Outsole for sports shoes

Claim 1

An outsole of flexible plastic material for sports shoes, having a recess which is disposed under a wearer's heel and confined to a heel support surface of the outsole supporting said heel, for accommodating a resiliently, compressible damping body, wherein said damping body comprises at least two separate layers each of a plurality of solid balls made of a resilient material, the balls substantially filling said recess, the layers being arranged one above the other and the balls in the respective layers being connected together and forming interstices between them and arranged in such a way that the balls of one layer are displaced with respect to the balls of the other layer so as to intrude into the respective interstices and to contact each other, in an non-loaded condition of the outsole, in a point-wise manner, whereby, when the damping body is compressed under the wearer's heel, the balls of the respective layers intrude more deeply into said interstices and frictionally engage each other when intruding, thereby dissipating by friction part of the energy imparted by compression.