FOOTSIE TOWEL

Abstract

The present invention discloses a novel body towel that combines in a single unit the conventional towel with useful feet protection. The invention accomplishes this by incorporating at one end of the body towel foot-protecting foot inserts, or “boots” constructed in a way that allows the wearer to walk when “wearing” the towel.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 63/101,387, filed on Apr. 28, 2020.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to the field of towels and in particular to body towels such beach and shower towels.

BACKGROUND

People that spend a day at the beach or at a poolside (“sunbathers”) typically bring with them often relatively large “beach towels” that serve both to dry off the wet body and to lay on them by spreading them out on the sand or by draping them over lounge chairs in order to create a comfort barrier between sunbathers and the often-hot sand or chairs. Moreover, and especially during very hot and sunny days, in order to protect sunbathers' bare feet from sometimes uncomfortably hot sand or ground, they will wear sandals, flip-flops or similar foot coverings, as they walk on the sand or the ground to or from the spot at which they are resting or sunning.

Similarly, when entering and exiting the shower, bath, sauna or the like, the bather typically will use a towel for drying off and wear appropriate footwear, such as slip-resistant slippers or flip flops in order to provide a safe barrier between the bather's feet and the bathroom floor. Such footwear can provide traction on an often-wet floor and can help prevent the bottom of the bather's feet from slipping on the floor, leading to injury as he or she exits the shower, bath or sauna, and walks around. Footwear can also protect the feet from fungus and bacteria that can thrive on wet and damp floors.

Unfortunately, putting on footwear at the beach, pool and after bathing may not always be desirable or convenient for every situation and for all age groups, and in some cases can be quite impractical. For example, walking in sandals or flip flops on long stretches of hot dry sand may be laborious and unpleasant as the footwear sinks into the sand and picks up sand. Moreover, once settled in at a spot at the beach or poolside, it may be annoying for barefooted persons, especially children, to have to put on footwear simply to walk or run short or longer distances on the hot sand or concrete, such as walking to another person or spot; to or from the water, or even back to their where the person's car is parked in a lot nearby. Finally, having to wear dedicated bathroom footwear just for the few minutes that a person needs foot protection in the bathroom (e.g., just before entering and just after exiting the shower) is an annoyance for many people and some people, especially kids, simply don't bother.

Thus, it would be desirable to have a solution for towel-using beachgoers, poolside relaxers, and bathers and showerers that eliminates the need for dedicated footwear for people who need for only short periods of time protection from hot or slippery ground and floor surfaces.

SUMMARY

The present invention meets these needs by disclosing a novel towel that combines in a single unit the conventional body towel with useful feet protection. The invention accomplishes this by incorporating at one end of the body towel foot-protecting foot inserts, or “boots” constructed in a way that allows the wearer to walk when “wearing” the towel. Such a towel would be preferably constructed such that a user could easily insert his or her feet into the foot inserts, and, while the rest the towel stays “up” on or near a portion of the body in an extended state, walk on any surface, such as hot sand or concrete or wets floors with the boots serving as an effective protective barrier between the bottom of the feet and the surface. This solution solves the aforementioned problems and more in various embodiments.

The novel body towel of the present invention many be constructed of many different materials or fabrics, such as terry cloth, natural or synthetic materials, or a combination of both. The towel may have stretching functionality throughout or may be stretchable in only part of the towel, such as at the foot insert portions.

The present invention also discloses novel foot insert or “boot” constructions and designs. For example, the foot inserts may include elastic bands that lightly hug the user's ankles to help the inserts stay on the user's foot when walking. The bottom of the foot inserts may preferably be non-slip, which can be manufactured into the material itself or may comprises add-on material, such as rubber pads affixed to outer portions the foot inserts of the towel that at least partially align with the bottom of user's feet when his or her legs are inserted into the towels.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components described hereinafter and illustrated in the drawings and photographs. Those skilled in the art will recognize that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further advantages of the present invention may become apparent to those skilled in the art with the benefit of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and upon reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front plan view of the inventive Footsie Towel™ device in accordance with one non-limiting embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a back plan view of the device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the inventive Footsie Towel™ device in accordance with another non-limiting embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding features throughout the several views.

