US Patent Issued to NIKE on July 15 for "Method of manufacturing a component of an outsole for use in an article of footwear" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,358,251, issued on July 15, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Method of manufacturing a component of an outsole for use in an article of footwear" was invented by Caleb W. Dyer (Beaverton, Ore.), Jay Constantinou (Beaverton, Ore.), Jeremy D. Walker (Portland, Ore.) and Zachary C. Wright (Portland, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An outsole component for use in an article of footwear is manufactured using a molding process that incorporates a second polymeric material with a film component including a first layer formed of a polymeric hydrogel material. The first layer forms the external or ground-facing layer of the outso...