Sports Shoes and Methods for Manufacturing and Recycling of Sports Shoes

Abstract

A sports shoe includes an upper wherein a majority by weight of the upper is made from a thermoplastic base material and a sole wherein a majority by weight of the sole is made from the same thermoplastic base material. The sole and the upper are individually fabricated and joined to each other. The thermoplastic base material includes at least one of the following materials: thermoplastic polyurethane TPU, polyamide PA, polyethylene terephthalate PET, or polybutylene terephthalate PBT.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is related to and claims priority benefits from German Patent Application No. DE 10 2015 206 900.1, filed on Apr. 16, 2015, entitled Shoes, in particular sports shoes, and methods for manufacturing and recycling of shoes (“the '900.1 application”). The '900.1 application is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to shoes, in particular sports shoes, and methods for manufacturing and recycling of shoes.BACKGROUND[0003]Shoes, in particular sports shoes, generally comprise a sole and an upper made from multiple components. Multiple components are generally required for a sole and an upper to provide the shoe with various desired properties such as cushioning, moisture management, traction, abrasion resistance etc. To this end, the various components of a shoe are typically manufactured from different materials. The components are then attached to ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013]The terms “invention,”“the invention,”“this invention” and “the present invention” used in this patent are intended to refer broadly to all of the subject matter of this patent and the patent claims below. Statements containing these terms should be understood not to limit the subject matter described herein or to limit the meaning or scope of the patent claims below. Embodiments of the invention covered by this patent are defined by the claims below, not this summary. This summary is a high-level overview of various embodiments of the invention and introduces some of the concepts that are further described in the Detailed Description section below. This summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used in isolation to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter. The subject matter should be understood by reference to appropriate portions of the entire specification of this patent, any or all drawings and each claim.

Problems solved by technology

The production of the various components of a shoe and their respective materials requires a considerable amount of energy (e.g. electricity, heat, etc.) which leads to greenhouse gas emissions.

Moreover, after a shoe's lifetime, e.g. when the shoe is worn out and can no longer be used, considerable efforts are needed to safely dispose of the shoe.

On the other hand, the majority of worn out shoes still ends up in a landfill or in an incineration facility as waste.

However, a mere ranking or evaluating falls short of providing shoes with reduced resource consumption and greenhouse gas emission during their life cycle.

However, these methods do not go beyond addressing a possible re-use of waste during production of a shoe.

While this method addresses the recycling of multiple polymer component articles, it is a very complex and costly process that requires cryogenics.

Such shoes may naturally decompose within several months.

However, the materials used in these shoes are not suitable for sports shoes and particularly do not meet the requirements for high-quality and high-performance shoes.

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