Article of footwear with soil-shedding performance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016192736-A1
Application number	US-201514814214-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 30, 2015
Priority date	Aug 27, 2014
Publication date	Jul 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The disclosure relates to articles of footwear and components thereof, including outsoles, which can be used in conditions normally conducive to the accumulation of soil on the outsoles. In particular, the disclosure relates to articles of footwear and components thereof including an outsole with an external thermoplastic hydrogel film that compositionally includes polyurethane copolymer chains. The outsoles can prevent or reduce the accumulation of soil on the footwear during wear on unpaved surfaces such as sporting fields. When the outsoles are wetted with water, the outsoles can become more compliant and/or can rapidly uptake and/or expel water, which can prevent soil from adhering to the outsole and/or can assist in shedding soil present on the outsole.

First claim

We claim:

1 . An outsole for an article of footwear, the outsole comprising:
an outsole backing member; a plurality of traction elements operably secured to the outsole backing member; and a film secured to the outsole backing member and defining an external surface of the outsole, wherein the film compositionally comprises a thermoplastic hydrogel, wherein the thermoplastic hydrogel comprises polyurethane copolymer chains.

2 . The outsole of claim 1 , wherein the traction elements each include a shaft having a terminal edge, wherein the film does not cover the terminal edges of the shafts, and wherein the film does not cover the shafts or only covers less than 10% of the shafts.

3 . The outsole of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the polyurethane copolymer chains each comprise:
a plurality of hard segments forming crystalline regions with other hard segments of the polyurethane copolymer chains; and a plurality of soft segments covalently bonded to the hard segments and comprising one or more polyethers.

4 . The outsole of claim 3 , wherein at least a portion of the one or more polyethers are pendant polyether groups extending from backbone chain segments of the soft segments.

5 . The outsole of claim 3 , wherein the soft segments are present in the polyurethane copolymer chains at a ratio of 20:1 by weight to 110:1 by weight relative to the hard segments.

6 . The outsole of claim 1 , wherein the film has a dry-state film thickness ranging from 0.1 millimeters to 1 millimeter.

7 . The outsole of claim 6 , wherein the film has a saturated-state film thickness ranging from 0.25 millimeters to 2 millimeters.

8 . The outsole of claim 1 , wherein the film has a water uptake capacity at 24 hours ranging from 100% by weight to 900% by weight, as characterized by the Water Uptake Capacity Test with the Footwear Sampling Procedure.

9 . An outsole for an article of footwear, the outsole comprising:
an outsole substrate; a plurality of traction elements operably secured to the outsole substrate; and a film secured to the outsole substrate and defining an external surface of the outsole, wherein the film compositionally comprises a hydrogel having a plurality of copolymer chains, and wherein at least a portion of the copolymer chains each independently have chain segments comprising:

wherein each R 1 is independently an aliphatic segment or an aromatic segment;
wherein R 2 is a hydrophilic segment comprising one or more ether groups; and
wherein R 3 is a substituted or unsubstituted segment having 2 to 10 carbon atoms.

10 . The outsole of claim 9 , wherein each R 1 independently comprises a C 3-20 alkylene segment, C 3-8 cycloalkylene segment, aryl segment, heteroaryl segment, or combinations thereof.

11 . The outsole of claim 9 , wherein at least a portion of the one or more ether groups are present as one or more pendant groups.

12 . The outsole of claim 9 , wherein the film has a dry-state film thickness ranging from 0.1 millimeters to 1 millimeter.

13 . The outsole of claim 12 , wherein the film has a saturated-state film thickness ranging from 0.25 millimeters to 2 millimeters.

14 . The outsole of claim 9 , wherein the film has a swell thickness increase at 1 hour greater than 20%, as characterized by the Swelling Capacity Test with the Footwear Sampling Procedure.

15 . An article of footwear, the article comprising:
an outsole backing plate having a first side and a second side; an upper operably secured to the first side of the outsole backing plate; a plurality of traction elements, wherein at least a portion of the traction elements are integrally formed with and extend from the second side of the outsole backing plate; and a film secured to the second side of the outsole backing plate, wherein the film comprises a thermoplastic polyurethane hydrogel.

16 . The article of claim 15 , wherein the thermoplastic polyurethane hydrogel comprises:
a plurality of crystalline regions; and a plurality of amorphous hydrophilic regions covalently bonded to the crystalline regions, wherein the amorphous hydrophilic regions are present in the thermoplastic polyurethane hydrogel at a ratio of at least 20:1 by weight relative to the crystalline regions.

17 . The article of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of traction elements each include a shaft having a terminal edge, wherein the film does not cover the terminal edges of the shafts, and wherein the film does not cover the shafts or only covers less than 10% of the shafts.

18 . The article of claim 16 , wherein the film has a dry-state film thickness ranging from 0.1 millimeters to 1 millimeter.

19 . The article of claim 18 , wherein the film has a saturated-state film thickness ranging from 0.25 millimeters to 2 millimeters.

20 . The article of claim 16 , wherein the film has a water uptake rate of at least 20 grams/(m 2 ×min 0.5 ), as characterized by the Water Uptake Rate Test with the Footwear Sampling Procedure.

Assignees

• Nike Inc

Inventors

• Dyer Caleb W
• Wright Zachary C
• Walker Jeremy D
• Maurer Myron
• Schiller Denis
• Baghdadi Hossein A

Classifications

• A43C15/16

  Studs {or cleats} for football or like boots · CPC title

• A43B13/122 Primary

  characterised by the outsole or external layer · CPC title

• A43B13/04

  Plastics, rubber or vulcanised fibre · CPC title

• C08J3/075

  Macromolecular gels · CPC title

• C08L75/04

  Polyurethanes · CPC title