US Patent Issued to NIKE on July 28 for "Automated footwear platform having upper elastic tensioner" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,690,645, issued on July 28, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Automated footwear platform having upper elastic tensioner" was invented by Summer L. Schneider (Portland, Ore.), Narissa Chang (Portland, Ore.), Eric P. Avar (Lake Oswego, Ore.), Thomas G. Bell (Portland, Ore.) and Christopher Andon (Portland, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A footwear assembly can comprise, an upper, a lace cable, a plurality of lace guides and a tensioner. The tensioner can comprise an elastic member extending between two lace guides of the plurality of lace guides, an elastic member extending between first and second portions of the upper, ...