COMBINATION SOCKS WITH FASTENERS

Abstract

A pair of socks and a pair of complementary fasteners to hold the pair of socks together while the socks are being washed, dried and stored in a drawer. The pair of fasteners are connected to one another so that one sock is attached to the other. In one preferred embodiment, a snap is attached inside the first sock and a receptacle is attached inside the second sock. Protective flaps lie over and cover the snap and receptacle inside the socks. With the snap and receptacle uncovered, the snap is moved into mating engagement with and detachably connected to the receptacle. In a second preferred embodiment, a locking ring is attached outside the first sock and a clip is attached outside the second sock. A retractable hook of the ring is removably received through an opening in the clip, whereby the ring is detachably connected to the clip.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a pair of socks having respective complementary fasteners which can be detachably connected to one another to attach the socks together. The combination socks with fasteners are ideal to hold the socks together when the socks are being washed and dried with other socks or placed in a drawer.

2. Background Art

It is often desirable to attach a pair of socks together to prevent one sock of the pair from separating from the other sock and perhaps becoming lost. By way of particular example, when many individual socks are being washed at the same time in a washing machine with different socks and other articles of clothing, it is sometimes difficult and time consuming to find and correctly match the socks once the washing and drying steps have been completed. To prevent their separation and hold a pair of socks together while being washed and dried, a safety pin has been used to attach one sock to the other. Because of the turbulence to which the socks are subjected during the washing and drying steps, the socks are often torn by the safety pins. Moreover, it is sometimes difficult to remove the safety pin from the socks so that the socks can be worn.

In addition, it may take time to locate a suitable number of fasteners to be used to attach pairs of socks together immediately prior to their being washed and dried. What is more, the fasteners can be misplaced once the socks have been washed and dried and the fasteners have been removed therefrom. To avoid this problem, it may be advantageous to have the fasteners affixed to and carried by the pair of socks even while the socks are worn with a pair of shoes. However, if the fasteners were to be located inside the socks so as to be hidden from view when the socks are being worn, the fasteners can rub against and irritate the wearer's skin, particularly if the wearer is a young child or a baby.

Therefore, what would be desirable is a pair of socks having respective complementary fasteners that are attached to and carried by the socks, where the fasteners are located out of sight inside the socks and isolated from the wearer's feet to avoid irritating his skin.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In general terms, disclosed herein is the combination of a pair of socks and a pair of complementary fasteners affixed to and carried by respective ones of the pair of socks. The fasteners are adapted to be detachably connected together so that the socks can be attached to one another during those times when the socks are being washed, dried or stored in a drawer. According to a first preferred embodiment, the fasteners are attached inside the socks just below the open top ends thereof. More particularly, and by way of example, a first of the pair of complementary fasteners is a button snap, and the other fastener is a button receptacle. To prevent the fasteners from contacting and irritating the wearer's skin when the socks are being worn, foldable protective flaps are attached (e.g., stitched) to the inside of the socks so as to lie over and cover the snap and the receptacle. Thus, when the pair of socks is worn, the flaps isolate the button snap and the button receptacle from the wearer's feet. When it is necessary to connect or disconnect the pair of fasteners, the flexible flaps are simply folded back and off the fasteners to give the wearer access thereto.

According to a second preferred embodiment, the complementary pair of fasteners is affixed to the outside of the pair of socks (e.g., high ankle work or athletic socks). In this case, and by way of further example, a locking ring is carried by a first of the pair of socks and a loop shaped locking clip is carried by the other sock. By the wearer manipulating a tab which projects from the locking ring, a retractable inner hook of the locking ring can be moved into and through an opening in the locking clip, whereby the locking ring and the locking clip are detachably connected together so that the pair of socks will be attached to one another.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a pair of socks according to a first preferred embodiment where a pair of complementary fasteners are attached to the inside of respective ones of the socks;

FIG. 2A shows a first of the pair of fasteners of FIG. 1 attached to the inside of and carried by a first of the pair of socks;

FIG. 2B shows the second of the pair of fasteners of FIG. 1 attached to the inside of and carried by the second of the pair of socks;

FIG. 3A shows the pair of complementary fasteners of FIG. 1 positioned to be detachably connected to one another;

FIG. 3B shows the pair of complementary fasteners of FIG. 3A detachably connected to one another;

