Patent Grant
11700897
This application relates to the field of sports apparel, and more specifically, to a pocket for a garment such as a skirt or a pair of shorts or pants.
Consumers are demanding high performance activewear and sportswear. Typically, sportswear should be snug but needs to provide room for holding personal items such as smart phones, keys, snacks, etc. At the same time, such garments should remain flexible to keep wearers comfortable during stretching, exercising, and other athletic performance.
One problem with existing garments is that they often have pockets that do not adequately secure valuable personal items, such that when the wearer is engaged in stretching, exercising or other athletic activity the items often bounce, shift, or move within the pocket making the wearer uncomfortable.
In one aspect, a pocket for a garment is provided. The pocket for the garment comprises a pocket bag with a pocket opening. A gripping surface is formed on an inner face of the pocket, so that when an item is inserted into the internal pocket, it adheres to the griping surface preventing or reducing bouncing action of the item within the pocket.
In another aspect, the pocket comprises a pocket flap attached to either an outer panel or an inner panel along an edge of the pocket opening and at least a portion of the edges on either side of the pocket opening to form an internal pocket. Side edges of the internal pocket are shorter than the side edges of the pocket bag. A bottom edge of the pocket flap is free-hanging forming an entrance opening to the internal pocket. The gripping surface is formed on the inner face of the internal pocket.
In addition to the aspects and embodiments described above, further aspects and embodiments will become apparent by reference to the drawings and study of the following detailed description.
Throughout the drawings, reference numbers may be re-used to indicate correspondence between referenced elements. The drawings are provided to illustrate example embodiments described herein and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Sizes and relative positions of elements in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the shapes of various elements and angles may be not drawn to scale, and some of these elements may be arbitrarily enlarged and positioned to improve drawing legibility.
In the following description, details are set forth to provide an understanding of the application. In some instances, certain structures, techniques, and methods have not been described or shown in detail in order not to obscure the application
The pocket 10 comprises an outer panel 14 and an inner panel 16 that are attached along respective right and left (or first and second) side edges 14a, 14d, 16a, 16d and bottom edges 14b, 16b. Respective top edges 14c, 16c of the outer and inner panels 14, 16 are not attached thus forming a pocket opening 18 of a pocket bag 19 formed therein between the panels 14, 16. Persons skilled in the art would understand that the side edges 14a, 14d, 16a, 16d are edges that are sidewise or to the sides of the pocket opening 18 and the bottom edges 14b, 16b are opposite the pocket opening 18. The outer panel 14 can be a part of the outer panel 1100 of the garment 100, such as for example the outer panel 1100 of the waistband 12. In the example illustrated in
The pocket 10 further comprises an internal pocket flap 20 that can be attached to either the outer pocket panel 14 or the inner pocket panel 16 along the edge 18c of the pocket opening 18. A top edge 21 and side edges 23a, 23c of the flap 20 are connected to respective edges 14a, 14c, 16a, 16c of either the outer pocket panel 14 or the inner pocket panel 16 forming an internal pocket 24. Depending on whether the flap 20 is attached to the outer panel 14 or the inner panel 16, the internal pocket 24 can face the outer panel 1100 of the garment 100 or the inner panel 1200 of the garment 100. A bottom edge 22 of the flap 20 is free hanging forming an entrance opening 25 to the internal pocket 24. The internal pocket 24 is sized and shaped so that personal items, such as for example a smartphone, can be secured therein. The length of the internal flap 20 (i.e., how far it extends into the pocket bag 19) is less than the depth of the pocket bag 19, meaning that the length of the side edges 23a, 23c of the internal pocket 24 is less than the length of the side edges 14a, 16a of the pocket bag 19. For example, the length of the internal flap 20 can be ⅔ of the depth of the pocket bag 19. The internal flap 20 can be made from any suitable elastic material. In one embodiment, the internal flap 20 can be made of a meshed material.
A gripping surface 30 is formed on an inner face 26 of the internal pocket 24. For example, the gripping surface 30 can be formed on an inner face 26 of the flap 20 or on an inner face 14f, 16f of the outer and inner panels 14, 16, so that when an item is inserted into the internal pocket 24, it is adheres or sticks to (i.e., removable adheres or sticks to) the griping surface 30 preventing or reducing bouncing action of the item within the internal pocket 24. In one embodiment, the gripping surface 30 can be a silicone elastic goop or material that can be formed on or positioned proximate the bottom edge 22 of the flap 20. For example, the silicone elastic goop 30 can be attached to the internal pocket flap 20 by coverstitching. In one embodiment, the gripping surface 30 can comprise at least one silicone strip formed on the inner face 26 of the internal pocket 24. In another embodiment, the gripping surface 30 can comprise a number of silicone dots or portions formed of the inner face 26 of the internal pocket 24 (e.g., on the inner face 26 of the flap 20 or on inner face 14f, 16f of the outer and/or inner panels 14, 16).
Optionally the garment 100 can include a drawstring or drawcord 40 for tightening the waistband 12 of the garment 100 against the waist of a wearer. The drawcord 40 may be positioned or encased in fabric on the inside of the garment 100 below the top edge 16c of the inner panel 16 as shown in
In one embodiment as shown in
In another embodiment as shown in
While particular elements, embodiments and applications of the present disclosure have been shown and described, it will be understood, that the scope of the disclosure is not limited thereto, since modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, particularly in light of the foregoing teachings. Thus, for example, in any method or process disclosed herein, the acts or operations making up the method/process may be performed in any suitable sequence and are not necessarily limited to any particular disclosed sequence. Elements and components can be configured or arranged differently, combined, and/or eliminated in various embodiments. The various features and processes described above may be used independently of one another, or may be combined in various ways. All possible combinations and subcombinations are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure. Reference throughout this disclosure to “some embodiments,” “an embodiment,” or the like, means that a particular feature, structure, step, process, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in some embodiments,” “in an embodiment,” or the like, throughout this disclosure are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment and may refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, additions, substitutions, equivalents, rearrangements, and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosure.
Various aspects and advantages of the embodiments have been described where appropriate. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such aspects or advantages may be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment. Thus, for example, it should be recognized that the various embodiments may be carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other aspects or advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.
Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” “may,” “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without operator input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment. No single feature or group of features is required for or indispensable to any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and the like are synonymous and are used inclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additional elements, features, acts, operations, and so forth. Also, the term “or” is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so that when used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or” means one, some, or all of the elements in the list.
The example calculations, simulations, results, graphs, values, and parameters of the embodiments described herein are intended to illustrate and not to limit the disclosed embodiments. Other embodiments can be configured and/or operated differently than the illustrative examples described herein.
This application claims priority from and the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/844,052, filed May 6, 2019, and the entire content of such application is incorporated herein by reference.
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