Hockey suit

Abstract

A one piece athletic garment provides protection in a sport such as hockey and includes a unitary body enclosure having a torso section, legs, and sleeves and that includes protection for elbows, knees, shins, shoulders, and chest and protective pants.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is based on and claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/796,149, filed Apr. 27, 2006, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The present application is a Section 371 National Stage Application and claims priority of International patent application Serial No. PCT/US2007/010205, filed Apr. 26, 2007, and published in English the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to protective athletic garments and in particular to a unitary garment which provides protection to several body areas.

Ice hockey is played on a hard surface, a sheet of ice. Rigid vertical boards define the playing area on the sheet of ice. In addition, a puck made of hard rubber is used in playing hockey and the puck travels at high speeds when “shot”, occasionally leaving the ice to hit a player. In addition, players maneuvering on the ice collide with one another, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. All of these activities pose a multitude of inherent safety hazards in playing ice hockey. It is for these reasons hockey players are equipped with an array of safety gear to lessen pain from collisions and the risk of injury. The safety equipment includes a helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, mouth guard, protective gloves, heavily padded shorts (breezers), an athletic protector, shin and knee pads, chest protector and a neck guard. These are independent pieces of protective equipment that the player secures individually into place.

Although most people visualize the typical hockey player as a young adult or an adult player needing such protection due to the speeds and aggressiveness at which such players play the game, youth players also need bodily protection not only to protect from injury, but also to eliminate the fear of falling on the ice or colliding against the hockey boards or with other players. Youth players need all of the protective equipment that an adult hockey player needs.

However, youth players do not necessarily have the ability to independently properly secure the various pieces of protective equipment that are necessary to play the sport safely. Parents may spend considerable time in securing the equipment to a youth player. In addition, such youth players when removing the independent pieces of protective equipment in a locker room crowded with other youth players tend not to pay attention to where the removed equipment is placed. The independent pieces of protective equipment after being removed are often times tossed aside and co-mingled with similar pieces of protective equipment from other youth players. Oftentimes independent pieces of protective equipment are picked up by other youth players and taken home by the wrong player. This results in missing equipment the next time a player plays.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention includes a one piece athletic garment that is donned by an athlete and which provides protection to a plurality of body areas such as the elbows, knee/shin area, and chest area.

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a one piece hockey garment comprising a unitary body enclosure for accepting legs, arms and a torso of a player and having elbow protectors, knee and shin protectors, a chest protector and protective pants as part of the garment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the present invention with portions of the suit be shown separated.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a hockey suit.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a chest protector.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an elbow protector.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a knee/shin protector.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A one piece hockey suit of this invention is generally illustrated at 10 in FIGS. 1 and 2. The one piece hockey suit 10 enables a player to put on all necessary protective equipment by donning a single garment. By removing this single garment all protective gear is also removed. The one piece hockey suit saves time in both putting on various pieces of protective equipment and then taking off the protective equipment since the protective equipment is all included in the hockey suit 10. Additionally, the suits 10 keeps together all the protective equipment to ensure that all the pieces of protective equipment are kept together so that the next time the player needs to use the equipment, none of the pieces are missing.

The hockey suit 10 comprises a unitary garment 12 that includes a torso section 14 and a pair of sleeves 16 and 18 extending therefrom and a pair of pant legs 20 and 22 extending from a waist section 24. The garment 12 maybe constructed from a single section of cloth or may be assembled from distinct pieces of cloth sewn together or bonded by any other suitable method. The garment 12 in one example is made of a moisture wicking fabric.

The one piece hockey suit 10 also includes a shoulder/chest protector 26 and hockey pants 28 commonly referred to as breezers. Both the shoulder/chest protector 26 and the breezers 28 are preferably detachably attached to the garment 12.

The torso section 14 further includes a neck opening 30. The shoulder/chest protector is preferably attached to the garment 12 near the neck opening 30 through the use of a zipper 32. The zipper 32 extends around the neck opening 30 with part of the zipper 32 being sewn directly to the chest protector while the other part of the zipper 32 being sewn or attached to the garment 12 so that the shoulder/chest protector is attached to the garment, as best seen in FIG. 2.

The shoulder/chest protector includes left and right hard shell shoulder sections 34 to protect the player's shoulder, and a cushioned chest protector section 36 and a cushioned back protector section 38, as best illustrated in FIG. 3. The chest protector section 36 includes foam pads 37 for protecting the chest (the foam pads of the back protector section 38 for protecting the back of a player are not illustrated).

The chest protector section 36 and the back protector section 38 are secured to each other by flaps 39 using hook and loop fasteners. The flaps 39 are secured to either to the back protector section or the chest protector section by hook or loop elements at their distal ends. Correspondingly, either section 36 or section 38 carries counterpart fastening elements, that is either hooks or loops. In addition, the chest protector section 36 is divided into left and right subsections which are joined by a hook and loop fastener extending along flaps 40 running along the length of the two subsections. When the flaps 39 are secured to the chest protector and the flaps 40 are secured to each other to join the two subsections of the chest protector section 36, a protective shield around the player's torso is formed.

