2) comprising a cavity (4) in an upper surface (2A) of a heel region of the sole member (2); placing an insert (6) into the cavity (4), the insert (6) having a second compressive resistance lower than the first compressive resistance; and then vulcanising to thereby attach an upper part (8) formed of a second rubber material to the sole member (2) at a first temperature, wherein the insert (6) is formed of a material which is solid at the first temperature.