In one preferred embodiment, a Footsie Towel™ in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1-2. As seen in the front and back illustrative plan views of FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively, towel 100 is a preferably unitary cloth structure comprising two general areas: generally flat, rectangular, upper towel section 110, and lower section 120 having leg portions 130a, 130b that roughly take the shape and size of an intended user's legs and feet. Upper towel section 110 preferably has a conventional rectangular towel shape for wrapping around at least the torso of a user, taking up the good portion of, or in some cases the majority of, the surface area of towel 100. Upper towel section 110 is defined by upper end 112, side ends 114, 116 and lower end 118, denoted by the imaginary horizontal dotted line. It should be understood that lower end 118 in FIG. 1 can be characterized by (located at) any imaginary line (not necessarily straight or any shape for that matter) distal to upper end 112, near where the shape of towel 100 starts to depart from the rectangular. In this way, end 118 simply defines a reference line between upper section 110 and lower section 120.

Lower section 120 can thus be understood to “begin” or pick up where lower end 118 ends and is generally defined by the area on towel 100 near where, or, at which, its shape departs from the generally conventional, 2-dimensional, rectangular or square shape. Thus, as seen, lower section 120 includes shaped, tapering pieces of towel material that define right leg insert 130a and left leg insert 130b, terminating in right foot insert 140a and left foot insert 140, respectively. In this preferred embodiment, foot inserts 140a and 140b take the shape of “boots” fully or mostly enclosing a person's right foot and left foot inserted therein, respectively. Moreover, in this preferred embodiment, as seen in FIGS. 1 (and further demonstrated in FIG. 3) foot inserts 140a and 140b may include elastic banding 142a and 142b, respectively, that serve to slightly engage, or grab, the wearers ankle area. This feature helps inserts 140a and 140b remain on the wearer's feet when walking. However, it should be understood that foot inserts 140a and 140b need not take the shape of boots that fully encompass the wearer's feet up to say, the ankles. In other embodiments, foot inserts 140a and 140b may only party cover and encompass the wearer's feet, such as, for example, in a slip-on slipper-like or a “soft flip-flop” like design.

It should also be understood that the specific dimensions of towel 100 may vary with many factors without departing from the invention. For example, the length of upper body portion 110 may be longer or shorter depending on the intended size of the user or whether towel 100 is intended to provide full body coverage or partial coverage. Thus, for a given person' size (height), the preferably flat upper portion 110 may be long enough to serve as a full body beach towel, in which case lower portion leg 120 might dangle below the user's feet when laying on towel 100 at the beach. Alternatively, for a person of given size, upper body portion 110 may be made smaller in length, such that when “wearing” towel 100 (i.e., with feet in feet inserts 140a and 140b), upper portion 110 might wrap around the body at desired points, such that upper end 112 would wrap around and under wearer's person's armpits, or around the shoulder and neck.

In such latter embodiments and others, it may also be desirable to affix mating fasteners, such as Vecro™ “hook and loop” strips at or near opposite ends of upper end 112 on either side of towel 100, so that the wearer can removably secure upper end 110 around the body of the wearer, thereby freeing the wearer's hands from having to hold the upper end of the towel 100 up when walking. An example of this option is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, with mating Velcro pieces denoted as patches 150 and 152 respectively. In particular, as seen in FIG. 1, piece 150 might be a patch of “hooks” secured (e.g., sewn or glued) to the top right corner of the “front” side of towel 100 from the perspective of a user “wearing” towel 100. Then, as seen in FIG. 2, mating piece 152 then might be a patch of “loops” secured to the upper left corner of the “back” side of towel 100 (from the perspective of the same user). In this way, when the user wraps towel 100 around the body, these pieces can meet and be removably fastened together. Of course, mating Velcro™ “hook and loop” strips may be placed at other or additional locations on towel 100.

Moreover, other means for securing towel 100 to a user's body may be implemented within the scope of the invention. For example, towel 100 may be secured to the body with a belt or zipper system. Alternatively or additionally, towel 100 can be designed with an integral hood extending from upper end 100, much like a hooded sweatshirt. With this optional design, a user can place the hood portion over her head to keep towel 100 from falling off her body, thereby enabling her to walk with her feet in boots 140a and 140b without holding towel 100.

