ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,564,247, issued on March 3, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).
"Article of footwear with reel closure and slidable eyelet" was invented by Blake Rhulen (Portland, Ore.) and Carl L. Madore (Portland, Ore.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An article of footwear includes an upper, a sole structure coupled to the upper, a plurality of string pairs, a plurality of eyelets, and a reel-based closure system. Each string pair includes a first string and a second string. Each eyelet slidably couples the first string to the second string of one of the plurality of string pairs, and each eyelet defines a first aperture and a second aperture....