Combination of articles of apparel or bags and magnetic toys

Abstract

Provided are novelty clothes and bags with neodymium magnets affixed to their material for attaching magnetic toys. Also, provided is a method of decorating clothes or bags, which method is attaching the magnets under patches sewn, or affixed in other way to the material of clothes or bags, and magnetically attaching the magnetic toys to that patches.

Description

This application claims the priority of provisional application No. 61/016,729 Filling date: Dec. 26, 2007, applicant: Agnieszka Zofia Adamus

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to various types of apparel and bags, such as handbags and backpacks, specifically to novelty clothes with attached toys, and to accessory bags with attached toys and ornamental objects.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In fashion people always look for nice designs for clothes and bags.

Also, the attempts have been made to offer unconventional and attractive clothes for kids.

Clothes that offer amusement for children have been provided in the prior art.

Lawler in U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,372 provides a combination of a toy and graphic design, which design depicts a habitat for the toy animal.

Stocker in U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,881 provides a garment with a toy in a pocket.

The inconvenience of this prior art is that for toddlers it may be not easy to place a toy in a pocket. Also toys that use the traditional means of fastener, such as hook and loop patches or snap fasteners, may be not easy to attach for small children.

Some other disadvantages of hook and loop patches are: their removal is noisy and their fastening material tends to attract lint, which results in unattractive appearance.

The hook and loop fasteners have been also used in bags, such as handbags, in purpose of attaching small decorative objects.

Other prior art discloses magnets attached to clothes and bags in various purposes. Grunberger, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,985 and Marchesi, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,688 provide magnetic closures for the clothes and the bags.

Heilman, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,914 situates magnets in pockets of a construction outfit for carrying metallic tools and household items, on an exterior of the outfit for easy access.

The background of the Heilman's invention describes additional U.S. patents for magnetic coupling devices. Two of them are: U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,245 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,899.

Tate, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,163,889 provides a golf accessory attached to a fabric of article of clothing with magnet preferably formed of permanently magnetized iron.

None of this prior art provides articles of apparel for kids combined with magnetic toys.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method of decorating an article of apparel with magnetic toys, with the aid of a strong neodymium magnet. The traditional means of fastener do not offer so much fun with attaching toys to the clothes, as neodymium magnets. Kids are fascinated with strong magnetic forces, and magnetism works like “magic” for them. Especially neodymium magnets gives an unexpected effect, because their strong magnetism causes the magnetic toy to almost “fly” to the article of apparel to which the magnet is attached. Another advantage of the neodymium magnets is that they hold the toys in one place very well so that it doesn't fall down when kids jump.

Other magnets, like permanent magnets formed of iron or well known magnetic tapes, often attached to fridges, are not sufficiently powerful to hold three-dimensional toy very well.

For small kids it is much easier to attach magnetic toys than toys that use well known hook and loop patches or snap fasteners, for example. Toddlers like to carry toys with them a lot. It's easy for them to attach small magnetic toys to their clothing with neodymium magnets, and easy to remove the toys be themselves, whenever they want.

It is object of this invention to provide articles of apparel that offer interactive fun for kids. The fun and unexpected effects of strong magnetic forces of neodymium magnets have an educational aspect. Kids can have fun with attaching the magnetic toys to their shirts, for example, and learn how the magnets work at the same time. Older kids and teenagers can use magnetic toys as decorations for their clothes.

Further object of the invention is to provide the combination of neodymium magnets and articles of apparel, such as shirts, jackets, pants, dresses and hats for kids and teenagers, and magnetic three-dimensional toys made of material like plush, plastic, metal or resilient material. Different kinds of clothing and toys can be made as to suit different age groups of children or teenagers. For small kids soft, plush magnetic toys and colorful clothes can be provided. For older kids toys, such as action figures, heroes or video games figures, can be provided. Magnets are preferably attached to the clothing under a patches, which patches are sewn, or attached with other means of permanent adjoinment, to the clothing. Also, patches cover the magnets with their material for the best appearance and for the safety of the small kids, who could accidently choke on the magnets that are easily separated from the clothing.

