Shoe uppers

Claim 1

In a lasted shoe upper having in place of the upper leather thereof a water vapour permeable artificial leather sheet material which consists essentially of a strength-giving base layer forming the major part of the thickness of the material and a microporous non-cellular surface layer of elastomeric polyurethane on said base layer, the improvement wherein said strength-giving base layer consists essentially of microporous water-vapour permeable elastomeric polyurethane, the polyurethane of said microporous surface layer being the same as the polyurethane of said microporous base layer, said surface layer having a thickness of more than 0.005 inch and less than 0.05 inch and being more open and less dense, less tough, and more permeable to water vapour than said base layer, said layers being free of fibrous reinforcement and thereby having the elastomeric characteristics of said elastomeric polyurethane on stretching, and said shoe upper being resistant to formation of `orange peel` surface effects when stretched in the lasting operation employed in its manufacture, said strength-giving base layer free from fibrous reinforcement being produced by a method which comprises forming on a support a continuous layer of a solution of elastomeric polyurethane working material in a solvent therefor, coagulating said layer, having said composition, by means of coagulating liquid, removing substantially all the solvent of said layer by washing with coagulating liquid, the coagulating liquid being a nonsolvent for said elastomeric working material and being at least partially miscible with the solvent for the elastomeric working material, and drying the resulting water vapor permeable flexible sheet material, said method including the step of stripping the coagulated layer from the support.