US Patent Issued to NIKE on Feb. 17 for "Article of footwear with a pulley system having a guide portion" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,550,981, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Article of footwear with a pulley system having a guide portion" was invented by Austin J. Orand (Portland, Ore.) and Timothy P. Hopkins (Lake Oswego, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tensioning system for use with an article of footwear includes a pulley assembly. The pulley assembly may include a first disc and a second disc connected by a central shaft. A tensioning element can be engaged around the central shaft. A ring element can be used to prevent the tensioning element from disengaging the pulley when there is slack in the tensioning element. The pulle...