Convertible cap

Abstract

A cap includes a visor and a removably attached crown that extends downward to outwardly cover zipper teeth attaching the crown to the visor and to cover a rear strap, which is variable in length, extending between rear ends of a band within the visor.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to caps and more particularly, to a cap that can be converted to a visor by removing a removably attached crown portion covering the wearer's head.

2. Summary of the Background Art

The patent literature includes several descriptions of caps including removably attached crowns, allowing the cap to be worn either as a normal cap or as a visor having a band extending around the head and a bill extending forward without a crown extending over the top of the head. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,338 describes a multi-use head cover comprising an adjustable size visor portion and a detachable fabric head covering portion. The visor portion includes a visor band with a divided after section to be worn at the back of the user's head joined by a pair of interlocking plastic strips. A bill is attached to a forward portion of the visor band, which is raised relative to the divided section and sides to provide effective sun shading. An upper edge of the visor band is trimmed with a first half of a zipper. The second half of the zipper is attached to the fabric dome in the shape of a yarmulke. The after edge of the dome may be recessed to correspond to the gap in the upper edge of the after section of the visor to prevent bunching of the fabric dome when the visor band is adjusted to smaller sizes. The portions of the head covering can be worn assembled to form a baseball-type cap, as a visor with the fabric dome removed, or the fabric dome may be worn by itself as a yarmulke or skullcap.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,270 describes a head wear piece having a detachable crown and visor portion which can be connected together by two adjacent facing fastener mechanisms, such as zipper edge strips, one of which is located on the crown and the other on the visor portion of the head wear. The zipper strips may be concealed by liner flaps or band strips located either inside the interior of the visor or outside of them on the surface of the head wear.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,524 describes a segmented cap assembly that includes selectively detachable crown component, sweatband component, and visor component. The sweatband component is formed having a forward part made of hook and loop tape, hook-portion-engaging material. The crown component selectively attaches to the sweatband component by engagement of hook and loop tape material fixedly attached to the inside portion of the crown component to the upper half of the hook and loop tape hook portion-engaging material. The visor component selectively attaches to the sweatband component by engagement of hook and loop tape material fixedly attached to the inside portion of the visor component to the lower half of the hook and loop tape material fixedly attached to the inside portion of the visor component to the lower half of the hook and loop type, hook-portion-engaging material.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a cap including a visor and a crown is provided. The visor includes a bill extending forward from a front portion of the visor, a visor band extending upward from the bill and rearward to an end along each side of the visor, a lower zipper strip facing upward and extending inside the visor band adjacent an upper edge of the visor band, and a rear band fastened to extend between the ends of the visor band, wherein a length of the rear band is variable. The crown covers a space above the visor and includes an upper zipper strip releasably engaging the lower zipper strip, wherein the crown extends downward to cover teeth within the upper and lower zipper strips.

Preferably, the crown additionally extends downward to cover the rear band. The visor may additionally include a headband extending along the visor band, being disposed inwardly from the zipper strips and extending upward to inwardly cover teeth within the lower zipper strip.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cap made in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear elevation of the cap of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a crown portion of the cap of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a visor portion of the cap of FIG. 1 shown with the crown portion of FIG. 3 removed therefrom;

FIG. 5 is a rear elevation of the visor portion of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of a side of the cap of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a rear elevation of an alternative version of the cap of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary elevation of the cap of FIG. 7, showing a rear portion thereof as viewed from inside.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a cap 10 built in accordance with the invention with FIG. 1 being a perspective view thereof, and with FIG. 2 being a rear elevation thereof. The cap 10 includes a visor 12, to which a crown 14 is releasably attached. The visor 12 includes a bill 16, extending forward in the direction of arrow 18, and a visor band 20, extending upward, in the direction of arrow 22, from the bill 16, and additionally extending rearward, opposite the direction of arrow 18, along each side of the visor 12.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the crown 14, shown as detached from the visor 12 of the cap 10, while FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the visor 12, shown with the crown 14 detached therefrom. For example, the crown 14 is made by sewing a number of fabric sections 24 together at seams 26, with a rolled edge 28 being formed at a lower edge, and with a button 30 being sewn in place at the upper intersection of the sections 24. A number of eyelets 32 may be installed within the sections 24 to provide air holes for cooling. For example, the visor band 20 is made by sewing a number of fabric sections 34 together at seams 36. The visor band 20 extends rearward, opposite the direction of arrow 18, along each side of the visor 12, to an end 38, with a rear band 40 being fastened to extend between the two ends 38.

