Patent Application
20180343934
Ambulatory travelers have adopted various devices to shield precipitation and prevent absorption of water through to clothing. Raincoats, umbrellas, boots, tents and the like seek to impose a repellant barrier between a wearer/user and the flow of downward precipitation to direct the accumulation of water away from personal articles and clothing.
An outerwear garment for inclement weather employs a cover or shield on the back of the garment for protecting and shedding rain and snow from the wearer's backpack. Just as a hood protect the wearer's head from precipitation, the disclosed cover provides a flexible planar surface attached at the base of the collar for draping over and shielding a backpack suspended from the wearer's shoulders. The flexible planar surface is a waterproof or water resistant textile, polymer or rubber material attached between the shoulders just below a conventional rain hood. A zippered pouch contains the folded cover in a pocket inside the garment (jacket or raincoat) when not in use. Resilient tethers help secure the cover around the waistline to prevent cover dislodgement and blowing or dripping water. While often employed in conjunction with a hood, it is not necessary.
Configurations herein are based, in part, on the observation that back supported appliances or containers are often employed for hands-free transport of personal articles such as books, laptops, mobile devices, food and beverages, clothing and other commonplace but beneficial items. Such a container often takes the form of a backpack, a soft-sided textile containment having straps for suspension from the shoulders of a wearer. Unfortunately, conventional approaches to backpack deployment suffer from the shortcoming that the textile nature of the backpack material renders the contents vulnerable to precipitation. While users often employ hooded jackets to shield their head and body from rain and snow, backpack contents often suffer, either from direct precipitation absorption through the textile material, or seepage through unsealed closures such as zippers, snaps and hood-and-loop (e.g. VELCRO®) arrangements. Further, in colder environments, falling snow tends to build up on surfaces, defeating natural water-shedding shapes, textures or angles. The infiltrating water can damage electronic and paper goods therein.
Accordingly, configurations herein substantially overcome the shortcomings of conventional outerwear garments by providing a flexible planar surface adapted to surround and shield a back worn appliance or container such as a backpack. While conventional outerwear garments such as raincoats employ a hood to shield and redirect water from the wearer's head, configurations herein dispose the flexible planar surface attached as a shield just below the hood to drape over a backpack or other back-worn appliance. The shield is constructed of waterproof or water-resistant materials, such as rubber, polymer or a coated textile, and may be comprised from the same material as the outerwear garment. Elastic tethers such as bands, straps or similar arrangement draw the distal regions of the shield around the backpack to resist wind-blown and dripping precipitation. In this manner, backpack contents remain shielded from inclement weather just as the wearer of the protective garment (e.g. raincoat or rain jacket).
In further detail, configurations herein provide a weather protective garment for both a user and a backpack comprising a flexible planar material, or cover, coupled in a water shedding engagement with a rear facing portion of an outerwear garment such as a raincoat or rain jacket. The flexible planar material is adapted to shed water over a created void adjacent the rear facing portion, such that the void results from a backpack load suspended from straps extending over a shoulder portion of the outerwear above the coupling. A zippered slot, or aperture, in the rear facing portion is adapted to receive the deformed flexible planar material when not deployed over the void, and a receptacle or pocket on an opposed side of the rear facing portion defines a pocket in communication with the aperture for receiving the deformed flexible planar material.
The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of particular embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.
Configurations below implement the protective garment, such as a raincoat or windbreaker having an attached accessory (cover) extending from the shoulder region between backpack straps for covering the backpack and shedding precipitation such as snow, slush and rain. The garment accessory includes a flexible planar material coupled in a water shedding engagement with a rear facing portion (back) of an outerwear garment, such that the flexible planar material is adapted to shed water over a created void adjacent the rear facing portion, the void resulting from a backpack or other load suspended from straps extending over a shoulder portion of the outerwear above the coupling.
While the system and methods defined herein have been particularly shown and described with references to embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims.
This patent application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent App. No. 62/515,143, filed Jun. 5, 2017, entitled “PROTECTIVE GARMENT,” incorporated herein by reference in entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62515143 | Jun 2017 | US |
