Patent Application
20110277205
1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to gloves used in sports and, more specifically, to protective boxing gloves.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hand injuries are the most common injuries in sports-related activities. Sports-related metacarpal fractures most commonly occur during participation in contact sports in which the hands are unprotected. In fact, a “boxer's fracture” is well known and defined as a break of the bones of the hand that forms the knuckles. The metacarpal bones in a hand are the bones that connect the bones in the fingers to the bones in the wrist. There are five metacarpal bones—one to links each finger to the wrist. All metacarpal bones have substantially the same anatomic structure. Each consists of a base, a shaft, a neck and a head. The base of the metacarpal bone is the portion that attaches to the bones of the wrist. The heads of the metacarpal bones form the knuckles of an closed fist. The so-called “boxer's fracture” involves a break in the neck of the metacarpal bones. Boxer's fractures frequently occur in the metacarpal bones that connect the ring finger or the little finger to the wrist. These are known as the fourth and fifth metacarpal bones. However, notwithstanding the relatively common occurrence of such fractures, a review of the prior art indicates that there is little that has been done structurally with gloves to prevent or minimize the occurrence of such fractures for use in the fields of boxing and martial arts.
Most gloves are designed to be sport specific and to protect certain parts of the hand. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,623 to Hatch et al. is a glove structure specifically for rappelling in which the primary concern is the protection of the palm of the hand. Caswell U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,402 is designed primarily for lifting weights and is provided with a flexible fabric panel. There is no discussion of the nature or the effect of the panel. Additionally, there is provided a strap which, however, is positioned above the wrist and it appears that the strap itself is flexible or elastic and applies forces on the hand primarily to retain the glove on the hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,860 to Sullivan is for a cycling glove and it is not concerned with application of any forces on any part of the hand but mostly to provide padding in the palm area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,614 to Charles Melone entitled “Universal Sports Glove” discusses common types of injures for numerous sports and, presumably, the manner in which the disclosed glove helps to minimize such injuries. This patent reveals very little on how the glove can prevent or minimize injuries to the hand while boxing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,979 to Redwood et al. is for a glove with an elastic back. However, this elastic material is provided for facilitating bending of the fingers and apparently has nothing to do with protection of the hand.
A martial arts training glove is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,008 to McBride et al. However, the glove is more concerned with providing one or more sealed compartment that are filled with loose grain, such as steel shot, that presumably conforms to the contour of the hand, including the knuckles. Preferably the compartments are located on sides to provide a balanced weight distribution of the grains with respect to the glove body which allows hand movements without impairment. However, the provision of such multiple pockets filled with lead shot or other grain materials renders the glove bulky, heavy and uncomfortable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,651 to Gramza et al. discloses a wrist support glove with an elastic back material. However, the glove is primarily concerned with providing a length of stretchable material attached to the rear edge of the glove that wraps around the area of the wrist or just beyond the wrist.
In Overton's U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,963 two straps are provided to draw the gloves snuggly around subject's wrist. While the object of the two straps is to result in a snug and secure fit about the subject's hand, that will, of course, depend on how forcefully the straps are pulled together before being closed and this can differ from time to time or user to user.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,379 to Glick discloses a glove that is designed to assist in retention of a shaft being gripped. The glove also includes two straps that are intended to apply lateral tension. However, as with the Overton patent, the effectiveness of the straps is a function of how they are manually tensioned and can, likewise, vary from time to time and from user to user.
In view of the foregoing known prior art fails to disclose an elastic pre-tensioned strap that is permanently secured across the top of the hand between the knuckles and the wrist to draw the two sides of the glove portion covering the metacarpals towards each other to reliably and consistently ensure a tight fit, creating laterally-inwardly directed forces imparted to the metacarpals whenever the glove is worn by a user.
None of the patents specifically discuss the benefit of having the region of the hand between the knuckles and the wrist tightly pulled towards the center to distribute any loads or blows to one of the knuckles to the other bones in the hand to minimize the risk of fracture when a significant load or impact force is directed to fewer than all of the knuckles.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a protective boxing glove that does not have the disadvantages of the prior art or known protective gloves.
