Mixed-use drinking glove

Abstract

A mixed-use drinking glove for facilitating handling of a beverage vessel and simultaneous manual activities. The glove comprises a body portion and a container portion joined to back side of glove body, thus leaving user's palm, fingers, and thumb free for manual activities.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Provisional Application No. 60/797,282 filed on May 4, 2006, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an improved glove which is adapted to facilitate simultaneous handling of a drinking vessel and various manual activities such as tailgate parties, attending football games, various winter sporting events including skiing, snow shoeing, ice fishing as well as various summer activities such as fishing, canoeing, walking the dog, raking leaves, and vacuuming the pool.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Gloves are commonly worn for many outdoor and manual activities, such as tailgate parties, attending sporting events, grilling, and fishing because of typically cold ambient temperatures or rough or dirty handling environments. These activities are also regularly enjoyed in conjunction with beverages. Handling of a drinking vessel, such as a beer can or bottle, generally requires the use of a user's palm, fingers, and thumb. When the drinking vessel is being held, the user's ability to perform other activities will be limited, posing an inconvenience and detracting from the enjoyment of the activity for the user. Furthermore, in cold environments, hot drinks will tend to cool off, and in warm environments cold beverages will tend to warm faster than desired.

Gloves have been designed for providing warmth and to be used to assist with various activities. Lonon (U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,637) describes a glove which attaches a utility container to the back of the glove for cigarettes, driver's license, credit cards, pens comb, mirror, watch first aid equipment and the like. Merrion (U.S. Pat. No. 2,294,997) describes a glove equipped with a tool carrier in the palm of the glove. Morrow (U.S. Pat. No. 4,447,912) describes a glove with an attachment holding a toothbrush and other instruments of the kind, for use by injured of handicapped persons. Butcher (U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,980) and Wallace (U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,121) describe a glove for use by joggers having a pocket area in the palm to carry a can of mace etc. Taylor (U.S. Pat. No. 3,629,867) described a glove having a pencil holder on the back of the glove.

Gloves have also been designed for beverage handling and preparation. Dzierson (U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,692) describes a drinking glove for facilitating handling of a drinking vessel including a glove portion, and a pocket portion secured to the palm of the glove portion. This glove does not allow its user to perform manual activities while handling a drinking vessel. Crafts (U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,238) Walker (U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,866) describe gloves to be used by bartenders with attached bottle cap openers, and parts of the glove to assist with the opening of bottles and cans.

Other inventions have also addressed holding beverage containers. McKenzie (U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,907) describes an apparatus which hooks to a chain link fence for holding articles such as drink cups and the like. These cannot be worn on a user's hands.

Despite the various gloves designed to assist with various activities described herein, it is believed that no glove has been design to accommodate the holding of a beverage container on the back side of the hand. By holding the beverage on the backside of the hand, the glove frees up both hands to be used in performing a multitude of tasks and activities without having to set the beverage down

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a mixed-use drinking glove which is a more versatile glove that allows for simultaneous handling of a beverage vessel along with a manual activity.

The present invention more specifically aims at providing a mixed-use drinking glove which holds a beverage container on the back of the hand, thus allowing the palm, fingers, and thumb to engage in manual activities.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such a mixed-use drinking glove that keeps beverages at their desired temperature.

The present invention also aims at providing such a mixed-use drinking glove that allows for presentation of images and words, such as team logos and corporate advertisements, on the back side of the glove.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a pair of such mixed-use drinking gloves such that a left hand version and right hand version may be worn-simultaneously for handling of two beverages during other activities.

According to an embodiment of the present invention the mixed-use drinking glove comprises a body portion comprising a front portion that fits adjacent to a wearer's palm, a back portion that fits adjacent to the back of a wearer's hand, a portion of said front and back portions being joined to each other, and four finger portions and a thumb portion projecting from said front and back portions; and a container portion joined to said back portion defining a volume dimensioned to receive a drinking vessel, said container portion comprising a generally cylindrical member including a generally cylindrical side wall and a substantially continuous bottom wall, said cylindrical member being open at the top for defining an opening in said container portion for accommodating insertion and removal of a drinking vessel.