FIG. 4 shows the pair of socks of FIG. 1 attached together after the pair of complementary fasteners has been detachably connected to one another;

FIG. 5A shows a pair of socks according to a second preferred embodiment where a pair of complementary fasteners are attached to the outside of respective ones of the socks; and

FIG. 5B shows the pair of socks of FIG. 5A attached together after the pair of complementary fasteners have been detachably connected to one another.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, there is shown a pair of socks 1 and 3 to which the present invention is applicable. The socks 1 and 3 can be conventional and be manufactured from any suitable material (e.g., cotton or the like). The socks 1 and 3 can have any or no ornamental design and be used by either a man or a woman. The pair of socks 1 and 3 are typically the kind that would be washed from time-to-time in a washing machine with other pairs of socks which may be similar to or different from the socks shown in FIG. 1.

A pair of complementary fasteners are now described to be carried by respective ones of the pair of socks 1 and 3 in order to prevent the pair of socks from becoming separated from one another during the washing and drying processes and being mixed with the socks from the other pairs of socks that are washed and dried at the same time. In accordance with a first preferred embodiment of this invention, and referring concurrently to FIGS. 2A-4 of the drawings, the complementary fasteners include a button snap 5 attached to one of the pair of socks 1 and a button receptacle 7 attached to the other sock 3.

The button snap 5 and button receptacle 7 are preferably sewn to respective ones of the socks 1 and 3 at the inside of each just below the open top end thereof through which the wearer's foot is inserted. However, as an important detail, each of the button snap 5 and the button receptacle 7 is covered by a respective protective flap 9 and 10. The flaps 9 and 10 have a size and shape (e.g., either flat or pocket-shaped) so as to lay over and cover the snap 5 and receptacle 7. The protective flaps 9 and 10 are ideally manufactured from a comfortable and foldable cloth material and are located between each of the snap 5 and the receptacle 7 and the wearer's feet when the socks 1 and 3 are worn.

The protective foldable flaps 9 and 10 are attached to respective ones of the pair of socks 1 and 3 by means of, for example, stitching 12 and 14. As is best shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, only a portion (e.g., the top) of each flap 9 and 10 is stitched to its sock 1 and 3. Thus, the free bottom ends of the flaps 9 and 10 can be folded towards and over the stitched top ends in order to expose the button snap 5 and the button receptacle 7 on which the flaps 9 and 10 are initially laid. In this same regard, the flaps 9 and 10 can also be pulled downwardly so as to cover the button snap 5 and the button receptacle 7. In this case, the flaps 9 and 10 will prevent the snap and receptacle 5 and 7 from rubbing against the skin and irritating the feet of the wearer whether or not the socks 1 and 3 are being worn inside a pair of shoes.

When the pair of socks 1 and 3 are off the feet of the wearer, there are times when it is desirable to attach the socks to one another so that they will travel together. For example, when the pair of socks 1 and 3 are being washed with many other socks, keeping the pair of socks attached to one another during the washing process and subsequent drying process enables the wearer to quickly and easily locate the matched pair without having to sort through a pile of different socks. Moreover, when the pair of socks are being stored in a drawer along with other pairs, the wearer will be able to visually inspect and find the particular matched pair.

Attaching the pair of socks 1 and 3 together to achieve the aforementioned advantages is simply accomplished by first folding (i.e., raising) the flaps 9 and 10 over the stitching 12 and 14 to expose the button snap 5 and the button receptacle 7. With the pair of socks 1 and 3 being grasped in the hands of the wearer, the button snap 5 and the button receptacle 7 are held in opposite facing alignment with one another as shown in FIG. 3A of the drawings. The socks 1 and 3 are then pushed towards one another until the button snap 5 is moved into detachable mating engagement with the opposing button receptacle 7 as is shown in FIG. 3B and 4.

When it is desirable to separate the pair of socks 1 and 3 from one another, the socks are simply pulled apart with sufficient force to cause the button snap 5 to be detached from the button receptacle 7. The socks may now be used for any purpose. However, by virtue of being able to hold the socks 1 and 3 together by means of the relatively small and non-obtrusive snap 5 and receptacle 7, the socks will not be damaged (i.e., torn) during the attachment and detachment processes as has been known to occur when a safety pin, or the like, is used.

