Headwear with multiple bills
This invention is directed toward headwear with multiple bills capable of simultaneously shading the user's face and at least one more body part such as the ears or neck, and providing such protection without relying upon loose flaps of cloth to provide the shade. With the goal of providing both shade/rain protection for the user and promotional opportunities for commercial entities, the invention covers a variety of iterations with small and large bills covering the face, ears and neck of the user, where the bills can be flipped down or up. The invention can be made in a cap version, a one-piece version where the visor has two or more bills permanently attached, or a version capable of assembly where the bills can be attached in different iterations and detached at will, such that the bills can be removably attached to the visor or hat in downward-slanting or upward-slanting positions.
This application claims priority based on U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/628,888, a copy of which is attached.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENTThis invention was not federally sponsored.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention is directed toward (put abstract here).
Visors are one of the most popular methods of keeping the sun or rain out of a user's face. They are widely used by adults and children for all sorts of outdoor activities where it is desirable to shade a user's face from the sun and, in some cases, rain. A quick look at any beach, outdoor sporting event, outdoor mall, golf course or park will reveal a number of people using visors. As concern over skin cancer and other damage from the sun grows, the popularity of visors has grown and will continue to grow in the future.
The term “visor” refers generally to any headwear which incorporates a visor into the headwear. “Visor”, as used in this patent, includes a widely ranging group of headwear which consists of a bill to shade the face held in its place on the user's head through some encircling material component, which can range from a baseball cap to a headband.
In addition to their practical uses, visors have been used since their inception as advertising media for a wide range of commercial entities. Indeed, it is highly unlikely that an athlete using a visor in a tennis match or round of competitive golf will be using a plain visor; athletic wear companies pay millions of dollars each year to entice top athletes to wear a visor with their particular logo or other identifying information emblazoned on it.
Conventional visors are very simple in design, comprising a semi-rigid, normally arched, bill connected to a headband or other device which encircles the user's head and keeps the bill over (usually) the eyes of the user. Normally the bill is flipped in a downward-slanted position over the eyes, but in some cases the user flips the bill up to improve his/her field of view. Alternatively, a user can flip the visor around such that the bill provides shade for the user's neck or the side of the user's face rather than eyes. This alternative use leaves the user's face exposed to the sun and rain, but is often used by those concerned with appearing trendy, as among some segments of society the “look” is more important than the function. Conventional visors can be made with fixed head sizes, or with adjustable headbands.
While conventional visors have been an integral part of human society for several decades, the problem remains that a user has to choose which part of his/her face is to be protected, as the conventional visor has only one bill. There exist other attempts to solve this problem, including visors or hats with flaps and shields, such as the “Lawrence of Arabia” line of hats which have a fixed or removable back flap of cloth hanging off the back of the hat to provide protection to the user's neck. Problems with this hat include difficulty of controlling the back flap when engaged in high risk activities such as rock climbing where unobstructed vision is imperative, or activities involving a substantial amount of motion, such as playing tennis, where the flap may move across the face and obstruct the user's vision. Probably the most commonly seen use of the baseball cap version of the visor being used in an unconventional yet functional manner is when a baseball catcher turns his or her baseball cap around so that the bill does not interfere with the use of a catcher's mask. With this use of a visor, the neck of the user is shaded but the face is not protected.
Thus there has existed a long-felt need for a visor with two or more bills that is capable of simultaneously shading the user's face and at least one more body part such as the ears or neck, and providing such protection without relying upon loose flaps of cloth to provide the shade.
The current invention provides just such a solution by having a (abstract).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is a principal object of the invention is to provide a visor with two or more bills that is capable of simultaneously shading the user's face and at least one more body part such as the ears or neck, and providing such protection without relying upon loose flaps of cloth to provide the shade.
It is an additional object of the invention is to provide a visor with two bills, one of which shades the face; the other shades the neck.
It is an additional object of the invention that is to provide a visor with three bills, one of which shades the face; the other two shading the ears.
It is a further object of the invention that the invention that is to provide a visor with four bills, one of which shades the face; two bills shade the ears, and a fourth bill shades the neck.
It is an additional object of the invention that all bills on the invention can be flipped up or down depending on the user's desires.
