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

This patent describes a way to incorporate markers, such as RFID tags or IR markers, into shoes or other sports equipment to track their usage and lifespan. This allows customers to see how many previous pairs of shoes the base material has already supported and also helps with automation and alerts for replacement. The markers can be embedded in the material of the shoe or sports equipment to make it easy to identify among other materials. This technology can also be used for other sporting goods, such as balls and apparel.

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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