Circularly woven sports article

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11851789-B2
Application number	US-201916534625-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 7, 2019
Priority date	Aug 8, 2018
Publication date	Dec 26, 2023
Grant date	Dec 26, 2023

Abstract

Described is a circularly-woven tube for an article of footwear or an article of apparel comprising: a plurality of warp yarns, having a first elastic modulus; a plurality of weft yarns, having a second elastic modulus, and wherein the second elastic modulus is smaller than the first elastic modulus.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. A circularly-woven tube for an article of footwear comprising:
a plurality of warp yarns, having a first elastic modulus;
a plurality of weft yarns, having a second elastic modulus, and
wherein the second elastic modulus is smaller than the first elastic modulus; and wherein a first type of warp yarns is arranged in a first area and a second type of warp yarns is arranged in a second area of the circularly-woven tube,
wherein the first type of warp yarns has a first bending stiffness and the second type of warp yarns has a second bending stiffness, and the second bending stiffness is greater than the first bending stiffness, and
wherein the first area is arranged in a vamp portion of an upper of the article of footwear and the second area is arranged in a bottom portion of the upper.

2. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 1 , wherein the circularly-woven tube is seamless.

3. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of least one weft yarn or at least one warp yarn comprises at least one of an aramid material, a ceramic, polyester, PET, nylon, cellulose, polypropylene, poly(butylene terephthalate), or elastane.

4. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of at least one warp yarn or at least one weft yarn comprises a meltable component.

5. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 4 , wherein the plurality of warp yarns has a first elongation at break and the plurality of weft yarns has a second elongation at break, and wherein the second elongation at break is larger than the first elongation at break.

6. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 5 , wherein the second elongation at break is at least 100%.

7. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 1 , further comprising a film.

8. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 7 , wherein the film comprises a thermoplastic polymer.

9. A method of producing a circularly-woven tube for an article of footwear, comprising:
providing a plurality of warp yarns, having a first elastic modulus;
providing a plurality of weft yarns, having a second elastic modulus,
wherein the second elastic modulus is smaller than the first elastic modulus;
circularly weaving the plurality of warp yarns and the plurality of weft yarns into a tubular shape;
wherein circularly weaving comprises arranging a first type of warp yarns in a first area and a second type of warp yarns in a second area of the circularly-woven tube,
wherein the first type of warp yarns has a first bending stiffness and the second type of warp yarns has a second bending stiffness, and the second bending stiffness is greater than the first bending stiffness, and
wherein the first area is arranged in a vamp portion of an upper of the article of footwear and the second area is arranged in a bottom portion of the upper.

10. The method of producing the circularly-woven tube for the article of footwear according to the claim 9 , wherein circularly weaving the plurality of warp yarns and the plurality of weft yarns into the tubular shape produces a seamless circularly-woven tube.

11. The method of producing the circularly-woven tube for the article of footwear according to the claim 9 , further comprising:
sealing a first end of the circularly-woven tube; and
pulling the circularly-woven tube over a shoe last.

12. The method of producing the circularly-woven tube for the article of footwear according to the claim 9 , further comprising attaching a sole element to the upper.

13. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 1 , wherein the second elastic modulus is less than 1 GPa.

14. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 1 , wherein the first elastic modulus is at least 50% larger than the second elastic modulus.

15. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of weft yarns comprise elastane and the plurality of warp yarns comprise nylon.

16. The circularly-woven tube according to claim 1 , wherein at least at least one of least one weft yarn or at least one warp yarn comprises elastane covered by PET.

17. The method of producing the circularly-woven tube for the article of footwear according to the claim 9 , wherein the second elastic modulus is less than 1 GPa.

18. The method of producing the circularly-woven tube for the article of footwear according to the claim 9 , wherein the first elastic modulus is at least 50% larger than the second elastic modulus.

19. The method of producing the circularly-woven tube for the article of footwear according to the claim 9 , wherein the plurality of weft yarns comprise elastane and the plurality of warp yarns comprise nylon.

20. The method of producing the circularly-woven tube for the article of footwear according to the claim 9 , wherein at least at least one of least one weft yarn or at least one warp yarn comprises elastane covered by PET.

Assignees

• Adidas Ag

Inventors

• O'Haire Tom
• Yip Andrew

Classifications

• A43B1/04

  braided, knotted, knitted or crocheted · CPC title

• D10B2401/06

  Load-responsive characteristics · CPC title

• D03D15/292

  Conjugate, i.e. bi- or multicomponent, fibres or filaments · CPC title

• D03D13/00

  Woven fabrics characterised by the special disposition of the warp or weft threads, e.g. with curved weft threads, with discontinuous warp threads, with diagonal warp or weft · CPC title

• D03D15/56

  elastic · CPC title