Hockey Uniform Garment

Abstract

An athletic uniform garment integrating socks with underpants and eliminating separate socks held up by garter belts. Knee and shin guard pockets in the integrated garment.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This invention is a uniform garment particularly for ice hockey players, but adaptable to other athletic uniforms. The basic purpose of the uniform garment is to provide an inexpensive composite of certain required parts of a uniform while eliminating some difficult to manage and sometimes distasteful accessories now required in conventional uniforms. Specifically, in a conventional ice hockey uniform, there are separate pants and separate socks or leggings. The socks are held up by a garter belt that is worn around the waist of the hockey player and has depending straps with sock supporters at their lower ends for clamping to the socks.

This kind of uniform arrangement is worn both by adult professional and amateur hockey players and by junior and child hockey players. While the adult hockey players may have resigned themselves to the nuisance of donning a garter belt and patiently clamping its supporters to the hockey socks and while they may be immune to any adverse mental association with garter belts, such is not true of youths and children. Clamping the socks to a garter belt requires enough dexterity that some younger hockey players cannot even do it, and their coaches must spend distracting time doing this part of dressing a hockey team, player by player. Young people who are participating in what is generally considered to be a manly sport, having reached the mental and physical age of desire to participate in it and certainly having passed the age of wanting to succumb to being even partially dressed, are seriously deflated in their egos and prides. These young players are also sensitive to the association of garter belts and stocking supporters with feminine underwear, an association which they think detracts from their manhood. Even the adult hockey players who are able to don this apparatus are annoyed with the nuisance.

This invention solves all of the foregoing difficulties by providing an integral garment that includes underpants, the hockey socks or leggings and that incorporates pockets for receiving knee and shin pads. The socks are made of the usual knit construction with color stripes to identify members of a team as desired. Underpants of any desired form, extending from the waist, have leg portions that are sewed to the socks above the ankles around the entire peripheries of the underpants and socks. The rear halves of the socks adjacent their upper edges are sewed to the underpants. Vertical stitching lines at the inner and outer sides of the socks also join them to the underpants and define the sides of a front pocket between each sock and the adjacent underwear leg for receiving knee and shin guards. The upper fronts of the socks are left unstitched to the underpants to provide access to the pockets. This composite garment is thus easily donned just as a pair of long underwear pants after which the hockey shorts and the rest of the uniform are donned. The knee and shin pads can be inserted either before or after donning the uniform garment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of the hockey uniform garment;

FIG. 2 is a rear elevation view of the hockey uniform garment;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view in section along the line 3--3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view in section along the line 4--4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view in section along the line 5--5 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view in section along the line 6--6 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a knee and shin pad.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This uniform garment 10 has underpants 11 joined to socks or leggings 12 and 13. The underpants 11 are of any desired construction including, for example, an elastic waistband 14, the usual portion 15 covering the lower torso, and leg portions 16 and 17. For this uniform garment, the leg portions 16 and 17 extend to lower edges 18 and 19 that terminate above the ankles of the wearer. The socks 12 and 13 are of onventional knit construction having upper edges 20 and 21 located somewhat above the knees of the wearer and extending downwardly to lower edges 22 and 23 above the shoe level. Elastic loops 24 and 25 into which the wearer's feet are inserted are sewed by single or double stitching 26 to the socks 12 and 13 adjacent their lower edges 22 and 23. The socks 12 and 13 may be provided with color stripes 27 and differently colored areas 28 for team identification, and with elastic sections 29 above the ankles.

Adjacent their lower edges 18 and 19, the leg portions 16 and 17 of the underpants 11 are sewed about the entire peripheries of the socks 12 and 13 as indicated by the stitching 30. The leg portions 16 and 17 are also joined vertically to the sides of the socks 12 and 13 as indicated by lines of stitching 31 and 32. Finally, the leg portions 16 and 17 are joined to the socks 12 and 13 adjacent the upper edges, but around the back only as indicated by the stitching 33 in FIGS. 2 and 6 extending between the vertical lines of stitching 31 and 32. This leaves an unstitched gap 34 between the front halves of the socks 12 and 13 and the respective leg portions 16 and 17, providing access to pockets 35 defined by the leg portions 16 and 17 and the leggings between the lines of stitching 30, 31, and 32. These pockets 35 receive the usual resilient protective knee and shin pads 36.

A h ckey player can don this uniform garment just about like donning a pair of pants. He steps into the waist and pulls the underwear and sock garment up, stepping into the foot loops 24 and 25. He can then insert the pads 36 into the pockets 35 unless he has already done so. He then dons the rest of the uniform after which the outer hockey shorts (not shown) cover the upper edges 20 and 21 of the socks 12 and 13. Since the use of this uniform garment is so easy, young hockey players have no trouble with it and adult hockey players can put it on much more readily. The entire garment is launderable, and its construction is simple and inexpensive.

Various changes and modifications may be made within this invention as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are within the scope and teaching of this invention as defined by the claims appended hereto.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A uniform garment comprising an integral combination of lower torso cover and socks, the lower torso cover comprising fabric for covering a wearer's torso from the waist downward including two leg portions terminating in lower edges located above the ankles of the wearer, the socks terminating in upper edges located adjacent the knees of the wearer and extending downwardly therefrom surrounding the leg portions, and stitch lines connecting the socks to the leg portions and defining pockets between the socks and the leg portions for receiving resilient pads.

2. The uniform garment of claim 1 wherein the socks have team identifying color codes.

3. The uniform garment of claim 1 wherein the pockets are accessible from the outside of the uniform garment.

4. The uniform garment of claim 1 including loops sewn to the lower edges of the socks, the lower edges of the socks being open at the ankles.

5. The uniform garment of claim 1 including stitching lines connecting the socks and the leg portions adjacent the entire peripheries of the lower edges of the leg portions.

6. The uniform garment of claim 1 wherein the stitch lines include vertical stitching at the two sides of each leg portion.