An article of footwear is provided that includes a sole structure and an upper attached to the sole structure. The upper includes an exterior layer and a base layer, and the exterior layer includes a biodegradable layer and a biologically active agent capable of biodegrading the biodegradable layer. The article of footwear has a first state in which the biodegradable layer is not biodegraded.

A recyclable crosslinked polymeric foam includes a reaction product of 0.1 to 10 parts by weight of a crosslinking agent and 0.1 to 5 parts by weight of a radical initiator, based on 100 parts by weight of a polymeric material. The crosslinking agent is represented by the following formula:

##STR00001##

wherein R is an alkylene group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, an arylene group having 6 to 18 carbon atoms, or a cycloalkylene group having 6 to 18 carbon atoms.

A sole structure for an article of footwear includes a unitary cushioning component comprising a plurality of scrap foam pieces configured as a plurality of different polyhedron shapes and a resin binder securing the scrap foam pieces to one another. The sole structure may comprise a midsole including an outer shell defining a central cavity. The cushioning component may be disposed in the central cavity as a core of the midsole. A method of manufacturing an article of footwear cutting the scrap foam body into pieces, mixing the pieces with a resin binder, and compression molding the mixed pieces and resin binder in a mold to form a cushioning component of a sole structure of the article of footwear.

A foam article, such as a cushioning element for an article of footwear, apparel or sporting equipment is provided that comprises a foam component, such as a midsole, having a number of beneficial physical characteristics. The cushioning element is a low-density foamed component with a surface skin that encases the remaining foam volume. The cushioning element has a number of foam volumes, arranged to achieve a more consistent foam component. Additionally, the cushioning element includes a series of concentric ridges extending radially outwardly from injection gate vestige locations, and a number of striation bands near the perimeter of the cushioning element. The location of the gate vestiges can be beneficially arranged to produce intersecting flow boundaries that are located away from key strain areas of the cushioning element. The cushioning element is more environmentally-friendly, requiring less energy to produce while still providing acceptable energy return and low density.

This disclosure is related to garments and methods of producing garments that incorporate filling materials that comprise multi-faceted particles, including multi-faceted foam particles, produced by shredding various components associated with, for example, articles of footwear, pads (athletic use pads, industrial use pads, and the like), and the like.

A method for fabrication of one or more components of an article of footwear is provided. In one example, the method includes fabricating a mixture of polyurethane (PU) precursors and coffee grounds of a first size using a two-step mixing, and then injection molding one or more components of the article of footwear using the mixture, the one or more components of the article of footwear formed of a coffee grounds-PU composite material.

A thermoplastic artificial leather is provided, which includes a first structure layer, a second structure layer, a plurality of recycled particles, and a third structure layer, in which the second structure layer is disposed on the first structure layer, the plurality of recycled particles disposed on the second structure layer, and the third structure layer is disposed to cover the plurality of recycled particles. According to above stacked structure, the thermoplastic artificial leather with environment friendly is formed, and the plurality of recycled particles is processed in a physical manner, which can solve the problem, the environmental protection issue, caused by the use of solvent to process the recycled particle in the prior art. Use of the material characteristics of each structure layer to reprocess the recycled particles, so the reprocess procedure without using any solvent, so the environmental pollution and the production cost are greatly reduced.

An article of footwear is provided that includes a sole structure and an upper attached to the sole structure. The upper includes an exterior layer and a base layer, and the exterior layer includes a biodegradable layer and a biologically active agent capable of biodegrading the biodegradable layer.

A shoe insole includes a semi-rigid shell for providing a wearer with extended comfort. The semi-rigid shell includes a notch which is located on the outward side of the wearer's foot and accommodates pronation of the foot during use. Additionally, the semi-rigid shell includes an extended side portion which is located opposite of the notch side on an inner side of the wearer's foot. The semi-rigid shell is shorter in length than the length of a shoe sole and slightly shorter in width and may be combined with an insole comfort cover to provide cushion between the wearer's foot and the semi-rigid shell.

A footwear apparatus, comprising receptacles, having a mechanism that automatically removes and replaces interchangeable sole footwear parts; an automatic complete new sole dispenser; an automatic new sole heel dispenser; a complete old sole recycling automatic ejection component; an old sole heel dispenser automatic ejection component; a computer-implemented method for serving footwear and footwear soles to consumers from a vending machine; a computer-implemented foot scanning device, wherein said apparatus is comprised of a configuration to automatically replace the sole or partial sole of a pair or pairs of footwear.