US Patent Issued to NIKE on Dec. 2 for "Support members with variable viscosity fluid for footwear" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,484,660, issued on Dec. 2, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Support members with variable viscosity fluid for footwear" was invented by James C. Meschter (Portland, Ore.), Mike A. Chamblin (Portland, Ore.) and Andrew A. Owings (Portland, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An article of footwear including an adaptive support system includes a plurality of support members. Each support member includes an outer chamber and an inner chamber, the inner chamber being filled with a magnetorheological fluid. An electromagnet is disposed adjacent to the inner chamber and can be used to vary the viscosity of the magnetorheological flu...