U.S. patent application number 12/296465 was filed with the patent office on 2009-11-05 for hockey suit.
Invention is credited to Kristi Harris.
Application Number | 20090271916 12/296465 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38656205 |
Filed Date | 2009-11-05 |
United States Patent
Application |
20090271916 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Harris; Kristi |
November 5, 2009 |
Hockey suit
Abstract
A one piece athletic garment provides protection in a sport such
as hockey and includes a unitary body enclosure having a torso
section, legs, and sleeves and that includes protection for elbows,
knees, shins, shoulders, and chest and protective pants.
Inventors: |
Harris; Kristi; (Excelsior,
MN) |
Correspondence
Address: |
WESTMAN CHAMPLIN & KELLY, P.A.
SUITE 1400, 900 SECOND AVENUE SOUTH
MINNEAPOLIS
MN
55402
US
|
Family ID: |
38656205 |
Appl. No.: |
12/296465 |
Filed: |
April 26, 2007 |
PCT Filed: |
April 26, 2007 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/US07/10205 |
371 Date: |
October 8, 2008 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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60796149 |
Apr 27, 2006 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
2/456 ; 2/16;
2/24; 2/243.1; 2/459; 2/463 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63B 71/1216 20130101;
A63B 2071/125 20130101; A63B 2071/1233 20130101; A63B 2071/1208
20130101; A63B 2071/1258 20130101; A63B 71/1225 20130101; A63B
2071/1241 20130101; A63B 71/12 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
2/456 ; 2/459;
2/463; 2/16; 2/24; 2/243.1 |
International
Class: |
A41D 13/00 20060101
A41D013/00; A41D 13/08 20060101 A41D013/08; A41D 13/06 20060101
A41D013/06; A41D 27/00 20060101 A41D027/00 |
Claims
1. A one piece hockey suit comprising: a unitary body enclosure for
accepting legs, arms and torso of a player, the body enclosure
having elbow protectors, knee-shin protectors, a shoulder/chest
protector and protective pants.
2. The suit of claim 1 wherein the unitary body enclosure includes
sleeves and an elbow area in the sleeves, the elbow area containing
a pocket and an elbow shield disposed within the pocket.
3. The hockey suit of claim 1 wherein the unitary body enclosure
includes leg portions and wherein each leg portion includes a
pocket and a shin/knee shield disposed within the pocket.
4. The suit of claim 1 wherein the shoulder/chest protector is
detachably attached to the unitary body.
5. The suit of claim 4 wherein the chest protector is detachably
attached to the unitary body near a neck area.
6. The suit of claim 1 and further including fasteners extending
from the unitary body for attaching hockey socks.
7. The suit of claim 1 wherein the unitary body enclosure includes
sleeves and further includes fasteners extending from the sleeves
for attaching hockey gloves.
8. The suit of claim 1 wherein the unitary body enclosure includes
a waist portion and fasteners attached to the waist portion for
detachably attaching the protective pants to the unitary body.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] The present application is based on and claims the benefit
of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/796,149, filed
Apr. 27, 2006, the content of which is hereby incorporated by
reference in its entirety.
[0002] The present application is a Section 371 National Stage
Application and claims priority of International patent application
Serial No. PCT/US2007/010205, filed Apr. 26, 2007, and published in
English the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in
its entirety.
BACKGROUND
[0003] The present invention relates to protective athletic
garments and in particular to a unitary garment which provides
protection to several body areas.
[0004] Ice hockey is played on a hard surface, a sheet of ice.
Rigid vertical boards define the playing area on the sheet of ice.
In addition, a puck made of hard rubber is used in playing hockey
and the puck travels at high speeds when "shot", occasionally
leaving the ice to hit a player. In addition, players maneuvering
on the ice collide with one another, sometimes intentionally and
sometimes not. All of these activities pose a multitude of inherent
safety hazards in playing ice hockey. It is for these reasons
hockey players are equipped with an array of safety gear to lessen
pain from collisions and the risk of injury. The safety equipment
includes a helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, mouth guard,
protective gloves, heavily padded shorts (breezers), an athletic
protector, shin and knee pads, chest protector and a neck guard.
These are independent pieces of protective equipment that the
player secures individually into place.
