Patent Application
20120102618
This application claims the benefit of Applicants' prior provisional application, application number 612,561,391, filed on Oct. 30, 2009.
The invention relates to upper body garments that allow for physical activity and increased movement while retaining a professional appearance.
Traditional dress shirts tend to restrict upper body movement. For example, bending forward (anteriorly) at the waist more than a few degrees tends to displace the entire shirt in relation to the wearer's body. This displacement tends to pull the rear shirttails 101 out of the pants. Reaching forward (rotating the arms at the shoulders as shown in
Traditional dress shirts restrict this type of abdominal and brachial movement because they are made from relatively inelastic textiles. While these textiles maintain a crisp, professional appearance, they allow only small elastic deformations before failure occurs. The greatest restrictions tend to occur at the seams connecting the front and back panels of the shirt 5 (the “side seams”). In traditional dress shirt construction, the side seam runs from the center of the armpit 6, downwardly to the bottom of the shirt 107. Stitching (such as the stitching of the side seam) significantly restricts textile deformation axially along the direction of the seam. The unstitched fabric surrounding the seam permits more elastic deformation. As a result, a stitched seam concentrates and transmits tensile stress while shearing the neighboring fabric.
The stitching of the side seam resists forward and upward movement of the arms when rotated at the shoulders. This seam translates tensile stress, under the armpit, in three directions. First, stresses extend laterally across the yolk 102 and back panel 108 towards the opposite shoulder; second, stresses run down the back panel towards the rear shirttails 101; and third, stresses extend axially down the sleeve 109 towards the cuff 103. The resulting stresses tend to pull the cuff 103 away from the wrist and the shirttails 101 out of the pants. In addition, the resulting stresses cause wrinkling (semi-permanent three-dimensional fabric deformations). Wrinkling creates an unprofessional appearance and tends to reduce the lifespan of a garment.
The prior art teaches a variety of athletic shirts that allow for a full range of lumbar and brachial movement. However, such athletic shirts are inappropriate in formal business settings. Athletic shirts are often made from elastomers (fabrics with a low Young's modulus and high elastic limit). These elastic properties allow unconstrained upper body movement and greater fabric deformations before fabric or seam failure occurs. Other prior art shirt designs use traditional textiles, but add extra large shoulders to afford an increased range of motion. Either type of prior art design fails to maintain the finely tailored appearance required for formal and business attire.
Several attempts have been made to reconcile the requirements of formal appearance and athletic mobility. Many of these efforts involve adding additional material, such as darts or plackets, to the shirt's back panel or sleeves. However, this additional material adds cost and complexity to the production process. Furthermore, such additional material adds weight and bulk to a shirt. This tends to reduce comfort and may deviate from the requirements of formal or business attire.
A prior art shirt design may be custom tailored to the wearer. Custom tailoring may improve appearance and help reduce the functional problems associated with dress shirts, but it adds significant production costs.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a shirt that may be worn in a formal or business setting, while also allowing the wearer to engage in physical activity such as bending and reaching forward without tearing the shirt or pulling the shirttails out of the pants.
An object of the present invention is to provide an upper body garment that allows for a wide range of upper body movement, while maintaining a formal appearance. It is a further goal of the invention to maximize comfort and prolong shirt lifespan. It is a further goal of the invention to provide an economical means for creating such a garment.
These objects are accomplished through the use of a “pivot panel” 201. A pivot panel is a length of material that runs from the armpit 202, caudally (away from the head), to the side shirttails 203 (the bottom edge of the shirt near the wearer's hip). The upper edge of the pivot panel 201 is attached to the sleeve at the armpit 202, the anterior edge 204 of the pivot panel is attached to the front panel of the shirt 205, and the posterior edge 206 is attached to the rear panel of the shirt 207.
The pivot panel affords at least three advantages over traditional dress shirt construction. The pivot panel allows for a greater range of lumbar and brachial movement, avoids displacing the shirt in relation to the wearer's body during these movements, and simultaneously minimizes the formation of wrinkles during such movement. These advantages are achieved by distributing tensile stresses evenly throughout the pivot panel material rather than concentrating stresses at the seams.
A formal shirt appearance is maintained through the use of traditional shirt textiles. Traditional shirt textiles, such as textiles spun substantially from cotton fibers, are capable of maintaining the crisp appearance required for shirts in professional and formal settings. In general, traditional textiles are relatively inelastic. That is, traditional textiles have a high Young's modulus and low yield strain as compared to elastomer based textiles such as Spandex.
Although the device has been described in terms of a shirt, its use is not limited to shirts. The invention encompasses other types of garments including, without limitation, coats, suit jackets and blouses. Other uses, objects, advantages, and features of the invention will be evident from the following detailed description, from the claims, and from the drawings.
In an exemplary embodiment, the pivot panel is a “pivot sleeve” 208. A pivot sleeve is a single piece of material that forms both the pivot panel and shirt sleeve.
A pivot sleeve provides the additional benefits of improving comfort and increasing overall shirt strength. When the wearer reaches forward, tensile stress is distributed evenly along the pivot sleeve, rather than translated laterally across the shoulders or down the back. In addition to allowing greater mobility, the pivot sleeve avoids stress concentrations at seams. Stress concentrations at the seams can jeopardize performance and ultimately result in premature seam failure. Avoiding such stress concentrations at the seams tends to prolong the life of the shirt.
In traditional dress shirt design, the side seam connects to the armscye seam under the armpit 106. Since the shirt materially is generally folded-over at each seam, this three-way junction adds significant bulk under the armpit. This additional bulk is likely to cause discomfort. This seam junction is also subject to constant shear stress caused by friction between the wearer's arm and torso. Such shear stress tends to reduce the shirt's lifespan. Pivot sleeve construction avoids a seam junction under the armpit, creating a more comfortable fit and prolonging the useful life of the shirt.
In an exemplary embodiment, the pivot panel's bias runs roughly parallel the direction of stress caused by reaching forward, thereby increasing the pivot panel's elasticity in the critical direction.
In an exemplary embodiment, the sleeve is a one-piece sleeve. One-piece sleeve construction minimizes the number of sleeve seams. Minimizing seams tends to reduce stress concentrations and avoids translating the direction of tensile stresses across the back. This tends to minimize wrinkle formation and helps maintain a formal business appearance.
In an exemplary embodiment, the anterior and posterior edges of the pivot panel are not parallel. The seam between the anterior edge of the pivot panel 204 and the front shirt panel 301 runs essentially parallel to the wearer's spine, maintaining a formal business appearance when viewed from the front. In the exemplary embodiment, the rear edge 404 of the pivot panel curves toward the wearer's spine, resulting in a bottom pivot panel edge that is wider than the diameter of the pivot panel at the armscye.
In the exemplary embodiment, a single piece of material 504 is cut to form both a sleeve-section and a pivot panel 509. The pivot panel extends away from the sleeve at an angle θ. After it is cut, one edge 507 of the material is stitched to the opposite edge 508 to form a sleeve-section. The sleeve-section is essentially a cylinder adapted to accept a human arm.
In an exemplary embodiment, the pieces of the shirt are cut from a textile spun substantially from cotton fibers. However, the shirt may be cut from any traditional shirt textile, including synthetic textiles. Use of a traditional textile ensures the shirt's acceptance in professional and formal settings.
