An article of footwear with a gripping system is disclosed. The gripping system helps to enhance the wearer's ability to contact an athletic ball during kicking. The gripping system can be centered about a region where the wearer tends to kick the ball, and the gripping system can be distributed in a pattern that provides an even or symmetric contact area with the ball.

Shock absorbers for footwear are provided. The shock absorbers are units utilizing a shock absorbing spring system, and project like cleats from recesses in the soles of footwear. The shock absorbers serve to minimize impact shock in the normal use of footwear. The shock absorbers do this by compressing as weight is applied to the shoe, to the point that the shock absorbers may become flush with the bottom of the shoe's sole on normal impact if desired. When weight is released from the shoe (for...

A football boot (10) comprises an upper (12) formed with a ball contact surface (24) which is resilient. The ball contact surface may be generally flat and/or concave and provided with a plurality of formations formed of an elastomeric material, wherein the ball contact surface (24) and/or the formations are deformable upon contact with a ball. The boot allows a player to have greater ball control and execute more powerful and accurate kicks than with a conventional boot.

A gyroscope is firmly held against the back side of the human hand to reduce or eliminate the effect of naturally occurring tremors such as essential tremor or other tremor. The gyroscope is driven by an electric motor energized by batteries. The batteries are mounted near the periphery of the gyroscope to enhance the gyroscopic action. In a modified form of the invention the motor is not mounted on the back side of the hand but is a separate unit to which the gyroscope can be readily coupled an...

A football boot is provided on its upper portion with strips of leather or like material which extend transversely over the instep of the boot thereby to enhance the frictional contact with a ball to be controlled with the foot. The strips are connected to the boot in such a way that at least the forward edges of the strips can lift away from the upper portion of the boot.

An oculo-facial massager for simultaneously providing a massaging action to the eye, nose and temple areas. A contoured frame contacts the face of the user and a vibration generating device provides vibration to the frame which is transmitted to the facial muscles contacted by the frame.

A pair of impactor elements are fixedly attached to a football shoe along the side and even with the top and sides of the arch of the foot. These impactors are provided with planar ball impacting surfaces which materially increase the area of contact between the shoe and the football. These impactor elements increase punting consistency, ball total flight time and distances and decrease the slicing of the football to one side during punting when the ball is dropped to the right of the centerline...

An article of footwear is provided, particularly a soccer shoe, having one or more sensors mounted in the shoe upper which, when impacted by a ball, are effective to send a signal to a controller representative of the magnitude of the force with which the ball was struck by the shoe. A liquid crystal display, mounted within a housing which also carries the controller, provides a visual indication of the force of the ball strike which can be readily observed by the wearer of the shoe.

A dural graft is provided having improved stiffness characteristics relative to conventional dural substitutes. The dural graft can be formed from a collagen material having a stiffness between about 0.1 pounds per inch (lb./in.) and 0.25 lb./in. Relative to the collagen material forming conventional dural graft substitutes, the decreased stiffness of the collagen material of the present dural graft can provide the graft with a relatively improved or increased pliability. As a result of the incr...

An outer bag comprises two formed surfaces joined at their peripheries. The formed surfaces are substantially the same size and shape as the brassiere bust cup within which the prosthesis is to be worn, and each includes a vertical extension having an air valve therein and an underarm extension. An inner liquid-filled bag is suspended by two hangers from the top periphery of the outer bag at either side of the valve. The inner bag is also formed of two substantially identical formed surfaces joi...