Methods for manufacturing at least a portion of an upper for an article of footwear that include thermo-forming a pattern on the upper. The methods may include disposing a skin for forming an upper over and inflatable bladder and disposing a mold insert between the skin and a surface of a mold cavity. The mold insert may include a mold pattern including surface features formed in the mold insert. The inflatable bladder may be inflated such that the skin is pressed against the mold insert within a heated mold cavity to form a pattern on an exterior surface of the skin and cause the skin to take on the shape of at least a portion of an upper. In some embodiments, the surface features may be disposed in a gradient pattern configured to provide varying degrees of one or more characteristics to different areas of an upper.

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 blow molding system comprising an extrusion system including at least one extruder configured to extrude a parison having an interior cavity, a blow pin configured to extend into the interior cavity of the parison extruded from the extrusion system, and a mold assembly defining a mold chamber configured to receive the parison, the mold assembly including a plurality of mold cavities each facing the mold chamber and defining a profile of a sole component of an article of footwear. A method comprising the blow molding system forms a plurality of sole plates for an article of footwear.

A non-woven textile may be formed from a plurality of thermoplastic polymer filaments. The non-woven textile may have a first region and a second region, with the filaments of the first region being fused to a greater degree than the filaments of the second region. A variety of products, including apparel (e.g., shirts, pants, footwear), may incorporate the non-woven textile. In some of these products, the non-woven textile may be joined with another textile element to form a seam. More particularly, an edge area of the non-woven textile may be heatbonded with an edge area of the other textile element at the seam. In other products, the non-woven textile may be joined with another component, whether a textile or a non-textile.

A knitted or woven component including an upper of an article of footwear, the upper including a knitted textile that is knitted together via a plurality of yarn such that the plurality of knitted yarn at least partially forms the knitted component. The article of footwear includes a midsole coupled to the knitted textile of the upper such that the midsole is positioned adjacent to the plurality of knitted yarn that at least partially forms the knitted component of the article of footwear, and an outsole coupled to the midsole on an opposite side of the knitted textile of the upper such that the outsole is separated from the plurality of knitted yarn that at least partially forms the knitted component of the article of footwear by the midsole disposed therebetween.

A knit textile that includes a plurality of yarn that is knitted together to form the knit textile, and the knit textile defines an upper of an article of footwear. A pair of fused regions are formed along the upper, and the plurality of yarn knitted together to form the knit textile is fused to a predefined extent at the pair of fused regions. The article of footwear includes a midsole coupled to the knit textile of the upper such that the midsole is positioned adjacent to the pair of fused regions, and an outsole coupled to the midsole on an opposite side of the knit textile such that the outsole is separated from the pair of fused regions by the midsole.

The present invention provides a method for recycling a shoe (100), the shoe (100) comprising various components made from the same material class with varying densities, the method comprises milling (210) the shoe (100) to obtain a plurality of particles (212), the particles (212) having different material densities, mixing (240) the particles, applying heat (312) to the mixed particles (242) to obtain a melt of molten particles and extruding (317) the melt.

A shoe cover is a natural latex article with reduced amount of sulfur cross linking agent and accelerators including zinc dithiocarbamate that break catalytically soluble sulfur S.sub.8 sulfur rings forming sulfur linear chains. Surfactants present in the pre-vulcanization composition wets natural polyisoprene particles and permeates small sized sulfur into the interior of these particles thereby pre-vulcanizing the particles. The latex emulsion also has post-vulcanization composition with accelerators that crosslink between particles during the post vulcanization cure cycle. The dipped natural polyisoprene article is substantially uniformly cured both in the inter-particle and intra-particle regions and reliably exhibits high cross link density, uniform distribution of double bonds and zinc segregation at the boundaries or original particles. The natural rubber films exhibit high tensile strength, tensile modulus, tear strength, elongation with low modulus of the shoe cover. The bottom surface of the shoe cover is etched to produce a slip resistant surface.

An aspect of the present invention relates to a mold insert for use in a mold for the manufacture of a cushioning element for sports apparel. Further aspects of the present invention relate to a mold using such a mold insert, a method for the manufacture of a cushioning element for sports apparel using such a mold, and a cushioning element manufactured by such a method.

A method of making a garment material and garment material and garments obtainable by the method. The method comprises providing a first layer, which is a shaped polymer and applying a liner to the first layer, the liner being formed of yarn and having interstices through it. A fluid polymeric material is then applied to the liner so that it permeates the interstices and is allowed to solidify to thereby form a second layer in which the liner is embedded in the solid polymeric material. Fibres are then applied to form a textile layer, which serves as a skin-contacting layer. The garment material comprises a first layer (70, 76, 78), which is a shaped polymer; a second layer (80), which is a shaped polymer that is provided at one or more locations on the first layer, the second layer taking the shape of the first layer at said one or more locations; and a textile layer (82). The second layer is located between the first layer and the textile layer and a liner (22) is embedded in the second layer, the liner being formed of yarn and having interstices through it.