NECKWEAR WITH A POCKET

Abstract

At least one pocket may be integrated into, coupled to, or otherwise provided by any suitable neckwear, where the pocket may enable the wearer of the neckwear to securely hold objects in the pocket during use of the neckwear.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application claims the benefit of prior filed U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/133,695, filed Mar. 16, 2015, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to neckwear with a pocket and, more particularly, to neckwear with a pocket that enables the wearer of the neckwear to securely hold objects during use of the neckwear.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Oftentimes, a person uses a purse to carry around personal effects or other suitable items (e.g., a wallet, portable electronic device, keys, etc.) when that person's outfit does not provide suitable pockets for such use (e.g., when a user is wearing a dress or pajamas or tight pants). This can prove troublesome as a purse is often cumbersome or easily misplaced.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

This document describes neckwear with a pocket and methods for using the same.

For example, neckwear to be worn on a neck of a user may include a structure extending between a first free end and a second free end, and a pocket at least partially coupled to the structure and operative to hold an object, wherein the first free end is operative to be coupled to the second free end to form a loop with the structure for surrounding the neck, and wherein an opening to a pouch of the pocket faces one of towards the neck of the user and away from the neck of the user when the loop surrounds the neck.

This Summary is provided merely to summarize some example embodiments, so as to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the subject matter described in this document. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the features described in this Summary are merely examples and should not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subject matter described herein in any way. Unless otherwise stated, features described in the context of one example may be combined or used with features described in the context of one or more other examples. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The discussion below makes reference to the following drawings, in which like reference characters may refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of neckwear with a pocket closed;

FIG. 2 is a back view of the neckwear of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a left side view of the neckwear of FIGS. 1 and 2 with the pocket closed;

FIG. 4 is a right side view of the neckwear of FIGS. 1-3 with the pocket closed;

FIG. 5 is a top end view of the neckwear of FIGS. 1-4;

FIG. 6 is a bottom end view of the neckwear of FIGS. 1-5;

FIG. 7 is a back, left side, bottom end perspective view of the neckwear of FIGS. 1-6;

FIG. 8 is a front view of the pocket of the neckwear of FIGS. 1-7 in a closed configuration;

FIG. 9 is a front perspective view of the pocket of the neckwear of FIGS. 1-8 in a partially opened configuration;

FIG. 10 is a front view of a user wearing the neckwear of FIGS. 1-9 in a first stage of use with the pocket opened;

FIG. 11 is a front view of a user wearing the neckwear of FIGS. 1-10 in a second stage of use with the pocket opened;

FIG. 12 is a front view of a user wearing the neckwear of FIGS. 1-11 in a third stage of use with the pocket opened;

FIG. 13 is a front view of a user wearing other neckwear in a first stage of use;

FIG. 14 is a front view of a user wearing the neckwear of FIG. 1-13 in a second stage of use;

FIG. 15 is a front view of a user wearing yet other neckwear in a final stage of use with a pocket closed;

FIG. 16 is a front view of other neckwear;

FIG. 17 is a back view of the neckwear of FIG. 16 with a pocket closed;

FIG. 18 is a left side view of the neckwear of FIGS. 16 and 17;

FIG. 19 is a right side view of the neckwear of FIGS. 16-18;

FIG. 20 is a top end view of the neckwear of FIGS. 16-19;

FIG. 21 is a bottom end view of the neckwear of FIGS. 16-20;

FIG. 22 is a front, left side, top end perspective view of the neckwear of FIGS. 16-21;

FIG. 23 is a front view of a user wearing the neckwear of FIGS. 16-22 in a first stage of use; and

FIG. 24 is a front view of a user wearing the neckwear of FIGS. 16-23 in a second stage of use.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

An article of clothing worn on the neck of a user or neckwear (e.g., scarf, necklace, purse, shawl, tie, boa, etc.) may include at least one pocket with an opening exposed on the outside or the inside of the article of clothing when worn by the user. The pocket may be configured to hold at least a portion of a cellular telephone or any other suitable object or collection of objects.