FIG. 5 is a rear elevation of the visor 12, again shown with the crown 14 detached therefrom. Preferably, the rear band 40 is formed of an elastic material allowing the length of the band 40 to vary, so that the distance between the ends 38 of the visor band 20 is changed to accommodate the circumference of the wearer's head.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of a side of the cap 10, shown with various elements held apart to show an internal structure of the cap 10. The visor 12 includes a lower zipper strip 42, disposed inwardly, in the direction of arrow 44, from the visor band 20, and fastened thereto to face upward, in the direction of arrow 22. The crown 14 includes an upper zipper strip 46, disposed inwardly from the fabric sections 24 forming the outer surface of the crown 14, being fastened to these sections 34 to extend downward, opposite the direction of arrow 22, with teeth 48 of the upper zipper strip 46 releasably engaging teeth 50 of the lower zipper strip 42. The visor 12 preferably additionally includes a headband 52, disposed inwardly from the lower zipper strip 42, extending upward to inwardly cover the teeth 50 of the lower zipper strip 42. In accordance with preferred versions of the invention, the teeth 48, 50 are inwardly covered so that they cannot become entangled within the wearer's hair. This is accomplished, for example, by the headband 52 of the visor 12 extending upward to cover the teeth 48 of the upper zipper strip 46 as well as the teeth 50 of the lower zipper strip 42. Optionally, the crown 14 may include a headband 54 extending downward to cover at least the teeth 48 of the upper zipper strip 46.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, the visor band 20 extends upward to an edge 58 above the lower zipper strip 42, including its teeth 50, so that these teeth 50 are outwardly hidden when the visor band 20 is worn without the crown 14. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, the fabric sections 24 of the crown 14 extend downward past the edge 58 of the visor band 20 to a rolled edge 28, so that a visible gap is not seen at an edge between the visor band 20 and the crown 14. Referring to FIGS. 2, and 5, the crown 14 further includes a rear portion 60 extending downward to cover the rear band 40 of the visor 12 and an opening 62 extending above the rear band 40 and between the ends 38 of the visor band 20. In this way advantages are achieved over prior art apparatus in that the rear band 40 and the adjacent space 62 are completely covered and in that the zipper teeth 48, 50 are covered by the crown instead of by material extending downward from the crown and upward from the visor to meet at a gap. In the example of FIG. 4, the rear portion 60 extends downward to a point.

FIG. 7 is a rear elevation of an alternative version 64 of a cap built in accordance with the invention to include a visor 12 as described above and a crown 66 including a rear portion 67 that is widened to accommodate greater changes in the distance between the ends 38 of the visor band 20.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary elevation of the cap 64 showing a rear portion thereof as viewed from inside. The rear band 40 is shown as being inwardly attached to the visor band 20 near its ends 38 by stitching patterns 68. The headband 52 of the is shown with its corners 70 folded downward to reveal the zipper strips 42, 46, which are releasably held together by their teeth 48, 50. A lever 72 is pivoted outward and is manually moved around the zipper strips 42, 46 to separate or join the strips 42, 46 in the manner of a jacket zipper. Access to this lever 72 is provided by folding the rear portion 66 of the crown outward.

While the invention has been described in its preferred forms or embodiments with some degree of particularity, it is understood that this description has been given only by way of example, and that many variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A cap comprising:

a visor including a bill extending forward from a front portion of the visor, a visor band extending upward from the bill and rearward to an end along each side of the visor, a lower zipper strip facing upward and extending inside the visor band adjacent an upper edge of the visor band, and a rear band fastened to extend between the ends of the visor band, wherein a length of the rear band is variable, and

a crown covering a space above the visor, wherein the crown includes an upper zipper strip releasably engaging the lower zipper strip, and wherein the crown extends downward to outwardly cover teeth within the upper and lower zipper strips.

2. The cap of claim 1, wherein the crown additionally extends downward to outwardly cover the rear band.

3. The cap of claim 1, wherein the rear band is formed as a strip of elastic material.

4. The cap of claim 1, wherein the visor additionally includes a headband extending along the visor band, being disposed inwardly from the zipper strips and extending upward to inwardly cover teeth within the lower zipper strip.

5. The cap of claim 4, wherein the headband of the visor extends upward to additionally cover teeth within the upper zipper strip.

6. The cap of claim 4, wherein the crown additionally includes a headband extending downward to inwardly cover teeth within the upper zipper strip.

7. A cap comprising:

a visor including a bill extending forward from a front portion of the visor, a visor band extending upward from the bill and rearward to an end along each side of the visor, a lower zipper strip facing upward and extending inside the visor band adjacent an upper edge of the visor band, and a rear band fastened to extend between the ends of the visor band, wherein a length of the rear band is variable, and

a crown covering a space above the visor, wherein the crown includes an upper zipper strip releasably engaging the lower zipper strip, and wherein the crown extends downward to cover the rear band.

8. The cap of claim 7, wherein the rear band is formed as a strip of elastic material.

9. The cap of claim Z, wherein the visor additionally includes a headband extending along the visor band, being disposed inwardly from the zipper strips and extending upward to inwardly cover teeth within the lower zipper strip.

10. The cap of claim 9, wherein the headband of the visor extends upward to additionally cover teeth within the upper zipper strip.

11. The cap of claim 9, wherein the crown additionally includes a headband extending downward to inwardly cover teeth within the upper zipper strip.