Footwear for gripping and kicking a ball

Abstract

A shoe has an upper including one or more resiliently deformable protrusions extending from an outer surface of the shoe upper and positioned for contact with a ball, each protrusion forming at least an inner contoured shape portion and an outer contoured shape portion, said outer contoured shape portion being deformable to promote engagement of said protrusion with said ball. The protrusions are arranged in three separate and distinct zones, namely a toe region B, a throat region A and instep region C on the shoe upper. Protrusions, or at least one of the protrusions, in each zone has a different hardness (deformability) to the protrusions of the other zones. A flex zone extends across the shoe upper near the toe zone and allows flexing of the shoe in use.

1 . A shoe upper, comprising resiliently deformable protrusions extending from an outer surface of the shoe upper and positioned for contact with a ball, where each protrusion includes at least an inner contoured shape portion and an outer contoured shape portion each extending from the outer surface of the shoe upper, and where the outer contoured shape portion is deformable so as to promote engagement of the protrusion with the ball, wherein one or more of the protrusions are grouped together to form a distinct protrusion zone; wherein there are at least three said protrusion zones comprising a toe zone, a throat zone and an instep zone; and at least one or more protrusions in each zone have a different hardness (deformability) to one or more protrusions in the other said zones. 
     
     
         2 . A shoe upper according to  claim 1 , in which the one or more protrusions in the throat zone are the hardest, the one or more protrusions in the toe zone are the softest and the one or more protrusions in the instep zone have a hardness between the two. 
     
     
         3  A shoe upper according to  claim 2 , in which the protrusions in the throat zone are smaller in size than protrusions in the other zones. 
     
     
         4 . A shoe upper according to  claim 2 , in which the protrusions in the throat zone are larger than the protrusions of the toe zone or instep zone, or both. 
     
     
         5 . A shoe upper according to  claim 1  wherein the outer contoured shape portion of each protrusion is a circular shape. 
     
     
         6 . A shoe upper according to  claim 5 , in which the inner contoured shape portion of each protrusion in the toe and instep zones is a circular shape and is concentric with the outer contoured shape portion. 
     
     
         7 . A shoe upper according to  claim 5 , in which the inner contoured shape portion of each protrusion in the throat zone is a solid peg. 
     
     
         8 . A shoe upper according to  claim 1 , wherein the outer contoured shape portion of each protrusion is at least one of:
 a triangular shape;   a rectangular shape;   a square shape;   a ovoid shape;   a spiral shape;   a diamond shape;   a semi circular shape;   a V-like shape;   a flower-like shape; or   an other two-dimensional geometric shapes.   
     
     
         9 . A shoe upper according to  claim 1 , in which one or more protrusions in the toe zone, one or more protrusions in the throat zone, and one or more protrusions in the instep zone are each made from a different composition. 
     
     
         10 . A shoe upper according to  claim 2 , in which the protrusions in the throat zone have a durometer of Shore hardness about 80A, the protrusions in the toe zone have a durometer of Shore hardness about 60A and the protrusions in the instep zone have a durometer of Shore hardness about 70A. 
     
     
         11 . A shoe upper according to  claim 1 , in which each protrusion zone is manufactured as a separate piece. 
     
     
         12 . A shoe upper according to  claim 1 , in which one or more protrusions in at least one protrusion zone is manufactured as a separate piece. 
     
     
         13 . A shoe upper according to  claim 1 , in which a flex zone is provided between the throat zone and the toe zone and extends across the shoe upper from one side to the other, the flex zone being an area completely free of protrusions. 
     
     
         14 . A shoe upper according to  claim 13 , in which an outstep zone with one or more protrusions is provided to the lateral region on the ball control surface of the shoe upper.