This application is a U.S. National Stage application, filed pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 371, of international application no. PCT/EP2018/065942, filed on Jun. 15, 2018, the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The invention relates to sports garment for team sports, especially for soccer, football, rugby, handball or basketball, comprising an upper part which covers at least a part of the torso of the wearer and pants which covers at least a part of the abdomen of the wearer, wherein the upper part and the pants are forming a one-piece part.
A sports garment of the kind mentioned above is known from WO 2005/039337 A1. This one-piece garment allows a better fit during use and makes it more difficult for other players of the team sports to grab and hold the garment. It was found that the convenience during wearing of the garment should still be improved.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to propose a garment of the kind mentioned above which allows a better fit of the sports garment at the body of the wearer and also to ensure a high degree of convenience during wearing.
The solution of this object according to the invention is characterized in that the upper part and the pants are made as a unitary knitted design, wherein the garment is made as a seamless textile article without seams around the whole circumference of the garment along at least 40% of the total vertical extension of the garment, wherein the seamless section of the garment extends at least along a part of the vertical extension of the upper part and at least along a part of the vertical extension of the pants.
Preferably the garment is made as a seamless textile article around the whole circumference of the same along at least 50% of the total vertical extension.
Vertical extension means the extension of the garment when it is worn by a player which stands upright on the ground. Accordingly, at least 40%, preferably 50%, of the vertical extension of the garment is free of any seams so that the convenience during wearing is improved and also the fit of the garment is optimized.
Thus, the mentioned seamless design along at least 40%, preferably 50%, of said extension means that the garment has in this region basically a seamless tubular shape without any disturbances which encompasses the body of the wearer.
The garment preferably is made by means of a circular knit process or a warp knit process. Those knitting processes are known as such in the art so that it is not necessary to explain the same here in detail.
Two arm sleeves can be connected with the base part of the upper part, wherein the arm sleeves are fixed to the base part of the upper part by means of two sleeve seams.
Furthermore, an inner leg seam can be provided at the inner side of the pant legs of the pants, wherein the remainder of the pants are free from any seam.
The mentioned leg seam runs thus in a centre plane of the garment between the two adjacent pant legs.
One or two zippers can be arranged in the top region of the upper part and/or in the side region of the upper part to facilitate pulling on and taking off of the garment.
A preferred embodiment proposes that the garment comprises at least one first region in which the knitted material has a defined first stretch resistance and that the garment comprises at least one second region in which the knitted material has a defined second stretch resistance, which is different from the first stretch resistance. That is, the stretch resistance is not homogeneous along the whole surface of the garment but different in specific sections.
The second stretch resistance is preferably below 85% of the first stretch resistance, specifically preferred below 70% of the first stretch resistance. The stretch resistance is here defined by the quotient of a tension force (in N) and the obtained elongation (in mm), i. e. in N/mm, measured by using a test strip with defined geometry (length and width) cut out of the knitted material in the first and second region. A test force is applied on this test strip and the elongation is measured to determine the stretch resistance accordingly.
For creating different stretch resistances different methods can be applied. One possibility is that the first and second regions of the garment differ in the number of knitted loops per centimeter of extension. Thus, the region with the higher stretch resistance can be provided with more knitted loops as the region with the lower stretch resistance. Another possibility is that the knitted fabric is made of at least two different yarns, wherein the stretchability of the at least two yarns is different, wherein the ratio of used yarns differs in the first and second regions of the garment. So, to get a higher stretch resistance a yarn can be employed which has a lower stretchability; to get a lower stretch resistance a yarn can be used which has a higher stretchability. By using the right ratio between the two yarns the total stretch resistance of a region of the garment can be adjusted to a desired value.
The first region is preferably a section of the garment which covers the diaphragm of the wearer, wherein the second region is a section of the garment covering the chest of the wearer and/or a section of the garment covering the belly button of the wearer. In this case it is preferred that the second region has a semi-lunar shape seen perpendicular to the surface of the garment.
Furthermore, the first region can be a section of the garment covering the diaphragm of the wearer, wherein the second region is a section of the garment covering the upper back of the wearer and/or the back side of the transition zone between the upper part and the pants. In this case it is preferred that the second region has an O-shape or H-shape seen perpendicular to the surface of the garment.
A further embodiment of the invention provides that additional pants are arranged at the sport garment. Those pants can be sewn on the knitted garment. The arrangement of the additional pants is made in such a manner that the knitted structure of the sports garment is not influenced. The additional pants can be designed as a front and a back panel which are fixed at the sports garment in the lateral regions of the same. Specifically, the additional pants can be made of woven or knitted material.
Of course the sports garment can also be equipped with a respective fly for easy use. The fly can have a knitted structure.
By using specifically the above mentioned circular or warp knitting methods it becomes quite easy to adjust the stretch resistance according to a predetermined distribution along the surface of the garment in a very economical manner, i. e. by a respective programming of the knitting machine.
The seamless circular knitting process is as specifically preferred method to obtain a body fit on the torso area (upper part of the garment) and a slim fit in the bottom area (pant of the garment).
The seamless circular knitting process can also be employed to obtain a slim fit for the whole garment (upper part and pant of the garment).
Seamless warp knitting is specifically used for a body fit for the whole garment (upper part and pant of the garment).
The proposed sports garment thus uses seamless circular knitting or seamless warp knitting, which combines the jersey (upper part of the garment) and the short (pant) of a team sport uniform.
Preferably it features differentiated stretch areas placed according to specific body mapped criteria with the aim to provide with an optimized freedom of movement. In areas where more movement is expected, the fabric will feature higher stretch, therefore restricting less the movement of the player. In areas where less movement is expected, the fabric will feature lower stretch, therefore providing higher support to certain muscles.
In the drawings an embodiment of the invention is shown.
In
As can be seen from
The upper part 2 and the pants 3 are made as a unitary knitted design, i. e. the shown fabric (excluded the arm sleeves 4, 5) is produced on a knitting machine as a unitary part substantially without seams. More specifically, the garment 1 is made as a seamless textile article without seams around the whole circumference of the garment 1 along at least 40% of the total vertical extension H of the garment. The seamless extension is denoted with h (below the sleeve seams 6, 7; above the inner leg seam 8). The seamless section of the garment 1 extends along a part of the vertical extension of the upper part 2 as well as along a part of the vertical extension of the pants 3 as can be seen from
The only seams of the garment 1 are sleeve seams 6 and 7 by which the arm sleeves 4 and 5 are connected to the base part of the garment 1; furthermore, an inner leg seam 8 is arranged to form the two pant legs 9 and 10 from the knitted fabric.
Zippers 11 and 12 in the upper region of the upper part 2 allow an easy pulling on and taking off of the garment 1.
The lines in
In
Thereby, the ability to stretch of certain regions of the garment 1 is significantly different compared with other regions. Accordingly, the present concept allows to knit certain sections of the garment 1 in different manner to influence the stretch resistance of the knitted fabric.
First regions F and second regions S are denoted in
In
A second region S of the garment 1 with a reduced stretch resistance covers the chest (see upper denotation S in
With regards to the reverse side of the garment basically the same applies: Here, the reference is again the first region F (see
Using the preferred circular or warp knitting process it is quite easy to machine different regions of the fabric with different stretch resistances. Different possibilities for doing so are described above.
Accordingly, the garment 1 can easily be adapted to match with specific requirements of the wearer with respect to the stretch behaviour of the garment during intended use.
Also additional pants 13 can be arranged at the sports garment 1. In
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2018/065942 | 6/15/2018 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2019/238240 | 12/19/2019 | WO | A |
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