GARMENT WITH ZIPPER AND TAB LOCKING MEMBER

Abstract

A garment with garment surface is provided with a pocket having a pocket opening. The pocket is provided with a zipper for selectively closing the pocket opening. The zipper has a slider operable between an open and closed position by a tab. A tab locking element is used to secure the slider at or near its closed position.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of Invention

This invention pertains to a garment having a zipper selectively closing a pocket. The zipper is selectively closed by a slider with a tab. A tab locking member is used to secure the tab in the closed position of the slider.

B. Description of the Prior Art

At the beginning of the 20^th century zippers have become very popular accessories on garments. They are used for both utilitarian functions and as decorative features, the former including joining various components of a garment together and selectively closing and opening the pockets on the garment. The present invention is concerned with this latter function.

Zippers are found to be very useful for selectively closing pockets because require relatively little maintenance, do not break very often, can be used to open or close pockets only partially. Perhaps one of the biggest advantage of zippers is that, as opposed to buttons, they require little force or dexterity and therefore can be used easily not only by adults, but by elderly and children alike.

However, this very ease of operation for opening or closing pockets on garments also render zippers an easy target for thieves and pickpockets. In other words, people wearing garments having pockets closed by zippers become easy targets since opening a zippered pocket, such as a back pocket on a pair of pants, or even inside pockets on a jacket, present no challenge at all to a thief.

The present invention addresses and resolves this problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A garment has a surface, that may be an inner or an outer surface, with a pocket having an opening on said surface. The opening is selectively closed by a zipper having a slider. A tab is used to as a handle to operate the slider across the teeth of the zipper.

A tab locking member has one end attached to the garment surface at a location near the closed position of the slider. The tab locking member is used to selectively engage the tab and prevent the slider from being opened until the tab is disengaged from the tab locking member.

In a preferred embodiment, the tab locking member includes a tab having one end attached to the garment surface and the other, free end being provided with a pair of opposed fingers. The tab is provided with a housing having holes sized and shaped to receive the opposed fingers. When the fingers are shaped and biased so that once they enter the holes in the housing, they flex outwardly to form an interference fit with the housing. The fingers and the housing thus form a snap which acts as the tab locking member.

DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a front view of a pocket closed with an unsecured zipper.

FIG. 2 shows a front view of the pocket of FIG. 1 with the zipper tab being secured.

FIG. 3 shows the pocket of FIG. 1 completely open.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the Figures, a garment 10 with a surface 11 is shown with a pocket 12 having a mouth 14 opening on surface 11. Surface 11 may be an inner or an outer surface. The garment 10 may be a pair of pants, or any other type of garment, such a blouse, a jacket, etc., and the pocket 12 may be constructed so that its mouth 14 is accessible either from outside or inside the garment.

Closing the mouth 14 there is a zipper 16. The zipper 16 is preferably a conventional zipper having two tapes 18, 20 holding two sets of teeth 22, 24 and a slider 26. Moving the slider 26 back and forth in the direction shown by arrow A causes the slider to selectively interlock or separate the teeth 22, 24 thereby opening or closing the mouth 14 in the conventional manner.

The slider 26 has a tab 28 that is used to move manually operate the slider 26 as discussed above.

According to the present invention, the garment 10 is further provided with a tab locking member 30. The purpose of the tab locking member 30 is to selectively engage the tab 28 while the slider 26 is in the fully or partially closed position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, thereby preventing anybody from moving the slider 26 to open mouth 16 of pocket 12. FIG. 3 shows the slider 26 at the open position.

The tab locking member 30 can be implemented in a number of different ways. In the figures, the tab locking member 30 includes two relatively flexible tapes 32, 34 made of flexible material such as a fabric. One end 32A of tape 32 is sewn or otherwise attached to tab 28. The other end 32 B is attached to a clasp 36 having a base 38, two lateral fingers 40, 42 and a center finger 44. The two lateral fingers are somewhat flexible so that they can bend toward each other.

Tape 34 has one end 34A attached to the garment 10 by sewing or other conventional means. The other end 34B is attached to a buckle 46. Buckle 46 includes a base 48 receiving tape end 34B and a housing 50 is hollow and is formed with a front opening 52 and two lateral openings 54, 56,

The opening 52 is sized and shaped to receive the fingers 40, 42, 44 of clasp 36. The fingers 40, 42 are shaped and sized so that as the clasp 36 is introduced into buckle 46, the fingers 40, 42 (after flexing toward each other) snap into openings 54, 56 thereby locking the hasp 36 and buckle 46 together.

The invention operates as follows. FIG. 3 shows the zipper 16 with slider 26 all the way to the right so that the mouth 14 is completely open. The mouth 14 is closed by moving the slider 26 to the left until it reaches the position shown in FIG. 2 in the conventional manner. At this point, the clasp 36 is inserted into the buckle 46 until the fingers 40, 42 snap into the openings 54, 56 thereby locking the zipper tab 26. Once locked, the zipper 26 can be moved only a small distance as shown in FIG. 1 thereby insuring that the contents of pocket 12 are safe.

Squeezing the fingers 40, 42 together through openings 54, 56 allows the buckle 46 and clasp 36 to be separated releasing the tab 16.

The position of the parts of the snap can be reversed so that the fingers are attached to the tab and the housing is attached to the garment surface near the dosed position of the slider.

Alternatively other similar elements may be used to selectively secure the slider at or near its dosed position.

Numerous modification may be made to the invention without departing from its scope as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A garment comprising:

a garment surface;

a pocket having a pocket opening on said garment surface;

a zipper with two zipper tapes and a slider cooperating to form a recloseable closure for said opening, and a tab attached to said slider for manual operation of said slider between an open and a closed position of said slider; and

a tab locking element selectively engaging said tab when said slider is at said closed position to effectively retain said slider in said closed position.

2. The garment of claim 1 wherein said tab locking element is clasp having a housing with holes and flexible fingers selectively inserted into the housing to secure the slider at the closed position.

3. The garment of claim 2 wherein said housing is attached to said tab and said fingers are attached to the garment surface.