Patent ID: 7946059

Claim:
An article of footwear comprising: an upper; an outer bottom assembly beneath said upper, said outer bottom assembly comprising: an upper end and a lower end; a vertical longitudinal median plane; a medial side of the vertical longitudinal median plane and a lateral side of the vertical longitudinal median plane; a heel area; in the heel area, at least two support elements comprising a shock-absorbing material, said two support elements comprising at least one support element extending at least on the medial side and at least one support element extending at least on the lateral side; each of said two support elements having a height extending substantially from the upper end to substantially the lower end of the outer bottom assembly; each of said two support elements being deformable substantially independently of one another; an elastically deformable element comprising: a base extending transversely with respect to the outer bottom assembly and covering an upper end of each of said two support elements; at least two legs, a first of said two legs extending downwardly from the base of the elastically deformable element at least on the medial side, and a second of said two legs extending downwardly from the base of the elastically deformable element at least on the lateral side; each of said two legs extends downwardly and outwardly from the base of the elastically deformable element, lowermost extents of said two legs being more widely spaced apart than uppermost extents; said two legs extending over an external surface of an entirety of the heights of respective ones of said two support elements.