Another object of this invention is to provide new use for toys that contain magnets. So far magnetic toys have been mostly hanged on the fridge or other appliances and metallic constructions. Now kids will be able to take their magnetic toys along with them everywhere they go by attaching the toys to the articles of apparel with the aid of the neodymium magnets.

Another object of the present invention is to provide accessory bags, such as handbags and backpacks, decorated with the aid of strong magnets or a material attracted by magnetism. Decorative three-dimensional objects or toys, comprising magnets or other material attracted by magnetism, could be attached to such bags. Especially school kids and teenagers like to attach a variety of toys and other things to their backpacks. For handbags, for example, different kinds of three-dimensional ornaments can be attached, for teenagers or even adults.

The magnets could be affixed to the bags with the aid of attaching devices, such as: an adhesive, strings, pins, rivets, threaded connectors and patches. The magnets in the toys or bags could be substituted with other material attractable to a magnet, but there should be at least one rare earth magnet, preferably neodymium magnet, in the combination of bags, magnets and magnetic toys. It's because magnetic forces of the neodymium magnet hold a magnetic toy or an ornamental object well enough, so it doesn't fall down easily.

The invention will be more fully explained by the accompanying drawings and the following explanation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view according to one embodiment of the invention and shows the article of apparel (1) with the toy (2).

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is back view of the toy (11) of the embodiment of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is front view according to another embodiment of the invention and showing the bag (7) with the toy (8).

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there are shown in the drawings and described in detail, certain preferred embodiments with the understanding that the present disclosure should be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention to the embodiments so illustrated.

FIG. 1 shows an example for the present invention,which example is the combination of the shirt (1) with magnet (5—shown in FIG. 2) placed under the patch (4), which patch is sewn to the shirt (1), and the teddy-bear plush toy (2), which toy has a magnet (3) placed inside and is magnetically attached to the shirt (1), precisely to the magnet placed underneath the patch (4). The patch (4) with the magnet placed underneath can be attached to other articles of clothing such as jackets, pants, dresses and hats. Patch can be made of fabric, plastic or resilient material and is permanently affixed to the article of apparel, with suitable for patches means of adjoinment. Magnetic teddy-bear plush toy (2) can be substituted with other magnetic toy, and can be made of other then plush material, such as: plastic, resilient material or metal.

The magnet (3) placed inside the toy (2), can be substituted with other material attractable to a magnet, like steel or other ferrous material.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 1. and shows the method of decorating an article of apparel, such as shirt (1A) with magnetic toy, such as teddy-bear (2A), with the aid of rare earth magnet, preferably Neodymium Iron Boron magnet (NdFeB) (5). FIG. 2 shows in sequence: attaching neodymium magnet (5) to the shirt (1A), by sewing the patch (4A) to the shirt (1A), with the magnet (5) being placed on the shirt (1A) under a patch (4A), and magnetically attaching the teddy-bear (2A), which sequence is shown by arrow (10), which arrow also shows the direction of magnetic attraction. Magnet (3A), having magnetic pole N, is placed inside teddy-bear (2A) and is attracted to the neodymium magnet (5), which magnet has opposite magnetic pole S. The magnet (3A) can be substituted with other material attractable to the neodymium magnet (5).

The patch (4A) can be placed on the inside or on the outside of the shirt in a chosen strategic place. Also, there can be more magnets (5) and magnetic toys attached to an article of apparel.

FIG. 3 shows back view of the exemplary toy, plush teddy-bear (3B), with magnet (2B) placed inside the toy (3B) near its back material, so the toy (3B) can be magnetically attached to the shirt (1—shown in FIG. 1) by its back, so the front of the toy can be shown (like in FIG. 1). The magnet (12) is magnetically attractable to the neodymium magnet (5—shown in FIG. 2). Also, other toys can be used, which toys contain cooperative with magnets in the clothing magnets or ferromagnets

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the invention and shows the combination of the backpack (7) with the exemplary magnetic toy, which toy is a plush fly (8). The toy (8) has a magnet (9) placed inside and is magnetically attached to the backpack (7), precisely to the magnet (10—shown in FIG. 5) affixed to the backpack (7). The backpack (7) can be substituted with other bag, like a handbag. Exemplary magnetic toy (8) can be substituted with other toy or decorative object. The magnet (9) placed inside the toy, can be substituted with other material attractable to a magnet, like steel or other ferrous material.

