Foot supports for use in footwear are molded in polypropylene sheet and include a network of longitudinal and transverse reinforcing ribs integrally molded with the support and extending across an arch-supporting area thereof, the ribs resisting stresses on the support during wear and maintaining the shape of the support without adversely affecting its resilience. The supports can be shaped to an individual's foot by heating in boiling water.

A dunnage device expandable from a compact flat stack into a vertically extending cellular slab. A plurality of elongated strips is stacked and assembled in co-extensive relation. Each strip has a median portion, opposing end portions, and opposing outer end extremities. A transverse fold line is provided between the median portion and each end portion, across each strip. The strips are attached to each other at their outer end extremities to form pairs; the pairs are attached to each other along adjacent median portions. When the stack of attached strips is expanded, a plurality of serially connected, horizontally oriented, rectangular cells is formed. Means for suspending the cellular slab is disclosed. A foldable, integral backing board, in combination with the cellular slab, is also disclosed.

A shoe includes an outsole having an elastic jacket formed on the outsole for exerting an elastic property of the shoe, a midsole made of or impregnated with medical compositions for diffusing medicine vapors onto a wearer's foot for treating the wearer's disease, an insole formed with beehive polygonal protrusions for massaging a wearer's foot, an illuminator and a musical or alarm device formed in the outsole for optical decorative and musical entertaining or emergency warning purposes.

A resilient panel having anisotropic flexing characteristics in which thermal compression bonding techniques have been to laminate a plurality of sheets of thermoplastic polyurethane material together with bonds that are in strip form, spaced at regular intervals, and staggered between alternate sheets of material. The laminated stack was then cut into slices of appropriate thickness, and the slices were expanded to form a honeycombed core which, while held in spread apart disposition, was thermally pre-formed and made ready to receive facing materials. The facing materials were then thermal compression bonded to each side of the honeycombed core, and the panels were trimmed to assume their final dimensions.

An improved sports pad for protecting a particular area of a user's body and including a relatively rigid, lightweight plate molded to conform to the protected body area, an outer layer of resilient thermoplastic honeycomb padding affixed to the outer surface of the plate, and an inner layer of resilient thermoplastic honeycomb padding affixed to the inner surface of the plate. The outer layer is preferably of a closed-cell configuration while the inner layer is of an open-celled configuration perforated to allow the flow of air from cell to cell.