ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,376,642, issued on Aug. 5, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).
"Vacuum locking for article of footwear or apparel" was invented by Jennifer L. Bishop (Portland, Ore.), Timothy P. Hopkins (Tustin, Calif.), Nicholas R. Long (Portland, Ore.), Todd W. Miller (Portland, Ore.), Austin J. Orand (Portland, Ore.), Nadia M. Panian (Beaverton, Ore.) and Aaron K. Seid (Portland, Ore.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A locking structure for an article includes a bladder having a first barrier element attached to a second barrier element to define a chamber including an interior void and a plurality of locking elements disposed within the interi...