Sport-Themed Rivalry Outfit with Separable or Switchable Components
A team sport rivalry outfit featuring removably separable fan and rival team sides and an identifier affixed to one or to both the fan team side and the rival team side to indicate a wearer's support for the fan team side and lack of support for the rival team side. The rivalry outfit may be configured as shirts, jackets, pants, hats, and skirts. The identifier is permanently or removably affixed to the fan team side or to the rival team side. The fan and rival team sides are permanently sewn together, or removably affixed to one another using hook and loop fasteners, zippers, snaps, or other standard removable closures.
Reference is made to and priority claimed from U.S. provisional application serial no. 62/529,651 filed on 24 Jul. 2017.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENTNot applicable.
NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENTNot applicable.
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE EFS WEB SYSTEMNot applicable.
STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR A JOINT INVENTORNot applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the InventionThe present invention pertains to the field of team apparel bearing team specific identifying colors and visual designs meant to be worn by sports fans to show support for teams favored by the wearers, as well as acknowledge rivalries between teams, and not uniforms or apparel worn by team players when playing their particular sport.
Background ArtRivalry between sports teams is an ancient phenomenon, going back thousands of years. Each team has a visually distinct sports outfit, combining specific colors, logos, and other designs to differentiate its players from those of the rival team. To show support for a specific team, fans often wear reproduction apparel mimicking their favorite team's uniforms, or a favorite player's specific uniform, commonly a team jersey bearing the player's number and/or name, or just apparel that bears the team's colors and logos to show support. Hats, hooded sweatshirts, t-shirts, shorts, pants, jackets, etc. are commonly printed with team logos and designs and are very popular items with fans of both professional and nonprofessional team sports. Retailers such as Target Corporation of Minneapolis, Minn., and Walmart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Ariz., sell a variety of team sports themed clothing for local high school and university teams, as well as for professional sports teams.
Rivalries between teams encourage fans to support their own team, and at the same time disparage the rival team. Fans often wear their team's apparel, and perhaps wave signs disparaging the rival visiting team. There currently is no way to wear a single apparel item that shows both support for a fan's favorite team, and simultaneously disparages the rival team. Some fans will mix fan support apparel to show rivalries, which results in a confusing mix of attire. Does a person wearing a Pittsburgh Steeler's reproduction jersey and a Cleveland Brown's hat support the Steelers or the Browns? There is no way to tell. Some clever fans make their own rivalry/support shirts using paint on plain white t-shirts, but for each rivalry, this requires industrious fans to create many different shirts, a tedious and expensive activity in which the majority of fans are not willing to engage.
What is needed is an inexpensive and efficient way to customize a sports-themed apparel item in a way that makes the apparel item fully customizable to show different fan support-rivalries, as desired.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONA team sport rivalry outfit in a first aspect of the invention having a fan team side and rival team side, the fan and rival team sides removably affixed to one another at an interface area using removable fasteners, and where a team fan or rival identifier is affixed to an appropriate fan or rival team side.
In a second aspect of the invention, the team sport rivalry outfit has two fan team sides, where both sides are for a same team or are different teams.
In a third aspect of the invention, the team sport rivalry outfit is configured as one of a shirt, pants, hat, or skirt.
In yet a fourth aspect of the invention, the identifier is removably affixed to one of the fan team side and the rival team side.
The features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the subsequent detailed description presented in connection with accompanying drawings, in which:
The following is a list of reference labels used in the drawings to label components of different embodiments of the invention, and the names of the indicated components:
- 100 sport-themed rivalry outfit with separable or switchable components or rivalry outfit
- 10a fan side of outfit
- 10b rival side of outfit
- 10c interface area
- 10d front side of outfit
- 10e back side of outfit
- 10f identifier (rival or fan, depending on which side of the rivalry outfit the identifier is positioned)
- 12 separable fastener (zipper, hook and loop, buttons, etc.)
