1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to various types of apparel and bags, such as handbags and backpacks, specifically to novelty clothes with attached toys, and to accessory bags with attached toys and ornamental objects.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In fashion people always look for nice designs for clothes and bags.
Also, the attempts have been made to offer unconventional and attractive clothes for kids.
Clothes that offer amusement for children have been provided in the prior art.
Lawler in U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,372 provides a combination of a toy and graphic design, which design depicts a habitat for the toy animal.
Stocker in U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,881 provides a garment with a toy in a pocket.
The inconvenience of this prior art is that for toddlers it may be not easy to place a toy in a pocket. Also toys that use the traditional means of fastener, such as hook and loop patches or snap fasteners, may be not easy to attach for small children.
Some other disadvantages of hook and loop patches are: their removal is noisy and their fastening material tends to attract lint, which results in unattractive appearance.
The hook and loop fasteners have been also used in bags, such as handbags, in purpose of attaching small decorative objects.
Other prior art discloses magnets attached to clothes and bags in various purposes. Grunberger, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,985 and Marchesi, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,688 provide magnetic closures for the clothes and the bags.
Heilman, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,914 situates magnets in pockets of a construction outfit for carrying metallic tools and household items, on an exterior of the outfit for easy access.
The background of the Heilman's invention describes additional U.S. patents for magnetic coupling devices. Two of them are: U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,245 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,899.
Tate, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,163,889 provides a golf accessory attached to a fabric of article of clothing with magnet preferably formed of permanently magnetized iron.
None of this prior art provides articles of apparel for kids combined with magnetic toys.
The present invention provides a method of decorating an article of apparel with magnetic toys, with the aid of a strong neodymium magnet. The traditional means of fastener do not offer so much fun with attaching toys to the clothes, as neodymium magnets. Kids are fascinated with strong magnetic forces, and magnetism works like “magic” for them. Especially neodymium magnets gives an unexpected effect, because their strong magnetism causes the magnetic toy to almost “fly” to the article of apparel to which the magnet is attached. Another advantage of the neodymium magnets is that they hold the toys in one place very well so that it doesn't fall down when kids jump.
Other magnets, like permanent magnets formed of iron or well known magnetic tapes, often attached to fridges, are not sufficiently powerful to hold three-dimensional toy very well.
For small kids it is much easier to attach magnetic toys than toys that use well known hook and loop patches or snap fasteners, for example. Toddlers like to carry toys with them a lot. It's easy for them to attach small magnetic toys to their clothing with neodymium magnets, and easy to remove the toys be themselves, whenever they want.
It is object of this invention to provide articles of apparel that offer interactive fun for kids. The fun and unexpected effects of strong magnetic forces of neodymium magnets have an educational aspect. Kids can have fun with attaching the magnetic toys to their shirts, for example, and learn how the magnets work at the same time. Older kids and teenagers can use magnetic toys as decorations for their clothes.
Further object of the invention is to provide the combination of neodymium magnets and articles of apparel, such as shirts, jackets, pants, dresses and hats for kids and teenagers, and magnetic three-dimensional toys made of material like plush, plastic, metal or resilient material. Different kinds of clothing and toys can be made as to suit different age groups of children or teenagers. For small kids soft, plush magnetic toys and colorful clothes can be provided. For older kids toys, such as action figures, heroes or video games figures, can be provided. Magnets are preferably attached to the clothing under a patches, which patches are sewn, or attached with other means of permanent adjoinment, to the clothing. Also, patches cover the magnets with their material for the best appearance and for the safety of the small kids, who could accidently choke on the magnets that are easily separated from the clothing.
Another object of this invention is to provide new use for toys that contain magnets. So far magnetic toys have been mostly hanged on the fridge or other appliances and metallic constructions. Now kids will be able to take their magnetic toys along with them everywhere they go by attaching the toys to the articles of apparel with the aid of the neodymium magnets.
Another object of the present invention is to provide accessory bags, such as handbags and backpacks, decorated with the aid of strong magnets or a material attracted by magnetism. Decorative three-dimensional objects or toys, comprising magnets or other material attracted by magnetism, could be attached to such bags. Especially school kids and teenagers like to attach a variety of toys and other things to their backpacks. For handbags, for example, different kinds of three-dimensional ornaments can be attached, for teenagers or even adults.
The magnets could be affixed to the bags with the aid of attaching devices, such as: an adhesive, strings, pins, rivets, threaded connectors and patches. The magnets in the toys or bags could be substituted with other material attractable to a magnet, but there should be at least one rare earth magnet, preferably neodymium magnet, in the combination of bags, magnets and magnetic toys. It's because magnetic forces of the neodymium magnet hold a magnetic toy or an ornamental object well enough, so it doesn't fall down easily.
The invention will be more fully explained by the accompanying drawings and the following explanation.
While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there are shown in the drawings and described in detail, certain preferred embodiments with the understanding that the present disclosure should be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention to the embodiments so illustrated.
The magnet (3) placed inside the toy (2), can be substituted with other material attractable to a magnet, like steel or other ferrous material.
The patch (4A) can be placed on the inside or on the outside of the shirt in a chosen strategic place. Also, there can be more magnets (5) and magnetic toys attached to an article of apparel.
The magnet (10) can be placed on the inside or on the outside of the backpack (7A) in a chosen strategic place. Also, there can be more magnets (10) and magnetic toys or ornaments attached to a bag.
This application claims the priority of provisional application No. 61/016,729 Filling date: Dec. 26, 2007, applicant: Agnieszka Zofia Adamus