The hard shell shoulder section 34 includes a pocket 35 in which is disposed a plastic protective shoulder shield 33. The pockets 35 are each secured shut by hook and loop fastener 41 to retain the shield. The shield 33 in one example is a molded plastic insert that conforms to the general configuration of the shoulder to provide protection therefore.

The shoulder/chest protector includes a bicep protector 42 that extends from the shoulder section 34 sufficiently to provide protection to the player's biceps. The bicep protector 42 is secured to a player's bicep area by flaps 44 that are attached at one end to the bicep protector 42 and include hook and loop fasteners at a distal end with either the hook or the loop fastener being on a distal end of the flap 44 and the mating counterpart (either hook or loop) being on the bicep protector 42 such that when the end of the flap is attached to the bicep protector 42, the bicep protector is secured in place. By securing the flaps 44, the shoulder section 34 is also secured to the player.

The breezers 28 are detachably attached to the garment 12 through use of hook and loop fasteners with the breezers 28 shown in broken lines in FIG. 2. A strip 51 of either hooks or loops is secured to the garment 12 at the waist section 24 while the mating counterpart (either hooks or loops) are secured to the breezers 28. Through the use of the hook and loop fasteners, the breezers are securely attached to the garment 12 and are part of the one piece hockey suit 10.

The hockey suit 10 also includes elbow protectors 46 and 48 disposed in the elbow area of the sleeves 16 and 18, respectively. The elbow protectors 46 and 48 include pockets 50 and 52 formed in the sleeves. A hard shell elbow shield 54 and 56 is located in pockets 50 and 52 respectively. The pockets 50 and 52 are closed through the use of hook and loop fasteners to retain the shield within the pocket. The shields 54 and 56 may be removed from the pockets 50 and 52 for replacement or cleaning of the suit 10.

The elbow protectors 46 and 48 are additionally secured around the player's arm's by corresponding left and right straps 58 and 60 that extend through respective apertures 61 in the sleeve as best illustrated in FIG. 4 where only one elbow protector 48 is shown.

The sleeves 16 and 18 include thumb holes 62 and 64 through which the player's thumb is inserted to retain the sleeve the full length of the player's arm and over the wrist area.

Hockey gloves 66 and 68 are attached to the sleeves 16 and 18 by glove attachment straps 70 and 72. Glove attachment straps 70 and 72 are attached to the sleeves 16 and 18 at a proximal end and include either hook or loop fastener elements at a distal end, while the gloves 66 and 68 include the mating counterpart, that is either loops or hooks. The straps 70 and 72 are preferably elastic and are approximately four inches long. Alternatively the gloves 66 and 68 are secured to the garment 12 by extending the straps through an opening in the hockey glove and attaching the end of the strap back on to the sleeve.

Leggings 20 and 22 include knee and shin protectors 74 and 76. As best illustrated in FIG. 5, the shin protectors 74 and 76, only one of which is shown in FIG. 5, include shin protector pockets 78 and 80 which are positioned along the front of the legs 20 and 22 to protect the shin and knee area of the player. Rigid knee and shin shields 82 and 84 are disposed in the pockets 78 and 80. The knee and shin shields are preferably made of plastic and are removable from the pockets and the pocket is held shut by hook and loop fastener 93. The knee and shin protectors are secured against the knee and shin by upper and lower straps 86 and 88 that are preferably attached to the shield. The straps 86 and 88 are threaded through apertures 87 and 89 which are located in the pockets 80. The straps 86 and 88 are then wrapped around the player's calf region to hold the knee and shin protector in place.

The suit 10 further includes a pair of front and back girdle straps 94 and 96 of which only the front straps are shown. The straps 94 and 96 have hook elements which engage the yarn of hockey socks 98 and 100 thereby holding the hockey socks in place.

The suit 10 also includes an athletic cup pocket 102 for retaining an athletic cup 104.

To clean the garment 12, the breezers, the shoulder/chest protector, gloves, hockey socks are detached and the shoulder shields, elbow shields, shin and knee shields and athletic cup are removed from their respective pockets.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A one piece hockey suit comprising:

a unitary body enclosure for accepting legs, arms and torso of a player, the body enclosure having elbow protectors, knee-shin protectors, a shoulder/chest protector and protective pants.

2. The suit of claim 1 wherein the unitary body enclosure includes sleeves and an elbow area in the sleeves, the elbow area containing a pocket and an elbow shield disposed within the pocket.

3. The hockey suit of claim 1 wherein the unitary body enclosure includes leg portions and wherein each leg portion includes a pocket and a shin/knee shield disposed within the pocket.

4. The suit of claim 1 wherein the shoulder/chest protector is detachably attached to the unitary body.

5. The suit of claim 4 wherein the chest protector is detachably attached to the unitary body near a neck area.

6. The suit of claim 1 and further including fasteners extending from the unitary body for attaching hockey socks.

7. The suit of claim 1 wherein the unitary body enclosure includes sleeves and further includes fasteners extending from the sleeves for attaching hockey gloves.

8. The suit of claim 1 wherein the unitary body enclosure includes a waist portion and fasteners attached to the waist portion for detachably attaching the protective pants to the unitary body.