It is also an object of this invention that the bills can be manufactured with two partial headband members extending horizontally from either side of the bill with means of attachment such as Velcro® such that one bill can be removably attached to another bill, so that the user can attach bills in upright or downward iterations at the user's convenience.
It is an additional object of the invention that the bills and headband members can display commercial logos, names, messages, and other printed matter such that the visor is useful from a commercial perspective.
It is a further object of the invention that the printed matter on one headband can remain in a proper orientation regardless of the orientation of the second headband.
It is an additional object of the invention that a user (or commercial entity providing the visor) can remove one bill and substitute in a second bill with a different color, commercial message, or shape.
It is also an object of this invention that the means of attachment between the first bill and the second bill can be used to adjust the tightness of the visor to heads of various circumferences.
It is an additional object of the invention that the means of attachment between the first bill and the second bill can be adjusted to that the location of the bills can be adjusted such that the bills cover some combination of the face, ears, and neck of the user.
It is a further object of the invention that the adjustability of the bills can be used by users concerned over fashion to follow, or even try to start, a fashion by positioning the bills in non-traditional locations.
It is an additional object of the invention that an iteration be available with more than two bills.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a visor with a front bill and two side bills which cover the ears.
It is an additional object of the invention that the version with a front bill and two side bills which cover the ears be manufactured in a one-piece unit, with both fixed head sizes and adjustable headbands, and with the front bill and two side bills manufactured with two partial headband members extending horizontally from either side of the bill with means of attachment such as Velcro® such that the visor component with one front bill and two ear bills can be removably attached to another bill, so that the user can attach bills in upright or downward iterations at the user's convenience.
It is also an object of the invention that the multiple bill concept can be applied to baseball caps, and other types of caps.
It is a final object of this invention that the invention is inexpensive to manufacture such that it will provide an economically feasible improvement over existing visors.
It should be understood the while the preferred embodiments of the invention are described in some detail herein, the present disclosure is made by way of example only and that variations and changes thereto are possible without departing from the subject matter coming within the scope of the following claims, and a reasonable equivalency thereof, which claims 1 regard as my invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
This invention teaches headwear with multiple bills capable of simultaneously shading the user's face and at least one more body part such as the ears or neck, and providing such protection without relying upon loose flaps of cloth to provide the shade. With the goal of providing both shade/rain protection for the user and promotional opportunities for commercial entities, the invention covers a variety of iterations with small and large bills covering the face, ears and neck of the user, where the bills can be flipped down or up. The invention can be made in a cap version, a one-piece version where the visor has two or more bills permanently attached, or a version capable of assembly where the bills can be attached in different iterations and detached at will, such that the bills can be removably attached to the visor or hat in downward-slanting or upward-slanting positions. The figures are intended to exemplify certain characteristics of different iterations of the invention, but not to limit each characteristic to the version of the headwear upon which it appears in the figures.
Turning to the Figures,
It should be also noted that this hook and fastener mode of construction allows the user to adjust the invention for different sizes of heads.
Claims
1. A device with a plurality of bills, comprising: an item of headwear, and a plurality of bills, where the plurality of bills are attached to the headwear, and where, and where, the bills consist of a flexible yet resilient inner core covered on either side by a layer of material, where the layers of material and the resilient inner core are connected to each other by a plurality of stitches, where the stitches are formed into a plurality of stitch lines, and where the bill is manufactured in a domed or crowned shape such that the bill has a curvature which helps it retains its shape whether in a traditional downward tilt, or flipped up with an upward tilt, and where, none of the bills are hanging sections of material or other substances without adequate resiliency to be able to be moved by a user from a “down” position to an “up position” such that the bill will stay in an “up position” without further effort expended by the user or further devices other than the internal resiliency of the bill, a means of attachment between the plurality of bills and the headwear, where the means of attachment consists of the inner core of the bill being inserted in between a front panel and a back panel of the headwear, and held in place with a plurality of stitches, where the stitches are formed into a plurality of stitch lines, and a means of retention to keep the device attached to the head of the user, and where, the headwear comprises one large bill and two small bills where the two small bills are located 90 degrees away from the large bill in either direction along the visor headband from the large bill, such that a user can position the large bill over his/her face or neck, and the small bills will protect the ears, and, where the small bills can be flipped up or down depending on the desire of the user.