As shown in FIGS. 1-12, an article of clothing or neckwear 100 may be a structure of any suitable length extending between a first free end 110 and a second free end 130, where a pocket 120 may be positioned at any suitable position between free ends 110 and 130. Pocket 120 may be provided on any suitable side of neckwear 100 extending between free ends 110 and 130, such as front side 140 (as shown) or an opposite back side 150 (not shown). Alternatively, pocket 120 may be accessible via each one of two openings, each of which may be accessible via a different one of sides 140 and 150 (not shown). Pocket 120 may be made of a pouch distinct from the material of each side of neckwear 100 (e.g., a pouch positioned between sides 140 and 150 of neckwear 100). Alternatively, an interior surface of one or both sides 140 and 150 of neckwear 100 may provide at least a portion of pocket 120. In some embodiments, free ends 110 and 130 or any other two suitable portions of neckwear 100 may be coupled to one another to form an “infinite” article or loop, such as a single loop or a Mobius strip, or any other suitably shaped article, as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. The two portions of neckwear 100 may be coupled in any suitable fashion using reciprocal coupling features 112 (e.g., at end 110) and 132 (e.g., at end 130) that may be coupled together to form the loop. Such coupling features 112 and 132 may include any suitable coupling features including, but not limited to, one or more buttons or snaps or magnets (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 1-12), zippers (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 16-24 with respect to features 412 and 432 at ends 410 and 430 of neckwear 400), hook and loops (e.g., Velcro), flaps, combinations thereof, and the like.

In some embodiments, the length of neckwear 100 may be configured to enable neckwear 100 to be wrapped around the neck 99 of a user any suitable amount of times, such as 1 time (see, e.g., FIG. 11), 2 times (see, e.g., FIG. 12), 3 times, or any other suitable number or fraction of number of times, when either forming a loop or a single length with two free ends. For example, as shown in FIGS. 1-12, neckwear 100 may include two free ends 110 and 130 with respective coupling features 112 and 132 (e.g., snaps) on each end that may enable the two ends to be coupled together (e.g., releasably coupled by a user) to form any suitable loop, which may be worn about neck 99 of the user, such as in a single loop (e.g., as shown in FIG. 11) or multiple loops (e.g., as shown in FIG. 12). Pocket 120 may be accessible from the outside of the loop (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12) at an outer surface exposed to the environment and/or visible to persons adjacent to the user wearing neckwear 100 (e.g., an opening to a pouch of the pocket may face away from neck 99) or from the inside of the loop at an inner surface not exposed to the environment and/or visible to persons adjacent to the user wearing neckwear 100 (not shown in FIGS. 1-12 but may be shown by neckwear 200 of FIG. 13 and/or neckwear 400 of FIG. 23 and/or FIG. 24 where pocket 420 may be provided on back surface 450 rather than front surface 440) (e.g., an opening to a pouch of the pocket may face towards and/or contact neck 99), which may depend on whether the portion of the neckwear with the pocket opening is folded inwardly or outwardly with respect to neck 99 of the user. In some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 17, neckwear 400 may include a hole or passageway or opening 425 that may extend between a pouch of pocket 420 and the exterior of neckwear 400, where opening 425 may enable a certain portion of an object positioned within the pouch to be accessible from outside the pouch when the pocket is closed. For example, opening 425 may be used for feeding a headphone cable through 425 such that earbuds at one end of the headphone cable may be worn by the user while the connector at the other end of the headphone cable may be electrically coupled to a portable media player that may be at least partially positioned within the pouch of pocket 420.

FIGS. 9-12 may show pocket 120 in an open configuration with no objects therein, while FIGS. 1, 3, 4, and 8 may show pocket 120 in a closed configuration with or without an object (e.g., a cellular telephone) positioned at least partially within the pouch of pocket 120. Pocket 120 may be closed using any suitable pocket closing features 122 in any suitable fashion, including, but not limited to, one or more buttons or snaps or magnets (e.g., as shown), zippers (e.g., as shown with respect to features 322 of pocket 320 of neckwear 300 of FIG. 15 and/or features 422 of pocket 420 of neckwear 400 of FIG. 17), hook and loops (e.g., Velcro), flaps, combinations thereof, and the like. Alternatively, the opening to a pouch of a pocket may be expandable and collapsible using any suitable elastic features (e.g., as shown with respect to features 222 of pocket 220 of neckwear 200 of FIG. 14) and/or otherwise.

