Patent Application
20220225695
The embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to upper body travel garments, e.g., jackets, vests and the like that are especially adapted to provide comfort to passengers during travel, especially long distance aircraft flights.
The extended hours of long distance travels can present several challenges to a passenger in terms of comfort. For example, a passenger is typically seated for prolonged periods during long distance travel and thus must adapt such a seated posture to the typical passenger activities during travel, including sleeping, reading and/or watching videos on a seat-back screen or a personal electronic device. Needless to say, such prolonged seated posture can contribute to passenger discomfort.
Cabin environmental conditions can also contribute to discomfort during prolonged travel. For example, the interior cabin temperature which houses passengers during such long distance travel typically be quite cool to many individual passengers that will in turn require the carrier to provide blankets to the passengers for warmth.
It would therefore be desirable if a travel garment could be provided which will allow passengers to adjust to individual preferences so as to achieve enhanced comfort, especially during long haul travel excursions. It is towards fulfilling such a need that the embodiments disclosed herein are directed.
Broadly, the embodiments disclosed herein are directed toward a travel jacket that integrally includes features to enhance passenger comfort. In certain embodiments, the travel jacket disclosed herein may be provided with an integral neck pillow assembly to accommodate various seated posture variations while other embodiments may additionally or alternatively be provided with integral temperature controls to allow the passenger to select an individual temperature condition that is comfortable.
According to certain embodiments an upper body garment (e.g., jacket, vest or the like) is provided having front and back panels enclosing a torso region of a wearer. The back panel includes a cushion back panel having an upper end attached to the front panel at shoulder regions of the garment and extending from the upper end thereof to a lower end positioned at or below a waist region of the wearer. A pull cord assembly is provided with a pull cord having one end operably connected to the lower end of the cushion back panel and an opposite free end positioned near one of the shoulder regions of the garment. Important to such embodiments, the right and left sides of the cushion back panel are releasably attachable (e.g., via any conventional two-part fabric attachments such as zippers, snaps, buttons/buttonholes, hook and loop fasteners and the like) to corresponding right and left sides of the front panel thereby allowing the cushion back panel to assume attached and unattached configurations relative to the front panel. In such a manner, therefore, a pull force exerted on the free end of the pull cord when the cushion back panel is in the unattached configuration causes the cushion back panel to roll onto itself from the lower end thereof toward the upper end thereof and thereby form a cushion roll at a neck region of the wearer.
The cushion back panel may comprise a series of eyelets between the upper and lower ends thereof for receiving the pull cord therein. A releasable shoulder patch may be provided so as to cover the terminal free end of the pull cord at the shoulder region of the wearer.
The front panel may be provided with several conveniences, such as at least one hand pocket and/or at least one breast pocket. In order to promote wearer comfort, a warming system may be operably associated with, e.g., the hand pocket(s) so as to serve as a hand warmer.
Some embodiments of the garment may include draw string at the waist region of the wearer to allow waist dimension adjustment thereof.
The cushion back panel may include a series of substantially horizontally disposed channel sections. For example, certain embodiments of the cushion back panel include a right and left series of substantially horizontally disposed channel sections, and a central non-channel section disposed between the right and left series of channel sections. In such embodiments, at least one of the right and left series of channel sections may comprise the series of eyelets between the upper and lower ends thereof for receiving the pull cord therein as briefly mentioned above.
These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.
The disclosed embodiments of the present invention will be better and more completely understood by referring to the following detailed description of exemplary non-limiting illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the drawings of which:
Accompanying
The jacket will also include right and left sleeves 16a, 16b extending from the right and left shoulder regions 18a, 18 of the jacket so as to cover the wearer's right and left arms and a collar 20 surrounding the wearer's neck. It should be mentioned however that the sleeves 16a, 16b are not critically required in which case the garment will then be in the form of a travel vest.
The jacket may have a number of externally accessible compartments, such as right and left pouch pockets 22a, 22b provided on the front panels 12a, 12b, respectively, and a zippered breast pocket 24. The breast pocket 24 is typically provided on the left front panel 12b as shown in
The back cushion panel 14 is removably attached to the front panel 12 along each of its lower right and left sides by a zipper 30 extending from the lower seam of the jacket 10 to the underarm region of the sleeves 16a, 16b. It will be appreciated that even though only the right side zipper 30 is depicted in
The back cushion panel 14 may be provided with right and left channel sections 14a, 14b and a central non-channeled section 14c positioned centrally between each of the channel sections 14a, 14b. In the embodiment depicted, the right and left channel sections 14a, 14b are each comprised generally of generally horizontally disposed pillow channels (a representative few of which are identified in the drawings by reference numerals 15a, 15b) formed of a soft and resilient material, e.g., down-filled tubular channels. The central section 14c on the other hand may itself be formed of a soft and resilient fabric material of sufficient thickness to provide comfort when rolled into the head/neck supporting configuration.
As is shown in an exemplary manner by
As is shown in
When it is desired to return the cushion roll to its original unrolled condition, the wearer need only allow the cushion roll to unroll such that the back cushion panel 14 assumes its original substantially flat condition, whereupon the lateral sides thereof may be reattached to the front panels 12a, 12b via zippers 30.
Other comfort features may also be provided in the jacket 10. For example, heating elements 70a, 70b may be embedded in the fabric forming each of the pockets 22a, 22b as schematically depicted in
While reference is made to a particular embodiment of the invention, various modifications within the skill of those in the art may be envisioned. Therefore, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope thereof.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/BR2019/000020 | 6/19/2019 | WO | 00 |
