Article of footwear

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an article of footwear, such as a sock or a calf sleeve, in particular a sock or a calf sleeve used for playing soccer, the article of footwear configured to be worn by a foot of a user and then to be received in a shoe, the article of footwear comprising: an inside shoe portion and an outside shoe portion; wherein the outside shoe portion comprises a control element; wherein the control element is configured to assist with shooting and/or passing and/or receiving a ball and further configured to reinforce an ankle portion of the article of footwear.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An article of footwear, such as a sock or a calf sleeve configured to be worn by a foot of a user and then to be received in a shoe, comprising:
 an inside shoe portion; and   an outside shoe portion;   wherein the outside shoe portion comprises a control element;   wherein the control element is configured to assist with shooting and/or passing and/or receiving a ball and is further configured to reinforce an ankle portion of the article of footwear.   
     
     
         2 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element is arranged on an outer surface of the outside shoe portion. 
     
     
         3 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element comprises a single material,
 wherein the control element is configured to provide a first grip force between the article of footwear and a ball under wet conditions and a second grip force between the article of footwear and a ball under dry conditions, and   wherein the first grip force and the second grip force deviate by at most 50%.   
     
     
         4 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element is arranged in a pattern. 
     
     
         5 . The article of footwear according to  claim 4 , wherein the pattern comprises a connected pattern and/or a continuous pattern, and/or a discontinuous pattern. 
     
     
         6 . The article of footwear according to the  claim 5 , wherein the connected pattern comprises a grid pattern, a hexagonal pattern, a triangular pattern, a circular pattern, a network pattern, a spiral pattern, a radial pattern, or a lattice pattern. 
     
     
         7 . The article of footwear according to  claim 5 , wherein the continuous pattern comprises a single closed surface. 
     
     
         8 . The article of footwear according to  claim 5 , wherein the discontinuous pattern comprises one or more elements,
 wherein each element has a distinct boundary,   wherein the discontinuous pattern preferably comprises one or more dots, and/or elongate elements.   
     
     
         9 . The article of footwear according to the  claim 8 , wherein a first element of the one or more elements comprises a first material and a second element of the one or more elements comprises a second material,
 wherein the second material is different than the first material.   
     
     
         10 . The article of footwear according to  claim 8 , wherein two neighboring elongate elements of the elongate elements are spaced apart from one another by at least 2% of a width of the two neighboring elongate elements, the width being perpendicular to a longitudinal axis (LA) of the two neighboring elongate elements; and/or
 wherein two neighboring elongate elements of the elongate elements are spaced apart from one another by at most 100% of the width of the two neighboring elongate elements.   
     
     
         11 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element is applied to the article of footwear in liquid form. 
     
     
         12 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element comprises one or more layers. 
     
     
         13 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element is formed integrally with the article of footwear. 
     
     
         14 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element comprises a microtextured surface located an outer surface of the control element. 
     
     
         15 . The article of footwear according to  claim 14 , wherein the microtextured surface comprises a plurality of protrusions. 
     
     
         16 . The article of footwear according to the  claim 15 , wherein one or more of the plurality of protrusions comprises an aspect ratio defined by a height of a protrusion compared to a width of the protrusion of at least 1.1 and of at most 10. 
     
     
         17 . The article of footwear according to  claim 15 , wherein one or more of the plurality of protrusions comprises a width of at least 0.05 mm and of at most 1.0 mm. 
     
     
         18 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element is arranged in an ankle portion of the article of footwear and/or an instep portion of the article of footwear. 
     
     
         19 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element comprises a height of at least 0.1 mm and at most 1.2 mm. 
     
     
         20 . The article of footwear according to  claim 1 , wherein the control element comprises a maximum dimension in a direction along a surface of the article of footwear of at least 2 mm and at most 200 mm.