Method of forming an upper for an article of footwear

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12480234-B2
Application number	US-202217740890-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 10, 2022
Priority date	May 10, 2021
Publication date	Nov 25, 2025
Grant date	Nov 25, 2025

Abstract

A woven textile structure is formed by weaving a first woven layer including first yarns and weaving a second woven layer including first yarns, where the woven layers are arranged in a stacked manner and are separated from each other. During the weaving of the first and second woven layers, second yarns are inserted along an intermediate span in the weft direction of the woven textile structure, where the second yarns are elongated to an elongated length during the insertion in the weft direction. First yarns of the first woven layer are interlaced with first yarns of the second woven layer and a second yarn of the intermediate span at a plurality of interlacing locations along the woven textile structure so as to define stitches at each interlacing location, where each stitch joins the first woven layer with the second woven layer.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . An article of footwear comprising:
a sole structure; and an upper coupled to the sole structure, the upper comprising a dynamic textile structure capable of expansion and contraction, the textile structure including:
a first woven textile layer comprising yarns arranged in a warp direction and yarns arranged in a weft direction of the dynamic textile structure,
a second woven textile layer comprising yarns arranged in the warp direction and yarns arranged in the weft direction of the dynamic textile structure, and
a support framework disposed between the first woven textile layer and the second woven textile layer and consisting of a plurality of anchor strands possessing stretch and recovery, wherein each anchor strand is separated from every other anchor strand, all of the anchor strands extend in a same direction, the same direction being the weft direction of the textile structure, and at least some of the warp and weft yarns of each of the first woven textile layer and the second woven textile layer interlace with each other and with each anchor strand of the plurality of anchor strands at a plurality of anchor points;
wherein:
the anchor strands possess a first stretch value;
the first woven textile layer comprises yarns possessing a second stretch value;
the second woven textile layer comprises yarns possessing a third stretch value, the first stretch value being greater than each of the second and the third stretch values; and
the dynamic textile structure is oriented along the upper in which the anchor strands and the weft direction are aligned in a direction transverse a lengthwise dimension of the article of footwear such that a greatest degree of elongation of the dynamic textile structure is oriented in the direction transverse the lengthwise dimension of the article of footwear.

2 . The article of footwear according to claim 1 , wherein the anchor points are organized in a manner effective to control an expansion pattern of the dynamic textile structure.

3 . The article of footwear according to claim 2 , wherein the anchor points are organized to form an array of closed cells in the dynamic textile structure.

4 . The article of footwear of claim 3 , wherein the array of closed cells is effective to affect a Poisson's ratio of the dynamic textile structure as the dynamic textile structure expands.

5 . The article of footwear of claim 1 , wherein yarns from each of the first woven textile layer and the second woven textile layer are interlaced with an anchor strand of the plurality of anchor strands at each anchor point of the plurality of anchor points, thereby forming a plurality of stitches.

6 . The article of footwear of claim 5 , wherein the stitches are arranged to form a plurality of cells within the dynamic textile structure, each cell of the plurality of cells comprising a stitch boundary surrounding a web portion that includes portions of the first woven textile layer and the second woven textile layer.

7 . The article of footwear of claim 6 , wherein:
the dynamic textile structure is reconfigurable from a normal, unstretched configuration to a stretched configuration by applying tension along the warp direction or the weft direction of the dynamic textile structure; and in the unstretched configuration for each cell, a first portion of the first woven textile layer within the web portion of each cell extends in a first direction away from the anchor strands.

8 . The article of footwear of claim 7 , wherein, in the unstretched configuration, a second portion of the second woven textile layer within the web portion of each cell extends in a second direction away from the anchor strands, the second direction opposing the first direction.

9 . The article of footwear of claim 8 , wherein, in the stretched configuration, each cell flattens such that a first distance in the first direction of the first portion of the first woven textile layer is decreased and a second distance in the second direction of the second portion of the second woven textile layer is decreased.

10 . The article of footwear according to claim 6 , wherein each cell of the plurality of cells possesses a reentrant shape.

11 . The article of footwear according to claim 10 , wherein the plurality of cells cooperates to provide the dynamic textile structure with a negative Poisson's ratio.

12 . The article of footwear according to claim 1 , wherein:
the upper defines an interior and exterior; the first woven textile layer forms the exterior of the upper; and
the second woven textile layer forms the interior of the upper.

13 . The article of footwear of claim 1 , further comprising a polymer laminate layer applied to at least an exterior surface portion of the first woven textile layer.

14 . The article of footwear of claim 13 , wherein the polymer laminate layer has a thickness from about 0.25 mm to about 0.50 mm.

Assignees

• Under Armour Inc

Inventors

• Toronjo Alan
• White Thomas
• Huang James Shih-Tien

Classifications

• A43B1/04

  braided, knotted, knitted or crocheted · CPC title

• A43B1/05

  woven · CPC title

• D03D17/00

  Woven fabrics having elastic or stretch properties due to manner of weaving (fabrics using stretchable or elastic threads D03D15/56) · CPC title

• D03D13/004

  with weave pattern being non-standard or providing special effects · CPC title

• A43B23/028

  Resilient uppers, e.g. shock absorbing · CPC title