Other options are contemplated for the Footsie Towel™ and are within the scope of the present invention. Thus, as seen in FIG. 3, towel 200 comprises upper end 210 and lower end 220. But in this embodiment, the entire outer edge 228 of towel 200 may be finished with an elastic finish, enabling towel 200 to stretch a bit in all directions. Moreover, the bottom of foot inserts 240a and 204b of leg portions 230a and 230b may include foot grippers 244a and 244b made of any appropriate material that can provide good traction for wet surfaces and/or protection from hot surfaces.

In yet another embodiment, the present invention can also be implemented in as a two-piece towel 300 design as seen in FIG. 4. Here, towel 300 may be similar in construction and features to towels 100 and 200 in FIGS. 1-3, but in this case, comprises upper section 310 that is removably attached to lower section 320. Sections 310 and 320 may be connected in any way that enables repeated attachment and detachment of these towel pieces. For example, seen here is a Velcro strip 312 secured across the bottom edge of the front side of upper section 310 that is connectable to a mating Velcro strip 314 near the top end of the “back” side of lower section 320 (not shown), Alternatively, mating snaps, buttons, or other removably connectable structures may be used. Thus, in this embodiment, upper section 310 may be a standard, substantially rectangular beach or bath towel. This design can give the user option to keep the Footsie Towel 300 components 310, 320 connected or detached. For example, the user may by default only use upper section 310 as a standard beach or shower towel. Then, in situations that call for foot protection, the user may access the feet-protecting lower section 320 (say, by pulling it out from a bag carried to the beach or pool), and attach it to upper section 310, “on the fly.”

The system of the present invention enables a new method for a user to walk with foot protection using a towel. The method comprises inserting the user's left foot into a left foot insert of a left leg portion of the towel, inserting the user's right foot into a right foot insert of a right leg portion of the towel, and securing an upper section of the towel around an upper body portion of the user, such as the user's torso or neck. Once the body and feet are in place, the user may walk feeling secure that her feet have an adequate barrier from the elements, while the towel is wrapped around the user.

While embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is not intended that these embodiments illustrate and describe all possible forms of the invention. Various changes, modifications, and alterations in the teachings of the present invention may be contemplated by those skilled in the art without departing from the intended spirit and scope thereof. It is intended that the present invention encompass such changes and modifications.

Claims

1. A towel for a user, comprising:

a. an upper towel section capable of being wrapped around at least a portion of the body of the user; and

b. a lower towel section having right and left leg portions extending from the upper section, with each leg portion terminating in a foot insert into which the user may insert a foot.

2. The towel of claim 1, wherein the upper section is substantially flat and rectangular.

3. The towel of claim 1, wherein the upper and lower sections are integral with each other.

4. The towel of claim 1, wherein the upper and lower sections are removably connectable to each other.

5. The towel of claim 1, wherein the ends of the upper and lower sections terminate in an elastic finish.

6. The towel of claim 1, wherein the towel sections comprise terry cloth material.

7. The towel of claim 1, wherein each foot insert has a toe, heal, sole, top and foot opening for inserting a foot therein.

8. The towel of claim 7, wherein the sole includes slip-resistant material.

9. The towel of claim 7, further including an elastic band the foot opening of each foot insert for gripping an ankle of a foot inserted in the foot insert.

10. The towel of claim 1, wherein the upper towel section further includes a closing mechanism for removably securing the upper towel section around a section of the user's body.

11. The towel of claim 10, where the closing mechanism is a pair of mating Velcro strips.

12. The towel of claim 10, where the closing mechanism is a belt.

13. The towel of claim 10, where the closing mechanism is a zipper.

14. The towel of claim 1, further including a hood extending from an upper end of the upper towel section.

15. A towel for a user, comprising:

a. an upper towel section capable of being wrapped around at least a portion of the body of the user; and

b. a lower towel section integral with the upper towel section and having right and left leg portions, with each leg portion terminating in a foot boot into which the user may insert a foot, and wherein each foot boot includes a slip resistant sole.

16. A method for a user to walk with a foot-protecting towel, the towel having an upper towel section and a lower towel section that extends from the upper towel section and that includes left and right leg portions, each portion terminating in a foot insert, the method comprising:

a. inserting each foot of the user into a respective foot insert;

b. maintaining the upper towel section in proximity with the body of the user; and

c. walking.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of maintaining comprises wrapping the upper towel section around and securing it to the user's body.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the towel further includes a hood extending from an upper end of the upper towel section, and the step of maintaining comprises placing the hood on the head of the user.