2. The device of claim 1, where, the headwear is a baseball cap consisting of a plurality of hat sectors stitched together by a plurality of stitches, where the stitches arranged into a plurality of stitch lines.
3. The device of claim 2, where the headwear additionally consists of a top button, and one or more ventilation holes.
4. The device of claim 2, where, the headwear comprises two bills where the first bill and the second bill are located on opposite sides of the visor headband such that a user can position to bills either over the face and neck, or over both ears.
5. A device with a plurality of bills, comprising: an item of headwear, and a plurality of bills, where the plurality of bills are attached to the headwear, and where, and where, the bills consist of a flexible vet resilient inner core covered on either side by a layer of material, where the layers of material and the resilient inner core are connected to each other by a plurality of stitches, where the stitches are formed into a plurality of stitch lines, and where the bill is manufactured in a domed or crowned shape such that the bill has a curvature which helps it retains its shape whether in a traditional downward tilt, or flipped up with an upward tilt, and where, none of the bills are hanging sections of material or other substances without adequate resiliency to be able to be moved by a user from a “down” position to an “up position” such that the bill will stay in an “up position” without further effort expended by the user or further devices other than the internal resiliency of the bill, a means of attachment between the plurality of bills and the headwear, where the means of attachment consists of the inner core of the bill being inserted in between a front panel and a back panel of the headwear, and held in place with a plurality of stitches, where the stitches are formed into a plurality of stitch lines, and a means of retention to keep the device attached to the head of the user, and, where, the visor comprises two large bills and two small bills where the two small bills are located 90 degrees away from the two large bills in either direction along the visor headband from the large bill, such that a user can position the large bills over his/her face and neck, and the small bills will Protect the ears, and, where the small bills can be flipped up or down depending on the desire of the user.
6. The device of claim 1, where, the headwear is a visor, where the visor consists of one or more bands of material encircling the head of the user which do not completely cover the crown of the user's head.
7. The device of claim 6, where, the headwear comprises two visor components, where each visor component comprises a means of attachment between the two visor components, one or more bills, a front panel, a back panel, where, the front panel and the back panel extend along the length the front panel and the back panel are connected at their tops and bottoms such that they form an open sleeve.
8. The device of claim 7, where each visor component comprises one or more bills, two partial headband members which extend horizontally from either side of the bill, and means of attachment such as hook and fastener means, where one visor component has hook on both partial headband members and the other visor component has fastener on both partial headband members, such that one visor component can be removably attached to another visor component, so that the user can attach the visor components to each other with both visor components in an upward or downward inclination, or with one visor component with an upward inclination and the other visor component in a downward inclination.
9. The device of claim 8, where each visor can be positioned in either an “up” or “down” position.
10. The headwear of claim 9, where, the headwear consists of one visor component consisting of a partial headband member and one bill, and one visor component consisting of a partial headband member, one large bill, and two small bills, where the two small bills are located 90 degrees away from the two large bills in either direction along the visor headband from the large bill, such that a user can position the large bills over his/her face and neck, and the small bills will protect the ears.
11. The headwear of claim 8, where, the a means of attachment between the two visor components is an encircling headband, consisting of a loop of flexible and at least partially elastic material, where the loop is formed by attaching the two ends of the encircling band together after the encircling headband has been threaded through the sleeve, and where the sleeve consists of a front panel and a back panel which are connected at the top and bottom of the front panel and back panel, and where the front panel and the back panel extend from one side of the bill to the other.
12. The headwear of claim 11, where, the bills are directly opposed to one another such that 180 degrees of arc is covered from the tip of one bill to the tip of the other bill.
13. The headwear of claim 11, where, one visor component has one bill and the other visor component has one large bill and two small bills, such that a user can protect his/her face, ears, and neck from the sun or rain.
14. The headwear of claim 7, where, the headwear comprises one large bill and two small bills where the two small bills are located approximately 90 degrees away from the large bill in either direction along the visor headband from the large bill, such that a user can position the large bill over his/her face or neck, and the small bills will protect the ears, where all three bills are capable of being set by the user with either and “up” or “down” tilt, and that tilt will remain without further effort on the part of the user and without any means of retaining the “up” or “down” tilt other than the internal resiliency of the inner core material of the bill.
