A cutting assembly for a sole member of an article of footwear comprising: a first portion configured to receive a sole member; and a second portion, the second portion including a cutting die having a plurality of blades configured to form sipes in the sole member, a height of at least one blade being different than a height of at least one other blade or at least one of the blades being connected to another blade.

A method of obtaining a rubber plate or tape, which comprises providing and heat vulcanizing two layers made of different mixtures, thereby obtaining a composite plate or tape, applying at least one layer of a finishing spreadable product suitable for providing a so-called pull-up effect onto at least one surface of said plate or tape thus-obtained, and applying mechanical stress to said plate or shoe sole obtained therefrom through die-cutting to determine a desired chromatic change of said pull-up effect product.

For digitising a surface portion of a three-dimensional article a light source (14) is provided which projects onto the surface portion to be digitised of an article (S) a narrow band of light which extends over the surface portion. In addition, by effecting relative movement between the article and the light source (14) the narrow light band is caused to traverse progressively over the surface portion from one end thereof to the other. A camera (22) comprising a two-dimensional array of cells (26) monitors the location of the narrow light band at successive localities along its traversed path, the cells of the camera being illuminated according to the incidence thereon of light reflected from the narrow beam, and processor means is provided whereby the location of the narrow light band at selected intervals in its traverse are converted to digitised coordinate axis values, along three axes, said values thus being representative of the contour of the surface portion. The apparatus may be free-standing, serving to digitise the surface of an article, e.g. a shoe bottom, in an individual operation, or alternatively may be incorporated in a machine for effecting a progressive operation, again, e.g. on shoe bottoms. The apparatus may also be used for monitoring edges of components and for determining the configuration of marginal portions of such components, in order to enable the operating path of a tool at or adjacent such edge to be automatically determined, or may be used in a machine for pulling an article over a former e.g. a shoe pulling and lasting machine.

A painting system for painting a shoe sole portion of a shoe is disclosed, the painting system comprising: a jig adapted to hold the shoe sole portion in a fixed position when the jig is in a closed position such that only a side surface of the shoe sole portion is exposed; a painting station adapted to paint the exposed side surface of the shoe sole portion while being held by the jig, wherein the painting station is controlled by a computing device having a predefined painting path associated with the jig; and an opening station having an opening mechanism adapted to translate movement of the jig into an opening force that transitions the jig from the closed position to an open position.

A system (100) for simultaneously generating a digital bite line and a visible bite line for use in assembling a shoe (110). The system (100) includes: a turntable (160) that receives a shoe sole assembly (114) and rotates at a known rate; a press (130) that applies a predetermined pressure to a lasted shoe upper (112) to engage the lasted shoe upper (112) with a shoe sole assembly (114) retained upon the turntable (160), the press (130) operable to apply the predetermined pressure to the lasted upper (112) while the shoe sole assembly (114) and lasted upper (112) are rotated, and a stylus assembly (150) comprising a marking tip (201) that contacts the shoe upper (112) at a junction line (116) between the lasted shoe upper (112) and the shoe sole assembly (114) and a digital bite line creation unit that communicates measurements of the location of the stylus assembly (150) to a computing device (105) to generate a digital bite line representative of the measurements made of the location of the stylus assembly (150).