US Patent Issued to NIKE on April 29 for "Methods of forming an article of footwear using a gathering system and articles formed by the same" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,285,081, issued on April 29, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Methods of forming an article of footwear using a gathering system and articles formed by the same" was invented by Tory Cross (Portland, Ore.), Kassio Figur (Portland, Ore.) and Guillermo Raffaele (Portland, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of forming an article of footwear can include providing an upper in a substantially flat orientation, securing a gathering string along at least a portion of a perimeter of a first surface of the upper with a securing member that is attached to the upper, positioning the upper on a last, and applying tension to the ...