For the pair of socks 1 and 3 that are shown and described while referring to FIGS. 1-4, the socks were attached to one another by means of a button snap 5 being moved into detachable mating engagement with a button receptacle 7. However, the advantages of the present invention can also be achieved with the use of other fasteners. For example, and turning now to FIGS. 5A and 5B of the drawings, a second pair of socks 20 and 22 is shown in combination with a conventional clasp.

More particularly, and in accordance with a second preferred embodiment, a locking ring 24 is attached (e.g., sewn) to and carried by a first 20 of the pair of socks, and a complementary locking clip 26 is attached (e.g., sewn) to and carried by the other sock 22 of the pair. Unlike the case of the button snap 5 and the button receptacle 7 of FIGS. 1-4, the locking ring 24 and locking clip 26 are shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B attached to the outside of respective ones of the socks 20 and 22 below the open top of each. Such fasteners are ideal for certain types of socks, such as, for example, knee high work socks and out-of-doors athletic socks that extend well above the wearer's ankles.

The locking ring 24 is of the kind that is typically hollow with a retractable inner hook 28 that is withdrawn so that the ring 24 can be opened as is best shown in FIG. 5A in response to the wearer actuating (i.e., pulling back on) a tab 30 that projects outwardly from the inner hook 28. An opening 32 is formed through the locking clip 26 within which to receive the inner hook 28 of the locking ring 24. That is to say, and as is best shown in FIG. 5B, when the inner hook 28 is received through the opening 32, the locking clip 26 will be detachably connected to the locking ring 24 whereby the pair of socks 20 and 22 are attached to one another. However, when the tab 30 is actuated by the wearer and the inner hook 28 is thereby retracted into the hollow locking ring 24, the locking clip 26 can be detached from the locking ring 24 so that the pair of socks can be separated from one another and used for any purpose.

It is within the scope of this invention for the locking ring 24 and the locking clip 26 of the clasp to also be located inside the pair of socks 20 and 22. If the aforementioned clasp were to be attached to the insides of the pair of socks 20 and 22, then protective flaps (like those designated 9 and 10 in FIGS. 1-4) may optionally be attached to the socks so as to lie over and cover the locking ring 24 and the locking clip 26.

Claims

1. A combination comprising first and second socks and a fastener by which the first of the socks is attached to the second sock, said fastener including a snap attached to the first sock and a complementary receptacle attached to the second sock and sized so that the snap of said first sock can be moved into mating engagement with and detachably connected to the receptacle of said second sock.

2. The combination recited in claim 1, wherein said snap is attached to the inside of said first sock and said receptacle is attached to the inside of said second sock.

3. The combination recited in claim 2, further comprising a first protective flap lying over and covering the snap of said first sock so as to lie between said snap and a first foot of a wearer when said first sock is worn on the first foot of the wearer and a second protective flap lying over and covering the receptacle of said second sock so as to lie between said receptacle and the second foot of the wearer when said second sock is worn on the second foot of the wearer.

4. The combination recited in claim 3, wherein one side of each of said first and second flaps is affixed to the inside of a respective one of said first and second socks, and the opposite sides of said first and second flaps are free to move off of and uncover said snap and said receptacle to enable said snap and said receptacle to be moved into mating engagement with and detachably connected together.

5. The combination recited in claim 4, wherein each of said first and second flaps has a top and a bottom, and wherein said bottom can be folded towards said top, the tops of said first and second flaps being stitched to the insides of respective ones of said first and second socks above the snap and the receptacle thereof and the bottoms of said first and second flaps being free to be folded towards and over said stitched tops to thereby uncover said snap and said receptacle.

6. A combination comprising first and second socks and a clasp by which a first of the socks is attached to the second sock, said clasp comprising a ring attached to the first sock and a clip attached to the second sock, said clip having an opening through which to removably receive said ring so that the ring of said first sock is detachably connected to the clip of said second sock.

7. The combination recited in claim 6, wherein said ring is attached so as to lie outside of said first sock and said clip is attached so as to lie outside of said second sock.

8. A combination comprising first and second socks, a first fastener attached to the inside of a first of the socks, a second fastener attached to the inside of the second sock, a first foldable flap attached to the inside of the first sock and laying over and covering said first fastener, and a second flap attached to the inside of the second sock and laying over and covering said second fastener, said first and said second flaps being folded and uncovering said first and second fasteners so that said first and second fasteners can be coupled to one another by which said first sock is attached to said second sock.