- 14 sleeve
- 14a armhole
- 14b shoulder
- 14c wrist
- 16 crotch seam
- 18 outer seam
- 18b inner seam
- 20 leg
- 20a separable portion of leg
- 22 hat
A sport-themed rivalry outfit with separable or switchable components according to the invention or rivalry outfit 100 is shown in
The rivalry outfit 100 is created by joining two rival or opposing team outfits into a single apparel item, for instance, a t-shirt, where a fan side 10a of the rivalry outfit features a design identifying a fan favorite team, and a second or rival side 10b features a design for a rival or opposing team as well as an additional indicator, an identifier 10f serving as a rival side identifier when located on the rival side 10b as in the Figures, or a fan side identifier when located on the fan side (not shown), to distinguish between the fan and rival teams, and show fan support of the fan team. Both the fan side 10a and the rival side 10b have a front side 10d and a back side 10e, such that an entire side, front and back are a rival side, or a fan side. Note that generally, an entire side or half of the outfit, front and back, is for a same team, as shown in
The fan side 10a and the rival side 10b are removably affixed to one another by a variety of separable fasteners 12, such as zippers, buttons-buttonholes, hook and loop closures, snaps, etc. In
The inventor points out that while his invention in the Figures generally shows the rival side 10b as a left side of the outfit from the viewpoint of another looking directly at a front side of the outfit, that the fan side 10a can easily be located on the left side of the outfit and the fan-rival sides reversed. The rival side 10b in
The inventor notes that the removable rival side identifier 10f could also be affixed to a variety of places on the rival side 10b, especially if hook and loop fasteners are used, and in yet another embodiment, the rival side 10b is made of a fabric such as terrycloth, fleece, microfiber, etc. that mimics a loop side of hook and loop removable fasteners, and as such, one or more rival side identifiers 10f formed with a “hook” type fastener on a backside of the identifier 10f can be positioned along any area of the rival side 10b, allowing a variety of phrases and/or images to be positioned on the rival side. Similarly, the inventor notes that the fan side 10a could also be configured out of a same “loop” type fabric, and thus the identifier 10f, if positioned on the fan side would serve as fan side identifiers, and could be removably positioned on the fan side, such as jersey numbers of favorite team players, photos of favorite players, and phrases or words of encouragement for the fan team, etc.
In the embodiment where the fan side 10a and the rival side 10b are both made of the same “loop” type fabric, the fastener 12 could simply be a strip of “hook” type fabric that is completely separable from either side, or affixed to one side and overlapping the other side so as to join the fan and rival sides together at the interface area 10c. Also, a same type of fastener does not have to be used on the entire rivalry outfit; for instance, the rivalry outfit shown in
As an alternative to using “loop” type fabric, the rivalry outfit could also have a series of either male or female snaps formed along desired areas of the outfit, such as along the front face of the outfit, with the rivalry identifier 10f having a corresponding female or male snap to allow interchanging the identifier without using “loop” type fabric.
The inventor also notes that using snaps or hook and loop fasteners along the interface area 10c allows the rivalry outfits shown particularly in
The inventor also notes that the fan side and the rival side can be permanently affixed to one another by sewing, gluing, heat fusing, or other similar permanent means, in the case of established team rivalries where the fan is not interested in switching rival or fan sides.
The inventor notes that any trademarks shown in the Figures belong to their respective trademark owners and the invention described herein is for the idea of separable or switchable outfit components for team rivalries, and not intended to capture or tread upon trademark or copyrights that exist in the team designs.
It is to be understood that the above-described arrangements are only illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention. Numerous modifications and alternative arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention. For instance, aside from the use of “loop” type fabrics mentioned previously, the rivalry outfit can be made of numerous suitable fabrics and the rival or fan sides can be permanently sewn together, or removably affixed using hook and loop tape, buttons, snaps, zippers, etc. and the inventor notes that different sides of the rivalry outfit can be made of different fabrics, as desired. Similarly, the removable pant legs and sleeves can be made of a different fabric from the rest of the rivalry outfit with good results.
Claims
1. A team sport rivalry outfit, comprising:
- a fan side having a front side with a front interface area, and a back side having a back interface area;
- a rival side having a front side with a second front interface area, and a back side having a back interface area; and
- a identifier affixed to at least one of the rival side and the fan side;
- wherein the fan side along the front interface area is affixed to the rival side front interface area; and
- wherein the fan side along the back interface area is affixed to the rival side back interface area.
2. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 1, wherein the fan side consists of a first team design and the rival side consists of a second team design.
3. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 2, wherein the first team design and the second team design are of opposing or rival teams.
4. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 2, wherein the first team design and the second team design are different designs of a same team.
5. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 2, wherein the first team design and the second team design are both favored teams and are from a same or a different team sport.
6. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 1, wherein the fan side and the rival side are removably affixed along the front interface area and the back interface area.
7. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 1, wherein the identifier is a rival side identifier affixed to the rival side.
8. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 7, wherein the identifier is removably affixed and repositionable on the rival side.
9. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 1, wherein the identifier is a fan side identifier affixed to the fan side.
10. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 9, wherein the identifier is removably affixed and repositionable on the fan side.
11. The rivalry outfit in claim 1, wherein the article of clothing is selected from the group consisting of shirts, hats, and skirts.
12. A team sport rivalry outfit, comprising:
- a front side;
- a back side affixed to the front side;
- a separable portion removably affixed to the front side and the back side;
- an interface area formed along the front side and the back side where each side adjoins the separable portion;
- a removable fastener formed along the interface area of both the front side and the back side, and along the separable portion;
- wherein the separable portion is at least one of a rival team side and a fan team side; and further comprising
- a identifier;
- wherein the identifier is affixed to at least one of the rival team side and the fan team side.
13. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim 12, wherein the separable portion is a shirt sleeve.
14. The team sport rivalry outfit in claim in claim 12, wherein the separable portion is a pant leg.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 17, 2017
Publication Date: Jan 10, 2019
Inventor: Kalven Khalil Afjeh (Mars, PA)
Application Number: 15/785,763