TPU is a common material, short for Thermoplastic Urethane. It has strong elasticity and tension, in addition to being tough and anti-aging, it is also a mature environmentally friendly material.

As an elastomer, TPU is a material between rubber and plastic. It is oil, water and mildew resistant. The load-carrying capacity, impact resistance and shock absorption performance of TPU products are excellent.

Polyurethane Elastomers for Shoes

TPU is widely used in shoe outsole, shoe midsole, air cushion, shoe decoration, shoe upper yarn, waterproof and moisture-permeable film, hot melt adhesive film, 3D printing, etc., and thus the concept of 100% TPU sports shoes emerged. Lubrizol, Covestro, Huntsman, Wanhua Chemical and other companies have launched corresponding TPU material solutions, which are recyclable, environmentally friendly and sustainable.

nikevaporfly NEXT% 2

nike vaporfly NEXT% 2

TPU is mainly used in shoe materials due to its excellent elasticity and wear resistance. Footwear products containing elastomer TPU are much better than ordinary footwear products in terms of wearing comfort, so they are widely used in high-end footwear products, especially some sports shoes and casual shoes.

In order to facilitate understanding, we organize the application of TPU sports shoes according to three main components, namely the upper, the midsole, and the outsole.

Upper: TPU Yarn

Breathable fly-knit uppers and water-repellent leather uppers are common sneaker uppers. Among them, flying weaving refers to the integral weaving of the entire upper, which can be woven with TPU yarn, with a soft texture

Extremely durable, and high wear resistance, easy to hot-press 3D molding, solid molding, etc.

TPUYarn Upper, Jetca

In addition to yarn woven uppers, TPU can also be made into synthetic leather for uppers, decorative pieces, etc.

Midsole: ETPU

The midsole is the most popular and mature component of TPU sports shoes. The common process is to make TPU into foamed particles through the supercritical kettle foaming process, and combine water vapor or microwave molding to obtain the ETPU shoe midsole. Compared with traditional EVA midsole, E-TPU shoe material has excellent resilience, extremely low compression set, and good wearing feeling.

ETPU shoe midsole, Adidas

Then the TPU insole is also prepared by a foaming process, which is foamed into a sheet and then cut. At present, there are still very few applications.

Outsole: wear-resistant, non-slip TPU

TPU can obtain shoe outsole through injection molding, which has the characteristics of wear resistance and high strength. In addition, the anti-slip effect is also one of the important indicators for judging the performance of TPU shoe outsole.