In some embodiments, the article of clothing may be configured to conceal or otherwise hide the opening of the pocket or the entire pocket. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, when worn by neck 99 of a user, a material of neckwear 200 (e.g., a fluffy or loose material adjacent an opening of pocket 220) may be operative to hide the pocket opening of pocket 220 and/or an object positioned therein. In some embodiments, a flap may be turned down or otherwise folded over another portion of the neckwear that may include the opening of the pocket or that may include any other portion or the entirety of the pocket (e.g., when the pocket is empty and/or when one or more objects are positioned in the pocket).

The article of clothing may be made of any suitable material or combination of materials including, but not limited to, polyester, cotton, cashmere, yarn, wool, leather, combinations thereof, and the like. One side of the article may be made of a first material while a second side of the article may be made of a second material. The article of clothing may be made in any suitable size, shape, color, pattern, or style for any suitable user (e.g., human men, human women, human children, pets, dolls, etc.). In some embodiments, the material and/or color of the article of clothing may hide or otherwise conceal or otherwise make the pocket difficult to discern by a human eye. The pocket and/or coupling elements of one or more free ends of the article may be at least partially made of a different material than at least a portion of the remainder of the article (e.g., the pocket may be at least partially made of leather while the majority of the remainder of the article of clothing may be made of cotton or cashmere or wool).

While there has been described neckwear with at least one pocket, it is to be understood that many changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein in any way. Insubstantial changes from the claimed subject matter as viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or later devised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalently within the scope of the claims. Therefore, obvious substitutions now or later known to one with ordinary skill in the art are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements.

Therefore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the previous description of the disclosed examples can be practiced by other than the described embodiments, which are presented for purposes of illustration rather than of limitation.

Claims

1. Neckwear to be worn on a neck of a user comprising:

a structure extending between a first free end and a second free end; and

a pocket at least partially coupled to the structure and operative to hold an object, wherein: the first free end is operative to be coupled to the second free end to form a loop with the structure for surrounding the neck; and an opening to a pouch of the pocket faces one of towards the neck of the user and away from the neck of the user when the loop surrounds the neck.

2. The neckwear of claim 1, wherein the structure is a scarf.

3. The neckwear of claim 1, further comprising:

a first coupling mechanism at the first free end; and

a second coupling mechanism at the second free end operative to be coupled to the first coupling mechanism to form the loop.

4. The neckwear of claim 3, wherein the first coupling mechanism and the second coupling mechanism comprise snaps.

5. The neckwear of claim 3, wherein the first coupling mechanism and the second coupling mechanism comprise buttons.

6. The neckwear of claim 3, wherein the first coupling mechanism and the second coupling mechanism comprise zippers.

7. The neckwear of claim 3, wherein the first coupling mechanism and the second coupling mechanism comprise hooks and loops.

8. The neckwear of claim 1, further comprising:

a first coupling mechanism at a first portion of the pocket; and

a second coupling mechanism at a second portion of the pocket operative to be coupled to the first coupling mechanism to close the opening to the pouch of the pocket.

9. The neckwear of claim 8, wherein the first coupling mechanism and the second coupling mechanism comprise snaps.

10. The neckwear of claim 8, wherein the first coupling mechanism and the second coupling mechanism comprise buttons.

11. The neckwear of claim 8, wherein the first coupling mechanism and the second coupling mechanism comprise zippers.

12. The neckwear of claim 8, wherein the first coupling mechanism and the second coupling mechanism comprise hooks and loops.

13. The neckwear of claim 1, wherein the opening to the pouch of the pocket faces towards the neck of the user when the loop surrounds the neck.

14. The neckwear of claim 1, wherein the opening to the pouch of the pocket faces away from the neck of the user when the loop surrounds the neck.

15. The neckwear of claim 1, wherein the loop surrounds the neck multiple times.