Ball Drying Pouch

Abstract

A ball drying pouch for, e.g., a football or soccer ball has an absorbent interior liner, a water repellent exterior layer, and a water pervious drainage portion. Fasteners permit the pouch to be worn by an official. The top and bottom edges of the pouch are permanently closed. One or both side edges afford an opening for insertion of a ball for drying.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/592,346 entitled “Ball Drying Pouch,” filed on Nov. 2, 2006 in the name of Chadwick C. Brown. This application claims the benefit of that application, which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a ball drying implement for use by an official to dry such game balls as footballs or soccer balls and more particularly to a wearable pouch with an interior of water absorbing material.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A football player or fan will be familiar with an official's use of a towel to dry the game ball when a game is being played in rain or snow.

The use of a pouch for the purpose of drying footballs has been suggested known in the art. One such pouch is shown in a Stephenson U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,769. That pouch has an outer waterproof covering and an interior, removable moisture-absorbent liner. The pouch has at its top an opening closable by a flap and held closed by hook and loop fasteners. In use the pouch's sides are tied closed by laces. Insertion and retrieval of the football is through the upper opening so that it appears one hand would be needed to pull back the closure flap and the remaining hand of the wearer would be needed to insert or retrieve the football. The pouch is supported by a strap hung from the official's neck and shoulders.

In another U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,287 to Martin, a pair of stretchable bag-like ball carriers are attached by a long cord to be draped over the wearer's shoulders. The ball carriers stretch about the exterior of a pair of footballs to hold extra footballs for a game, and they protect those footballs from the weather. There is no mention of drying the football once it has been in use. Other patents such as those to Hendren U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,080 and Lamonakis et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,414 relate to towels that can be worn for the purpose of drying a ball and include multiple layers. In the Hendren patent, an outer layer of toweling is separated from an inner chamois layer by a water impervious layer. The Hendren arrangement is not a pouch for holding a ball, but rather a multilayer towel. The Lamonakis et al. patent shows a bell-shaped “skirt” of water repellent material that is placed over a towel to keep dry the towel. Lamonakis et al. contemplate inverting the entire arrangement to expose the towel so that a ball can be wiped. The arrangement is not a pouch that can carry a ball or enclose a ball as it is being dried.

There remains a need, therefore, for a ball drying pouch for use, e.g., with footballs or soccer balls in wet conditions wherein the ball can be inserted easily and one handedly and similarly easily retrieved once the ball has been rubbed dry by an interior water-absorbent liner.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the present invention a ball drying pouch has an exterior layer of substantially water impervious flexible sheet material, an inner lining layer of water absorbent material, and a drainage portion of water pervious material. The exterior layer, interior layer, and drainage portion are formed, as by sewing or folding, into a pouch capable of containing a ball to be dried. The top and bottom of the pouch so fashioned is closed. One or both side edges of the pouch form openings into which the ball can be inserted. Because the bottom of the pouch is permanently closed, there is little likelihood that an official using the pouch will drop the ball, but only one hand is needed to insert the ball from the side into the pouch to be briefly rubbed, and then retracted, again by a single hand. A busy on-field official can thus readily accomplish drying the ball without diverting his or her attention from other activities on the field.

In a preferred exemplary embodiment the interior layer of the pouch is chamois or a similarly absorbent material, and the drainage portion is mesh or a similarly water pervious material. Also in the exemplary preferred embodiment the pouch has attachment provisions for securing the pouch to the official's person or clothing. Typically in the preferred embodiment the pouch is secured to the wearer's belt at two locations along the top of the pouch. One preferred attachment arrangement includes strap loops that receive a wearer's belt to hold the pouch in place. The strap loops can have fasteners that open and close to open and close the loops about the wearer's belt. The strap loops are in one exemplary embodiment sewn to the pouch body. Similarly in one exemplary embodiment the interior water absorbent layer is sewn to the exterior water repellent or impervious layer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary front view of an official wearing a ball drying pouch in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of the pouch of FIG. 1 and shows its one or more side openings and loop fasteners;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view showing the manner of assembly of the pouch and the loop fasteners; and

FIG. 4 is a further fragmentary front view of the official inserting a football into the ball drying pouch of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As seen in FIG. 1, a football official 10 wears a pouch 12 secured to his belt 14 by a pair of strap loops 16 and 18. The pouch 12 comprises an exterior layer 40, an interior layer 42, and a drainage portion 30.

