A method of manufacturing a footwear includes the steps of providing a leather base layer and providing a leather attachment layer. The leather base layer and the leather attachment layer are fixed against each other with an intermediate application of adhesive between them. The applied adhesive is activated. The leather base layer and the leather attachment layer are forced against each other under a pressure with the adhesive between them. The adhesive is cured and thereby the leather base layer and the leather attachment layer are bonded to each other. The bonded leather base layer and the leather attachment layer are integrated as part of the footwear.

A shoe includes a sole, an upper, and a welt. The sole and upper define a seam. The welt overlies the seam. The sole includes flex grooves. The upper includes perforations. The welt includes flex slits.

An article of footwear has an auxetic sole structure formed from members surrounding apertures. The members may have a trapezoidal geometry. Adjoining members are hingedly connected, so that they can rotate with respect to each other in the plane of the sole structure. The rotation allows the auxetic sole structure to expand when tension is applied.

Various articles, such as footwear, apparel, athletic equipment, watchbands, and the like, and methods of forming those articles are presented. The articles are generally formed, in whole or in part, using rapid manufacturing techniques, such as laser sintering, stereolithography, solid deposition modeling, and the like. The use of rapid manufacturing allows for relatively economical and time efficient manufacture of customized articles. Portions of the articles may be manufactured using rapid manufacturing and those portions may be joined with portions formed using conventional, non-rapid manufacturing techniques. The methods may also include performing a scan of an appropriate body part of a user, such as a foot, in order to create a customized article of footwear for the user.

An upper for an article of footwear is configured to be connected to a sole structure and is configured to receive a foot. The upper includes a knitted component having a strobel portion that is configured to be disposed underneath the foot. The strobel portion defines an interior surface and an exterior surface of the knitted component. The strobel portion defines a strobel passage between the interior surface and the exterior surface. Also, the upper includes a tensile strand that extends through the strobel passage.

The present invention relates to a part of a shoe, in particular a shoe upper, a shoe with such a part and a method for the manufacture. According to an aspect of the invention a part of a shoe is provided which comprises an area comprising a contiguous piece of natural and/or synthetic leather, wherein the area comprises a first sub-area and a second sub-area, each sub-area having a size of more than 3 cm2, in particular more than 4 cm2, wherein the leather has a reduced thickness in the second sub-area compared to the first sub-area, and wherein the reduced thickness is obtained by milling off a first surface layer of the leather in the entire second sub-area.

Described are shoe uppers for a shoe, in particular, for a sports shoe, with a rear section and a front section, wherein the front section is smaller graded than the rear section, and wherein the front section is more flexible than the rear section.

An arrangement of tensile strands is incorporated into a footwear article to provide at least part of an enclosure. The tensile strands may be adjustable to affect a size of the enclosure and an amount of compression of the enclosure.

Described are shoes for ball sports including an upper having an outer surface. An actuator is configured to change at least one surface property of a portion of the outer surface of the upper, and a sensor is configured to be sensitive to movements of the shoe. A processing unit is connected to the actuator and the sensor and configured to process sensor data retrieved from the sensor and to cause the actuator to change the at least one surface property of the portion of the outer surface of the upper if a predetermined event is detected in the sensor data.

A method of manufacturing an article of footwear is disclosed. The footwear may include an upper and a sole structure. The upper incorporates a textile element with flat-knit edges that are joined together to define at least a portion of a void for receiving a foot. The textile element may also have a first area and a second area with a unitary construction. The first area is formed of a first stitch configuration, and the second area is formed of a second stitch configuration that is different from the first stitch configuration to impart varying textures to a surface of the textile element. Various warp knitting or weft knitting processes may be utilized to form the textile element.