FIG. 5 shows the method of decorating bags, such as backpack (7A) with magnetic toy, such as plush fly (8A), with the aid of rare earth magnet, preferably Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) magnet (10). FIG. 5 shows neodymium magnet (10) attached to the backpack (7A). The magnet (10) can be installed in the material of the bag by one of attaching devices: an adhesive, strings, pins, rivets, threaded connectors and a patches. An arrow (11) shows the direction of magnetic attraction. The magnet (9A), having magnetic pole N is placed inside the toy (8A) and is attracted to the neodymium magnet (10), which magnet has opposite magnetic pole S. The magnet (8A) can be substituted with other material attractable to the neodymium magnet (10). The neodymium magnet (10) placed on the backpack (7A) can be also substituted with other material attractable to the magnet (9A), if the magnet (9A) placed in the toy (8A) is a neodymium magnet. There should be at least one neodymium magnet in the combination of a bag and a magnetic toy because the magnetic forces of the neodymium magnet hold the magnetic toy well enough, so it doesn't fall down easily.

The magnet (10) can be placed on the inside or on the outside of the backpack (7A) in a chosen strategic place. Also, there can be more magnets (10) and magnetic toys or ornaments attached to a bag.

Claims

1. A combination comprising of:

a) an article of apparel;

b) a rare earth magnet in quantity of at least one, said rare earth magnet being permanently affixed to said article of apparel;

c) at least one three dimensional toy comprising a material attracted by magnetism; whereby said three dimensional toy could be magnetically attached to said article of apparel.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1, wherein said rare earth magnet is a neodymium magnet.

3. The combination set forth in claim 1, wherein said article of apparel is selected from a group of clothes for children and teenagers, consisting of shirts, jackets, pants, dresses and hats.

4. The combination set forth in claim 1, wherein said article of apparel further includes at least one patch, said patch is made of a material selected from a group consisting of fabric, plastic and resilient material, said patch is permanently affixed to said article of apparel, and said rare earth magnet is affixed to said article of apparel by being placed underneath the material of said patch.

5. The combination set forth in claim 1, wherein said three dimensional toy is selected from a group comprising of plush magnetic toys, resilient magnetic toys, plastic magnetic toys and metal toys.

6. A combination comprising of:

a) a bag;

b) a first material attracted by magnetism, being affixed to said bag; and

c) at least one three dimensional decorative object comprising a second material attracted by said first material; whereby said three dimensional decorative object could be magnetically attached to said bag.

7. The combination set forth in claim 6, wherein said first material attracted by magnetism is one of a metal or a neodymium magnet.

8. The combination set forth in claim 6, wherein said second material attracted by magnetism is one of a metal or a neodymium magnet.

9. The combination set forth in claim 6, wherein said bag is one of an accessory bag or a backpack.

10. The combination set forth in claim 6, wherein said three dimensional decorative object is a toy.

11. The combination set forth in claim 6, wherein said bag further includes at least one patch, said patch is made of a material selected from a group consisting of fabric, plastic and resilient material, said patch is permanently affixed to said bag and said first material attracted by magnetism is affixed to said bag by being placed underneath the material of said patch.

12. The combination set forth in claim 6, wherein said first material attracted by magnetism is strategically installed in the material of said bag by attaching device selected from a group consisting of an adhesive, strings, pins, rivets and threaded connectors.

13. A method of decorating an article of apparel or a bag, comprising placing a rare earth magnet underneath a material of a patch, permanently affixing said patch to said article of apparel or bag covering said rare earth magnet with the material of said patch, and magnetically attaching a toy comprising a material attracted by magnetism to said rare earth magnet placed under said patch.

14. A method of decorating articles of apparel and bags of claim 11, further comprising selecting a material for said patch from a group consisting of fabric, plastic and resilient material, and selecting the method of affixing said patch to said article of apparel or bag from means of adjoinment for patches.

15. A method of decorating articles of apparel and bags of claim 11, further comprising choosing one of the rare earth magnets and picking a neodymium magnet.