As shown in FIG. 2 the pouch has a front panel 32, a back panel 34, a closed top edge 20, a closed bottom edge 22, and a pair of side edges 24 and 26. One or both side edges 24 and 26 form an opening 28. Fixed to the pouch at or near the top edge 20 are a pair of strap loops 16 and 18 for securing the pouch to an official's belt. A pair of quick fasteners 36 and 38 of a known commercially available kind permit opening and closing of the loops 16 and 18. Other fasteners than those shown can be used as desired. For example hook and loop fastening patches, snaps, ties or any other known, convenient fastener suitable to bring together the two strap pieces into a loop will suffice. Likewise fastening devices other than the strap loops can hold the pouch 12 in place. For example, hook and loop fastening patches secured to the pouch and the official's uniform could be used to secure the pouch. Clips positioned to clip onto the official's belt loops and attached at or near the top edge 20 of the pouch 12 is a further alternative example.

The construction of the pouch is better illustrated from FIG. 3. In the illustrated exemplary embodiment shown, the pouch is formed by the exterior layer 40, the interior layer 42 and the drainage portion 30. The exterior layer 40 is of substantially waterproof or water repellent material such as vinyl or other plastic. The interior layer 42 is of chamois or other water absorbent material. The drainage portion 30 is of water pervious material. In this exemplary embodiment the interior layer 42 is sewn to the external water resistant material 40 as indicated at 44, and the drainage portion 30 is sewn to either or both the exterior layer 40 and the interior layer 42 as indicated at 54. The top edge 20 of the pouch 12 is formed by sewing or folding. A bottom edge 46 of the front panel 32 is secured to a first edge 50 of the drainage portion 30. Likewise, a bottom edge 48 of the back panel 34 is secured to a second edge 52 of the drainage portion 30. As shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4, the drainage portion 30 may be of any shape and size appropriate for draining excess moisture and/or ventilating the pouch 12. The straps that form the strap loops 16 and 18 have strap ends sewn into the interior of the pouch as indicated at 56.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, because the pouch 12 is open at one or both sides it is easy for an official to insert a ball, dry the ball and extract the ball with little attention to those operations and without even looking at the pouch and ball. As previously stated this has the advantage of permitting the official to pay more attention to the activities on the field. While stitching has been shown to join the layers of the exemplary pouch, it will be appreciated that other means such as hook and loop fastening patches, snaps, laces or other connection means may be used to secure the layers. Also while the joinder of the interior and exterior layers has been shown in the preferred embodiment as being permanent, the interior lining could be removable if, for example, hook and loop fastening or other easily separable fastening means are used.

While a particular exemplary and preferred embodiment has been shown, it will be appreciated that many changes, modifications or revisions in the described ball drying pouch may be made as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art and without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A ball drying pouch comprising:

(a) an exterior layer of substantially water impervious flexible sheet,

(b) an interior lining layer of water absorbent material affixed to the exterior layer,

(c) a drainage portion of water pervious material affixed to either or both the exterior layer and the interior layer,

(d) the exterior layer, interior layer and drainage portion forming a pouch body that has: (i) a front panel and a back panel, (ii) the front and back panels defining between them a ball-receiving pocket, (iii) the front and back panels being unjoined along at least one side edge to form an opening for receiving a ball sideways into the pocket of the pouch, and

(e) means for attaching the pouch body to a wearer.

2. The pouch according to claim 1, wherein the pouch body has an opening at each of two side edges of the pouch body.

3. The pouch according to claim 1, wherein the means for attaching includes a fastening means at each of two locations at or near the top of the pouch body.

4. The pouch according to claim 3, wherein the fastening means are strap loops affixed to the pouch body for receiving a wearer's belt.

5. The pouch according to claim 4, wherein the strap loops carry fastener pairs for opening the strap loops and closing the strap loops about the wearer's belt.

6. The pouch according to claim 1, wherein the interior layer is chamois.

7. The pouch according to claim 1, wherein the interior layer is sewn to the exterior layer.

8. The pouch according to claim 5, wherein the strap loops are sewn to the pouch body.

9. The pouch according to claim 1, wherein the drainage portion is mesh.