The present disclosure generally relates to intelligent garments that provide thermal regulation in a variety of environments. The garments may include different layers such as a hydrophobic layer in direct contact with a wearer's skin surface and saturated with an aqueous mixture, a spacer layer, a reflective layer, and an outer hydrophobic layer. The layers of the garment may work together to reduce the metabolic expenditure of the wearer in extreme environmental conditions or during demanding physical activity. A variety of sensors may be displaced throughout the garments so as to enable the collection of data associated with wearers as well as environmental conditions. Wearers may control the thermal balance and other properties of the garments as desired.

Provided herein are embodiments of a shoe component. The shoe component may include a toebox, an insole, an adhesive membrane, a thermal-resistant insert, a midsole, and an outsole. The insert may further include a footbed. The footbed may include an upper surface and a bottom surface. The insert may further include an upper laminate on the upper surface of the footbed and a lower laminate on the bottom surface of the footbed.

The present disclosure generally relates to intelligent garments that provide thermal regulation in a variety of environments. The garments may include different layers such as a hydrophobic layer in direct contact with a wearer's skin surface and saturated with an aqueous mixture, a spacer layer, a reflective layer, and an outer hydrophobic layer. The layers of the garment may work together to reduce the metabolic expenditure of the wearer in extreme environmental conditions or during demanding physical activity. A variety of sensors may be displaced throughout the garments so as to enable the collection of data associated with wearers as well as environmental conditions. Wearers may control the thermal balance and other properties of the garments as desired.

An insulating shoe insert including a core layer formed of a cellular material, and a top layer and a bottom layer bonded to opposing sides of the core layer, respectively, the top layer and the bottom layer being configured as thin sheets of aromatic polyamide material such that the top layer and bottom layer cooperate with the core layer to create a heat transfer resistance sufficient to resist transfer of heat through the core layer.

A textile barrier apparatus includes an inner layer comprising an aqueous super absorbent polymer composition (SAP) and first and second outer textile layers attached to opposite sides of the inner layer. A landfill version includes an odor neutralizer, a biocide and/or a nutrient to support vegetation. A fire barrier version has the first and second outer textile layers including water permeable membrane and a fire retardant treatment. A planting groundcover version includes a patterned thickness of SAP corresponding to a planting pattern and a nutrient to support vegetation.

An insole and/or outsole for a shoe such as an athletic shoe or cleat that includes a multilayer channeled assembly designed at preventing the transfer of heat from extremely hot ground surfaces, most notably synthetic turf, to the foot. In one embodiment, the insole includes a channeled layer of solid material with a very low thermal conductivity, preferably silicon or cork, as the base material beneath a layer of heat resistant felt preferably made of oxidized polyacrylonitrile fibers. The channeling in the base layer allows for air pockets to be created within the insole itself that makes the heat resistant felt more resistant to (i.e., more efficient at preventing) the transfer of heat. In another embodiment, the outsole for a shoe such as an athletic shoe or cleat includes a base layer of channeled solid material with low thermal conductivity, preferably silicon, cork, or polystyrene, below a layer of heat resistant felt preferably made of oxidized polyacrylonitrile fibers. This assembly is encased within a solid plastic mold that extends up to the base of the upper of the shoe or cleat and allows for little or no pressure to be put on the assembly itself. The studs for the cleats are preferably molded out of the plastic encasing itself.

A system for measuring and controlling foot temperature. The system comprises a heating or cooling device including one or more sealed fluidic pathways having a cooling or heating fluid therein and disposed in or on an article of footwear or a sock. A pumping device coupled to the heating or cooling device is configured to circulate the fluid in the one or more sealed fluidic pathways. A heat exchanger coupled to the heating or cooling device is configured to remove or add heat from or to the fluid in the one or more sealed fluidic pathways. A controller coupled to the pumping device and the heat exchanger is configured to control the pumping device and the heat exchanger to cool or heat a foot located inside the article of footwear or the sock.

The present shoe and therapy system pertains to a uniquely designed shoe that provides therapeutic benefits to wearers. It includes a fold-down heel portion that is designed to repeatedly fold and straighten such that a wearer may collapse the heel into the interior of the shoe and then wear the shoe while standing on the collapsed heel. The folded down fold-down heel includes a plurality of bumps or ridges positioned to provide acupressure therapy to the wearer when folded down, but the heel may alternately be folded up so that the shoe may be worn in the traditional manner.

The present invention relates to an insole containing one or more cavities, wherein said one or more cavities contain a component capable of a physiochemical reaction, as well as articles of footwear containing the insole and methods of making the insole. The invention also relates to methods of heat transfer between an article of footwear and a foot of a wearer of the article of footwear, the method including priming the insole, wherein the priming initiates the physiochemical reaction.

An article of footwear may include an insert configured to receive a foot of a wearer. The insert may consist essentially of a casing configured to at least partially enclose a foot of a wearer and including a casing material and a high heat capacity material. The article of footwear may also include an outer assembly configured to receive the foot of the wearer when the foot is received within the insert.