Patent ID: 8295962

Claim:
A method of minimizing the total area of a sheet material used to manufacture a customized article of footwear, comprising: dividing a three-dimensional footwear representation into a first two-dimensional portion and a second two-dimensional portion; optimizing a layout of the two-dimensional portions; applying the optimized layout of the first two-dimensional portion and the second two-dimensional portion to a sheet material; wherein the three-dimensional footwear representation includes a designated background color for each of the first and second two-dimensional portions and a foreground design for the first two-dimensional portion; defining on the sheet material a first cutout region corresponding to the first two-dimensional portion and a second cutout region corresponding to the second two-dimensional portion, wherein the sheet material has a color different from the designated background color; printing the designated background color of the first two-dimensional portion onto the sheet material within the first two-dimensional portion and also beyond the first cutout region; printing the designated background color of the second two-dimensional portion onto the sheet material within the second two-dimensional portion and also beyond the second cutout region; printing the foreground design within the first two-dimensional portion; and cutting the first cutout region out of the sheet material to form the first two-dimensional portion, thereby leaving a portion of the sheet material beyond the first cutout region with the designated background color applied.