15. The headwear of claim 14, where, the means of retention is a headband which is flexible and elastic, and encircles the user's head without a break in the headband.
16. The headwear of claim 14, where, the means of retention is a headband with two ends located opposite the large bill, where there is a hook means of attachment on one end and a fastener means of attachment on the other end, such that a user can adjust the circumference of the headband to a larger or small head size.
17. The headwear of claim 7, where, the headwear consists of a bill, a front panel, a back panel, a back inside panel, a right side back outer panel, a left side back outer panel, a right side attachment point, and a left side attachment point, where, the front panel, back panel, back inside panel, right side back outer panel, and left side back outer panel are all attached by hook and fastener means, such that any of the front panel, back panel, back inside panel, right side back panel, or left side back panel can be removed and replaced with another similar component, and where, advertising logos and other commercial images can be emblazoned on the front panel, back panel, back inside panel, right side back outer panel, and left side back outer panel, and replaced with other images on other components as desired by the user.
18. The headwear of claim 17, where, the front panel, back panel, back inside panel, right side back panel, or left side back panel can be removed and replaced with another similar component, and where, the replacement components can have additional bills attached to them, such that the user can add or subtract additional bills as desired by the user.
19. A method of enhancing the fashion choices available to a user of a device with two or more bills, comprising the steps of:
- first, creating a piece of headwear with two or more bills, where the device comprises: an item of headwear which is a baseball cap, and a plurality of bills, where the plurality of bills are attached to the headwear, and where, and where, the bills consist of a flexible yet resilient inner core covered on either side by a layer of material, where the layers of material and the resilient inner core are connected to each other by a plurality of stitches, where the stitches are formed into a plurality of stitch lines, and where the bill is manufactured in a domed or crowned shape such that the bill has a curvature which helps it retains its shape whether in a traditional downward tilt, or flipped up with an upward tilt, and where, none of the bills are hanging sections of material or other substances without adequate resiliency to be able to be moved by a user from a “down” position to an “up position” such that the bill will stay in an “up position” without further effort expended by the user or further devices other than the internal resiliency of the bill, a means of attachment between the plurality of bills and the headwear, where the means of attachment consists of the inner core of the bill being inserted in between a front panel and a back panel of the headwear, and held in place with a plurality of stitches, where the stitches are formed into a plurality of stitch lines, and a means of retention to keep the device attached to the head of the user, and where the headwear has means by which the user can selectively add or remove bills from the headwear,
- second, making the item of headwear available to a user,
- third, conveying adequate instructions such that the user can avail himself or herself of the options available with the headwear.
20. A method of enhancing the fashion choices available to a user of a device with two or more bills, comprising the steps of:
- first, creating a piece of headwear with two or more bills, where the device comprises: an item of headwear which is a visor, and a plurality of bills, where the plurality of bills are attached to the headwear, and where, and where, the bills consist of a flexible yet resilient inner core covered on either side by a layer of material, where the layers of material and the resilient inner core are connected to each other by a plurality of stitches, where the stitches are formed into a plurality of stitch lines, and where the bill is manufactured in a domed or crowned shape such that the bill has a curvature which helps it retains its shape whether in a traditional downward tilt, or flipped up with an upward tilt, and where, none of the bills are hanging sections of material or other substances without adequate resiliency to be able to be moved by a user from a “down” position to an “up position” such that the bill will stay in an “up position” without further effort expended by the user or further devices other than the internal resiliency of the bill, a means of attachment between the plurality of bills and the headwear, where the means of attachment consists of the inner core of the bill being inserted in between a front panel and a back panel of the headwear, and held in place with a plurality of stitches, where the stitches are formed into a plurality of stitch lines, and a means of retention to keep the device attached to the head of the user, and where the headwear has means by which the user can selectively add or remove bills from the headwear,
- second, making the item of headwear available to a user,
- third, conveying adequate instructions such that the user can avail himself or herself of the options available with the headwear.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 11, 2005
Publication Date: May 25, 2006
Inventor: Robert Keffer (Cross Lanes, WV)
Application Number: 11/177,979
International Classification: A42B 1/00 (20060101);