Patent ID: 8914997

Claim:
A method for assembling an article of footwear having a lace area opening defined in an upper of the article, the method comprising: selecting a bootie from a group of candidate booties, each bootie in the group of candidate booties having a ball control element provided on an outer surface of a tongue of the bootie, wherein the ball control element protrudes from the outer surface of the tongue as a separate element, and wherein the ball control element of at least one bootie in the group of candidate booties has at least one of a rough treaded surface configured to grip a ball and a sticky outer ball contacting surface configured to grip a ball; associating the selected bootie with an interior of the upper so that the ball control element extends through the lace area opening; and lacing on the article a shoelace that is attached to the upper and extends along a perimeter of the ball control element so that the ball control element extends through the shoelace.