Manufacturing and assembly of a shoe or a portion of a shoe is enhanced by automated placement and assembly of shoe parts. For example, a part-recognition system analyzes an image of a shoe part to identify the part and determine a location of the part. Once the part is identified and located, the part can be manipulated by an automated manufacturing tool.

Soles for articles of footwear including a mechanically anisotropic three-dimensional mesh. The mechanically anisotropic three-dimensional mesh can include one or more mechanically anisotropic regions with a first lattice shear modulus measured in a first direction and a second lattice shear modulus measured in a second direction opposite to or orthogonal to the first direction. The first and second lattice shear moduli are different to provide the three-dimensional mesh with mechanically anisotropic properties. The mechanically anisotropic three-dimensional mesh can be three-dimensionally printed.

An article of footwear flat pattern upper having an upper portion and a footbed portion is provided. The upper portion and the footbed portion are integrally continuous, such that the upper portion lateral side converges with the footbed lateral side. The flat pattern includes nested same-sided article of footwear with a reduced surplus portion there between. The articles of footwear includes the following continuous portions: the first medial side with a toe end, the toe end with a lateral side, the lateral side with a heel end, and the heel end with the second medial side. The first medial side and the second medial side are joined to form dimensional article of footwear.

The present disclosure provides for making annealed additive manufacturing powder, where the powder can be used to make structures using additive manufacturing processes. The additive manufacturing powder can be annealed to improve the flowability of the powder. Once annealed, the powder can be used in the additive manufacturing process and structures can be formed by affixing the powder particles to one another (e.g., by reflowing and re-solidifying a material present in the powder particles). The annealed additive manufacturing powder can be formed in a layer-by-layer additive process to produce articles such as a component of an article of sporting equipment, apparel or footwear, including a sole structure for footwear.

A method of method of manufacturing customized inserts for a boot, such as a skate boot, that is at least partially thermoformable includes receiving numerical data corresponding to a tridimensional shape of a wearer’s foot, and manufacturing a medial side insert and a lateral side insert based on the tridimensional shape of the wearer’s foot. The medial side insert and the lateral side insert are shaped to be insertable into the boot with a core that is dimensioned to generally correspond to a foot size of the boot, with a medial internal surface of the medial side insert and a lateral internal surface of the lateral side insert abutting respective outer surfaces of the core.

Designs and compositions of insoles for footwear are described herein. The insoles may be customized for a given foot. In some examples, the insole (100) includes a base comprising a variable thickness component (205), a directional stiffness component, a stability component, and a reinforcement component. The base may be a single composition that is manufactured using additive manufacturing techniques.

An article of footwear has a tubular structure that may conform to various anatomical features of a foot. The tubular structure has a tunnel, and a tensile strand runs through the tunnel. Applying tension along the tensile strand may cause the tubular structure to conform more closely to one or more anatomical features. The geometry, or path, of the tubular structure on the article may be customized.

Method for producing a customized midsole and a customized cleat representation for an article of footwear comprising a knit outsole. The method includes obtaining information relating to a customized cleat arrangement in a knit outsole and other information relating to a midsole customized to the user's foot and having cleat reinforcements arranged to match the cleat arrangement on the knit outsole. The information is used to form an article of footwear including the customized knit outsole and the customized midsole.

In a method and device for extracting joint line of shoe, a contact end of a contouring tool is provided to contact a joint contour of a shoe sample, an encoder is provided to generate a plurality of first trajectory coordinate signals of the contact end while the contact end is moved along the joint contour, and a signal processor is provided to receive the first trajectory coordinate signals to create a digital joint line.

Methods and systems are disclosed for three-dimensional printing directly onto an article of apparel. Disclosed is a method and system for direct three-dimensional printing onto an article of apparel, including positioning at least a portion of the article on a tray in a three-dimensional printing system, the portion being positioned substantially flat on the tray, printing a three-dimensional material directly onto the article using a three-dimensional pattern, curing the printed material, and removing the article from the three-dimensional printing system.