Adjustable Footwear Upper With Expandable Panel
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional footwear fails to accommodate significant changes in foot dimensions due to factors like pregnancy, growth, or injury, requiring frequent size changes and limiting comfort and practicality.
Innovation Solution
The development of adjustable footwear that allows the foot-receiving cavity to expand or compress through mechanisms like zippers, expandable panels, or gussets, enabling the shoe to adapt to varying foot sizes by altering its volume and shape.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional footwear with fixed dimensions is used, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but adaptability to varying foot dimensions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The footwear upper is divided into multiple adjustable panels or sections that can be independently modified. These segmented components allow the footwear to be customized for different foot dimensions without requiring a completely different structure, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The footwear incorporates dynamic adjustment mechanisms such as lacing systems, buckles, or elastic elements that enable the upper to change its configuration. This dynamic capability allows the same footwear structure to adapt to various foot dimensions while maintaining a relatively simple base design.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple shoe sizes are produced, then adaptability to different foot dimensions is improved, but manufacturing complexity and inventory requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The footwear design incorporates universal adjustment mechanisms that allow a single footwear model to serve multiple size requirements. The upper can be adjusted through various configurations of panels, laces, or elastic elements, enabling one pair of footwear to accommodate a range of foot dimensions that would traditionally require multiple size variants.
3Adaptability or versatility
If adjustable mechanisms are added to footwear, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The footwear utilizes flexible materials and thin film structures in the upper that inherently provide adjustability without requiring complex mechanical components. The flexibility of these materials allows the foot-receiving cavity to adapt to different foot dimensions through material deformation rather than through multiple rigid adjustment parts.
Data Source
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AI summary
An article of footwear includes a sole structure and an upper. The upper is coupled to the sole structure so as to form a foot-receiving cavity therebetween. The upper comprises a first portion, a second portion, and an expandable panel disposed between the first portion and the second portion. The upper is movable between a compressed configuration and an expanded configuration. In the compressed configuration, the first portion and the second portion are coupled together at a location adjacent to the expandable panel and the expandable panel is collapsed. In the expanded configuration, the first portion and the second portion are spaced apart from each other at the location adjacent to the expandable panel and the expandable panel is exposed. One or more dimensions of the foot-receiving cavity are larger when the upper is in the expanded configuration than when the upper is in the compressed configuration.