Patent Application
20210219624
This disclosure relates to sports apparel. More particularly, the present disclosure relates sports apparel with multiple stabilized pockets for storing various personal items while engaging in sporting activities.
Many exercise enthusiasts have to carry one or more items with them while they exercise. These items can include nutrition, such as gels, bars, or chews. These items may also include media players or mobile phones. Users may also wish to carry inhalers, keys, a driver's license, or a personal protection device, such as pepper spray. The current option for carrying any of these items while exercising is limited. Current fitness apparel has no stable way of carrying these items while exercising. Although the use of pocketed exercise apparel is known, existing pockets do not retain items in a tight, secure, and stabilized fashion. The absence of such apparel in the marketplace requires individuals to purchase and carry yet another accessory to hold items in place.
An example of pocketed apparel is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 9,271,533 to Kochling. Kochling discloses a pocketed garment designed to cover the torso of the user. A pocket is positioned on the rear exterior of the shirt. The pocket includes two openings. A first is included for receiving a portable entertainment device and a second opening is included for a headphone wire. Yet another example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Pub. 2012/0186000 to Raviv. Raviv discloses a t-shirt pocket for touch screen mobile devices. The front face of the pocket is formed from a transparent polymeric material that is adapted to communicate the touch of the user's fingers to the screen of the mobile device. Yet another exercise device is disclosed by the U.S. Design Pat. 691,795 to Do. Do discloses a waist belt design that is adapted to be worn around the waist of a user and that includes a pocket for securing a mobile device.
Although each of the above referenced disclosures achieves their own, unique individual objective, all suffer from common drawbacks. None of the disclosed apparel allows items to be secured held to the body of the wearer in a stabilized fashion. The apparel of the present disclosure fulfills these and other unmet needs in the art.
This disclosure relates to exercise apparel with stabilized pockets for securely holding various personal items, such as cellular telephones, keys, personal protection, inhalers, IDs, and nutrition.
The disclosed apparel has several important advantages. For example, the apparel includes two opposing, shoulder mounted pockets that are positioned adjacent to spandex bands that fit about the arms of the wearer.
Another advantage of the apparel is that it allows the weight of the items to be evenly distributed between the arms of the wearer.
Yet another advantage is that the apparel includes associated armbands with elastane cuffs built into the sleeves that securely grip the skin of the wearer to prevent movement of the pockets.
Various embodiments of the invention may have none, some, or all of these advantages. Other technical advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art.
For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following descriptions, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Similar reference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
The present disclosure relates to exercise apparel. In one embodiment, the apparel takes the form of a shirt that includes front and back panels and first and second sleeves. A pocket is formed on the outside surface of each sleeve. Each pocket further includes a zippered or Velcro flap for securing an upper opening of the pocket. Each sleeve includes a spandex band extending about the arm opening and adapted to securely fit over the upper arm of the wearer. Each spandex band is in close proximity to the bottom edge of an associated pocket. The bands function in stabilizing the pocket and preventing excess movement while exercising. The various details of the apparel are described in greater detail hereinafter.
A preferred embodiment of the sports apparel of the present disclosure is illustrated in
With reference to
The pockets are next described. In a preferred but non-limiting embodiment, a first and second pocket (46, 52) are included upon shirt 10. These pockets (46, 52) are preferably directly opposed and opposite to one another, such that the weight of any stored items can be balanced. As illustrated, a first pocket 46 is positioned upon the side extent 44 of the first sleeve 24, and a second pocket 52 is positioned upon the side extent 44 of the second sleeve 26. Each pocket (46, 52) includes three side edges 54 that are sewn to the associated sleeve (24 or 26) and an opened top edge 56. Each pocket (46, 52) further includes an upper flap 58 that can be secured over opened top 56 and a zipper 62 for selectively securing flap 58. Velcro fasteners can be used instead of a zipper. The outer face 64 of each pocket (46, 52) can be formed from a lightweight mesh material, so that the stored items can be visible and touched if needed.
In accordance with the invention, each pocket (46, 52) is anchored via an associated stabilizing sleeve 66. Namely, a pair of stabilizing sleeves 66 are included, with each stabilizing sleeve 66 being secured immediately adjacent to the arm opening (32) of an associated sleeve (24, 26). The stabilizing sleeves 66 preferably have a second diameter 68 that is substantially smaller than the first diameter 36. In a preferred embodiment, the stabilizing sleeve 66 is approximately 20% smaller than the arm opening 32 to which it is attached. As such, the stabilizing sleeves 66 have the effect of substantially narrowing each arm opening 32. This narrowing improves the tight fit of the arm opening about the upper arm of the user. Furthermore, each stabilizing sleeve 66 is formed primarily from spandex to further tightly adhere the sleeve to an upper arm of the wearer. Again, this stabilizes any objects held in the associated pocket (46, 52). Although Spandex is disclosed for the stabilizing sleeve 66, other polyether-polyurea copolymers blends can be utilized, such as Lycra or Elastane.
Although this disclosure has been described in terms of certain embodiments and generally associated methods, alterations and permutations of these embodiments and methods will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the above description of example embodiments does not define or constrain this disclosure. Other changes, substitutions, and alterations are also possible without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure.
This application claims priority to and is a continuation of co-pending Application Ser. No. 62/962,286 filed on Jan. 17, 2020 and entitled “Pock-It Training.” The contents of this co-pending application are incorporated herein for all purposes.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62962286 | Jan 2020 | US |