[0005] Although most people visualize the typical hockey player as
a young adult or an adult player needing such protection due to the
speeds and aggressiveness at which such players play the game,
youth players also need bodily protection not only to protect from
injury, but also to eliminate the fear of falling on the ice or
colliding against the hockey boards or with other players. Youth
players need all of the protective equipment that an adult hockey
player needs.
[0006] However, youth players do not necessarily have the ability
to independently properly secure the various pieces of protective
equipment that are necessary to play the sport safely. Parents may
spend considerable time in securing the equipment to a youth
player. In addition, such youth players when removing the
independent pieces of protective equipment in a locker room crowded
with other youth players tend not to pay attention to where the
removed equipment is placed. The independent pieces of protective
equipment after being removed are often times tossed aside and
co-mingled with similar pieces of protective equipment from other
youth players. Oftentimes independent pieces of protective
equipment are picked up by other youth players and taken home by
the wrong player. This results in missing equipment the next time a
player plays.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] The present invention includes a one piece athletic garment
that is donned by an athlete and which provides protection to a
plurality of body areas such as the elbows, knee/shin area, and
chest area.
[0008] In one embodiment, the present invention includes a one
piece hockey garment comprising a unitary body enclosure for
accepting legs, arms and a torso of a player and having elbow
protectors, knee and shin protectors, a chest protector and
protective pants as part of the garment.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0009] FIG. 1 is a plan view of the present invention with portions
of the suit be shown separated.
[0010] FIG. 2 is a plan view of a hockey suit.
[0011] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a chest protector.
[0012] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an elbow protector.
[0013] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a knee/shin protector.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0014] A one piece hockey suit of this invention is generally
illustrated at 10 in FIGS. 1 and 2. The one piece hockey suit 10
enables a player to put on all necessary protective equipment by
donning a single garment. By removing this single garment all
protective gear is also removed. The one piece hockey suit saves
time in both putting on various pieces of protective equipment and
then taking off the protective equipment since the protective
equipment is all included in the hockey suit 10. Additionally, the
suits 10 keeps together all the protective equipment to ensure that
all the pieces of protective equipment are kept together so that
the next time the player needs to use the equipment, none of the
pieces are missing.
[0015] The hockey suit 10 comprises a unitary garment 12 that
includes a torso section 14 and a pair of sleeves 16 and 18
extending therefrom and a pair of pant legs 20 and 22 extending
from a waist section 24. The garment 12 maybe constructed from a
single section of cloth or may be assembled from distinct pieces of
cloth sewn together or bonded by any other suitable method. The
garment 12 in one example is made of a moisture wicking fabric.
[0016] The one piece hockey suit 10 also includes a shoulder/chest
protector 26 and hockey pants 28 commonly referred to as breezers.
Both the shoulder/chest protector 26 and the breezers 28 are
preferably detachably attached to the garment 12.
[0017] The torso section 14 further includes a neck opening 30. The
shoulder/chest protector is preferably attached to the garment 12
near the neck opening 30 through the use of a zipper 32. The zipper
32 extends around the neck opening 30 with part of the zipper 32
being sewn directly to the chest protector while the other part of
the zipper 32 being sewn or attached to the garment 12 so that the
shoulder/chest protector is attached to the garment, as best seen
in FIG. 2.
[0018] The shoulder/chest protector includes left and right hard
shell shoulder sections 34 to protect the player's shoulder, and a
cushioned chest protector section 36 and a cushioned back protector
section 38, as best illustrated in FIG. 3. The chest protector
section 36 includes foam pads 37 for protecting the chest (the foam
pads of the back protector section 38 for protecting the back of a
player are not illustrated).
[0019] The chest protector section 36 and the back protector
section 38 are secured to each other by flaps 39 using hook and
loop fasteners. The flaps 39 are secured to either to the back
protector section or the chest protector section by hook or loop
elements at their distal ends. Correspondingly, either section 36
or section 38 carries counterpart fastening elements, that is
either hooks or loops. In addition, the chest protector section 36
is divided into left and right subsections which are joined by a
hook and loop fastener extending along flaps 40 running along the
length of the two subsections. When the flaps 39 are secured to the
chest protector and the flaps 40 are secured to each other to join
the two subsections of the chest protector section 36, a protective
shield around the player's torso is formed.
