Components for articles of footwear and athletic equipment are provided including a foam. A variety of foams and foam components and compositions for forming the foams are provided. In some aspects, the foams and components including the foams can have exceptionally high energy return while also having improved durability and softness. In particular, midsoles including the foams are provided for use in an article of footwear. Methods of making the compositions and foams are provided, as well as methods of making an article of footwear including one of the foam components. In some aspects, the foams and foam components can be made by injection molding or injection molding followed by compression molding.

A main technical feature of a method for molding and forming a flip-flop and a mold thereof provided by the invention is that when a polymer raw material is filled into a mold chamber space of the mold, the filled raw material is preferentially flowed in a direction of a strap area space used to mold a V-shaped strap portion of the flip-flop to ensure that the slender V-shaped strap portion of the flip-flop can be integrally formed.

A vacuum formed knit sole system for an article of footwear incorporating a knitted component is described. The article of footwear includes a knitted component including a lower portion forming the knit sole system and an upper portion forming a portion of the upper of the article of footwear. A method of vacuum forming the knitted component using an insert member to form the knit sole system is also described. The insert member can be used to form the shape of the knit outsole, including the shape of cleat members, as well as remain within the interior of the upper to reinforce the knit sole system.

A roofing membrane and a method of making the same is provided. The roofing membrane includes a top layer having a flame retardant and a first silane-crosslinked polyolefin elastomer with a density less than 0.90 g/cm.sup.3; a scrim layer; and a bottom layer having a flame retardant and a second silane-crosslinked polyolefin elastomer with a density less than 0.90 g/cm.sup.3. The top and bottom layers of the roofing membrane both exhibit a compression set of from about 5.0% to about 35.0%, as measured according to ASTM D 395 (22 hrs @ 70° C.).

A method of using a marriage mold includes providing an upper plate having a first wall and at least one second wall, and a lower plate having a marriage cavity and a top wall. At least two midsole components are provided, which are made of a first material, and each have a first region and a void structure. The at least two midsole components are positioned into the marriage cavity. The upper plate is secured to the lower plate such that the first wall and the top wall form a seal. The at least two midsole components are joined together to form a midsole having a second void structure.

A method of manufacturing the foamed shoe material and semi-finished product including the following steps. Step S1: a foamable material is injected into a cavity of a blank mold to solidify, thereby generating a semi-finished product of the shoe material and a runner waste that are unfoamed. The runner waste could be shed for reusing directly as the foamable material without a granulating process. Step S2: the semi-finished product is cooled down and put into a cavity of the foaming mold, and the semi-finished product is evenly foamed in the cavity of the foaming mold to obtain a shoe material wherein the waste generated during the method of manufacturing the foamed shoe material could be effectively reused, and the yield rate of the shoe material thereby enhanced.

A sole structure for an article of footwear includes an outer fabric layer and an inner chassis that is more rigid than the fabric layer. The fabric layer includes a plurality of fabric protrusions and the inner chassis includes a plurality of chassis protrusions that correspond to the fabric protrusions. Both the fabric protrusions and the chassis protrusions extend into cleat members of the sole structure.

A plate for an article of footwear includes a substrate, a first strand portion attached to the substrate via first stitching, and a second strand portion disposed on the first layer. The first strand portion includes first segments that each extend between two different locations along the substrate to form a first layer on the substrate. The second strand portion includes second segments that each extend between two different locations along the substrate to form a second layer on the first layer.

Disclosed is a method for molding a foamed article, such as a midsole or outsole for footwear, in which first water, then a desired amount of thermoplastic polyurethane foam beads are placed in a compression mold in the shape of the article and the mold is brought to a peak temperature of from about 130° C. to about 180° C. over a period of from about 300 to about 1500 seconds, then cooled to from about 5° C. to about 80° C. over a period of from about 300 to about 1500 seconds within about 30 seconds after the peak temperature is reached. The foamed article made by the method has a density of from about 0.1 to about 0.45 g/cm.sup.3.

Foamed articles including a foamed thermoplastic elastomeric material, methods of making the foamed articles, and methods for manufacturing articles of footwear, apparel, and athletic equipment incorporating such foamed articles are provided. In one aspect, a method for making a foamed article comprises placing an article comprising a foamable material and carbon dioxide in a vessel, maintaining the vessel at an infusing pressure and infusing temperature at which the carbon dioxide is a liquid and carbon dioxide is soluble in the foamable material, optionally exposing the infused article to a first intermediary holding temperature and first intermediary holding pressure, and subjecting the article to an expanding pressure and expanding temperature at which the infused carbon dioxide phase transitions to a gas, thereby expanding the foamable material into a foamed material and forming the foamed article.