It is another object of the invention to provide a protective boxing glove that is simple in construction and economical to manufacture.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a protective boxing glove as in the previous objects that is effective in reducing the occurrences of “boxer's fracture,” involving the breaking of bones of a hand that form the knuckles.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide protective boxing glove of the type under discussion that protects the metacarpal bones in the hand by providing a resilient cushioning layer of material above the knuckles and metacarpal bones to reduce the levels of impact forces on the metacarpals and, additionally, distributing any such forces that are applied through the knuckles to one or more metacarpal bones in a hand to reduce the concentration of forces or stresses on any one given metacarpal bone.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide to provide a protective boxing glove as in the previous objects which does not rely on the reliability and consistency of the user in manually tightening any straps, bands or the like but automatically applies laterally-inwardly directed forces to adjust the tension of the glove when placed on the hand.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a protective boxing glove as in the previous objects in which a self adjusting elastic tensioning strap is oriented along a direction transverse to the axis of the glove and any restoring forces automatically created by stretching of the elastic strap when a hand is inserted into the glove are laterally inwardly directed so that any and all forces created that draw the metacarpal bones together are thereby optimized.
In order to achieve the above another object of the invention, a protective boxing glove in accordance with the invention comprises a palm-side portion and a back-side portion together forming a hand receiving opening. The hand receiving opening has a series of fingers stalls for receiving and at least partially covering the fingers. Said palm and back side portions extend to a point at least beyond the wrist and over the forearm to cover the wrist when the glove is worn by a user. The back side portion generally defines a predetermined lateral width in the region covering the metacarpals when the glove is worn by a user. Resilient cushioning means is provided on the back side for covering the knuckles and at least portions of the proximal phalanges. A wrist strap is provided for manually tensioning the glove above the wrist portion. A self-adjusting tensioning strap is permanently fixed to and extends laterally from side to side of said back portion substantially along the direction generally normal or transverse to the orientation of the metacarpals. The strap has an elastic portion that has a length less than said predetermined width to at least gather said back side portion and reduce its lateral width when the hand is not received within the glove. However, such strap stretches when the hand is received within the glove, resulting in restoring forces that are directed laterally and inwardly tending to compress the width of the hand in the region of the metacarpals and bring the metacarpals into closer juxtaposition relative to each other. Under this condition forces applied to less than all of the knuckles or metacarpals are better distributed to the other metacarpals to reduce the likelihood of damage to the metacarpal to which the force was initially applied.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate the improvements and advantages that derive from the present invention upon reading the following detailed description, claims, and drawings, in which:
Referring now specifically to the Figures, in which identical or similar parts are be designated by the same reference numerals throughout, and first referring to
Referring especially to
The palm and back side portions 12, 14 extend to a point at least beyond the wrist and over the forearm to cover the wrist when the glove is worn by a user, as best shown in
A feature of the present invention is the provision of a resilient cushioning member 20 provided on the back side portion 14 of the glove at least covering the knuckles and at least portions of the proximal phalanges. The resilient cushioning member is formed of a sealed pocket secured to the back side portion 14 and a generally soft resilient material 20′ is used to fill such pocket, as best shown in
As best shown in
An important feature of the present invention is the provision of a self adjusting permanently fixed tensioning strap member that extends from side to side of the glove along a transverse direction T (
The wrist strap, for manually tensioning the glove above the wrist portion, is conventional and may consist of an elongated strap that wraps around the wrist and provided with securing means 32, such as being covered with complementary hook and loop fasteners 32a, 32b, respectively.
The human hand has 27 bones, the wrist of which accounts for eight bones. The metacarpal bones contain five bones, while the remaining fourteen are digital bones or phalanges of the fingers and thumb. Although many of the bones in the hand are fairly strong, the impact forces on the phalanges and the knuckles in particular when the hand is clenched to make a fist can be extremely high when the hand hits a hard or stationary surface. These forces, if applied to a single bone or metacarpal, can cause such bone to crack or break. The protective boxing glove 10 of the invention can be effective to substantially reduce “boxer's fractures” or other damage to the bones. Any impact on the knuckles are lessened or reduced by the resilient cushion 20, thereby substantially reducing the level of forces that are directly transmitted or imparted to the hand and the bones. Additionally, by selecting an elastic strap 30 that is sufficiently short and strong, insertion of the hand into the glove causes the elastic strap 30 to create restoring inwardly-directed forces only or primarily along the transverse direction T when the elastic is stretched and placed on the hand. Such restoring forces are directed inwardly and tend to move or bring the metacarpals closer together. By doing so, any forces that are transmitted through the resilient cushion 20 to one or more metacarpals are at least partially transmitted to one or more of the other metacarpals and, thereby, somewhat dissipate or reduce the intensity or level of the initially applied force, minimizing the probability that any given metacarpal bone will break or be damaged.
The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.