According to an embodiment of the present invention the four finger portions and thumb portion have open finger ends.

According to an embodiment of the present invention the container portion is made of a collapsible elastic material.

According to an embodiment of the present invention the container portion provides a surface for displaying images and words.

According to an embodiment of the present invention the container portion is made of thermally insulating material.

This invention results from the realization that incorporating a beverage container holder on the backside of a glove will allow for participants of tailgate parties and other activities to handle beverages and perform other tasks simultaneously.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects, features, and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of one embodiment and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the top of the left hand version of the mixed-use drinking glove;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the palm side of a left hand version of the mixed-use drinking glove; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the back side of a left hand version of the mixed-use drinking glove.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In an embodiment the mixed-use drinking glove of the present invention is used to hold a beverage vessel such as a beer bottle and to permit simultaneous manual activity by the user.

Attention is now drawn to an embodiment of the mixed-use drinking glove 10, shown in FIG. 1. The glove 10 comprises full fingers 15 and an attached container portion 12 for holding a beverage vessel 20. In an embodiment the container portion 12 may be made of thermally insulating material. In another embodiment, the glove may include a fingerless option for warm weather and specific activity applications.

FIG. 2 is a perspective of the front view of a left handed version of the glove body. The full palm 17, fingers 15, and thumb 16 remain free to perform other tasks while the beverage vessel 20 is contained on the back side of the glove in the attached container. The beverage vessel may be a bottle or can or similar type of beverage holder.

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of the back side of the glove clearly showing in this case the back side 18, the full fingers 15, the container portion 12, and the bottom wall 14. In an embodiment, the container portion 12 and bottom wall 14 are made of collapsible elastic material such that container volume is decreased and minimized when a beverage vessel is not present.

Of course, the present invention is likely to have various alterations, modifications, and improvements which will readily occur to those skilled in the art. In particular, the selection of materials for glove portion and container portion is within the abilities of those skilled in the art according to the application. Further, the present invention applies to any number of beverage types and beverage vessel types. Moreover, the glove may be used for any number of activities.

Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure, and are intended to be within the spirit and the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting. The present invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and the equivalents thereto.

Claims

1. A mixed-use drinking glove, the glove comprising:

a front portion fitting adjacent to a user's palm;

a back portion fitting adjacent to the back of the user's hand; and

a generally cylindrical container portion joined to the back portion, the container portion comprising a side wall and a substantially continuous bottom wall, the side wall and the bottom wall defining a variable volume dimensioned to receive a drinking vessel.

2. The mixed-use drinking glove of claim 1 wherein the container portion is made of a collapsible elastic material.

3. The mixed-use drinking glove of claim 1 the container portion provides a surface for displaying images and words.

4. The mixed-use drinking glove of claim 1 wherein the container portion is made of thermally insulating material.

5. The mixed-use use drinking glove of claim 1 wherein the drinking vessel is a glass bottle, a plastic bottle, a can, a drinking glass, a cup, or any container suitable for storing a liquid.

6. A mixed-use drinking glove, the glove comprising:

a front portion fitting adjacent to a user's palm;

a back portion fitting adjacent to the back of the user's hand; and

a means for receiving and holding a drinking vessel.

7. The mixed-use drinking glove of claim 6 wherein the means for receiving and holding a drinking vessel comprises a side wall and a substantially continuous bottom wall, the side wall and the bottom wall defining a variable volume dimensioned to receive the drinking vessel.

8. The mixed-use drinking glove of claim 6 wherein the means for receiving and holding a drinking vessel is made of a collapsible elastic material.

9. The mixed-use drinking glove of claim 6 wherein the means for receiving and holding a drinking vessel provides a surface for displaying images and words.

10. The mixed-use drinking glove of claim 6 wherein the means for receiving and holding a drinking vessel is made of thermally insulating material.