[0020] The hard shell shoulder section 34 includes a pocket 35 in
which is disposed a plastic protective shoulder shield 33. The
pockets 35 are each secured shut by hook and loop fastener 41 to
retain the shield. The shield 33 in one example is a molded plastic
insert that conforms to the general configuration of the shoulder
to provide protection therefore.
[0021] The shoulder/chest protector includes a bicep protector 42
that extends from the shoulder section 34 sufficiently to provide
protection to the player's biceps. The bicep protector 42 is
secured to a player's bicep area by flaps 44 that are attached at
one end to the bicep protector 42 and include hook and loop
fasteners at a distal end with either the hook or the loop fastener
being on a distal end of the flap 44 and the mating counterpart
(either hook or loop) being on the bicep protector 42 such that
when the end of the flap is attached to the bicep protector 42, the
bicep protector is secured in place. By securing the flaps 44, the
shoulder section 34 is also secured to the player.
[0022] The breezers 28 are detachably attached to the garment 12
through use of hook and loop fasteners with the breezers 28 shown
in broken lines in FIG. 2. A strip 51 of either hooks or loops is
secured to the garment 12 at the waist section 24 while the mating
counterpart (either hooks or loops) are secured to the breezers 28.
Through the use of the hook and loop fasteners, the breezers are
securely attached to the garment 12 and are part of the one piece
hockey suit 10.
[0023] The hockey suit 10 also includes elbow protectors 46 and 48
disposed in the elbow area of the sleeves 16 and 18, respectively.
The elbow protectors 46 and 48 include pockets 50 and 52 formed in
the sleeves. A hard shell elbow shield 54 and 56 is located in
pockets 50 and 52 respectively. The pockets 50 and 52 are closed
through the use of hook and loop fasteners to retain the shield
within the pocket. The shields 54 and 56 may be removed from the
pockets 50 and 52 for replacement or cleaning of the suit 10.
[0024] The elbow protectors 46 and 48 are additionally secured
around the player's arm's by corresponding left and right straps 58
and 60 that extend through respective apertures 61 in the sleeve as
best illustrated in FIG. 4 where only one elbow protector 48 is
shown.
[0025] The sleeves 16 and 18 include thumb holes 62 and 64 through
which the player's thumb is inserted to retain the sleeve the full
length of the player's arm and over the wrist area.
[0026] Hockey gloves 66 and 68 are attached to the sleeves 16 and
18 by glove attachment straps 70 and 72. Glove attachment straps 70
and 72 are attached to the sleeves 16 and 18 at a proximal end and
include either hook or loop fastener elements at a distal end,
while the gloves 66 and 68 include the mating counterpart, that is
either loops or hooks. The straps 70 and 72 are preferably elastic
and are approximately four inches long. Alternatively the gloves 66
and 68 are secured to the garment 12 by extending the straps
through an opening in the hockey glove and attaching the end of the
strap back on to the sleeve.
[0027] Leggings 20 and 22 include knee and shin protectors 74 and
76. As best illustrated in FIG. 5, the shin protectors 74 and 76,
only one of which is shown in FIG. 5, include shin protector
pockets 78 and 80 which are positioned along the front of the legs
20 and 22 to protect the shin and knee area of the player. Rigid
knee and shin shields 82 and 84 are disposed in the pockets 78 and
80. The knee and shin shields are preferably made of plastic and
are removable from the pockets and the pocket is held shut by hook
and loop fastener 93. The knee and shin protectors are secured
against the knee and shin by upper and lower straps 86 and 88 that
are preferably attached to the shield. The straps 86 and 88 are
threaded through apertures 87 and 89 which are located in the
pockets 80. The straps 86 and 88 are then wrapped around the
player's calf region to hold the knee and shin protector in
place.
[0028] The suit 10 further includes a pair of front and back girdle
straps 94 and 96 of which only the front straps are shown. The
straps 94 and 96 have hook elements which engage the yarn of hockey
socks 98 and 100 thereby holding the hockey socks in place.
[0029] The suit 10 also includes an athletic cup pocket 102 for
retaining an athletic cup 104.
[0030] To clean the garment 12, the breezers, the shoulder/chest
protector, gloves, hockey socks are detached and the shoulder
shields, elbow shields, shin and knee shields and athletic cup are
removed from their respective pockets.
[0031] Although the present invention has been described with
reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will
recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without
departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
* * * * *