Hardside cooler with soft cover

Abstract

An insulated container, such as a cooler or ice chest, with a hardside interior and a softside exterior is disclosed that has the benefits of softside coolers, such as the ability to include pockets and pouches, as well as the benefits of hardside coolers (e.g. protection to the contents inside and rigid attachment of wheels, handles, etc.) The softside exterior may be directly connected to the hardside interior, for example by sewing. The cooler may have a lid hingedly attached to the liner, and the lid may be hard plastic including a softside exterior on the top of the lid. The cooler may have wheels and an extendable handle attached to the hardside interior to aid in transportation of the cooler in some embodiments.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a non-provisional utility application claiming priority to U.S. Provisional patent application No. 60 / 580,865, entitled, “Hardside Cooler with Soft Cover,” by Stone and Maldonado, filed Jun. 17, 2004, incorporated by reference in its entirety herein; this application also claims priority to U.S. Provisional application 60 / 581,801, entitled “Hardside Cooler with Soft Cover” by Stone and Maldonado, filed Jun. 21, 2004, by Stone and Maldonado, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates generally to the field of insulated containers such as coolers or ice chests. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing a cooler having the hard liner integrated with a soft cover. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] Generally, it is known to provide an insulated container, suc...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] The insulated container, such as a cooler or ice chest, described herein is an “all-in-one” cooler that combines advantages of both softside and hardside coolers, and creates one solution to some of the disadvantages described above. In some embodiments, the cooler utilizes a hard plastic liner and a plastic lid hingedly attached to the liner, similar to hardsided coolers. Pliable material, such as soft fabric and / or flexible closed-cell foam, may be attached to the hard liner to create the outer walls of the body, in some embodiments. The pliable material may be directly attached to the liner, via glue or via direct stitching, in some embodiments. The fabric and foam may provide thermal advantages, such as keeping heat away from cooled contents or keeping heat from escaping when the cooler contains warm contents.

Problems solved by technology

However, compared to hardside coolers, softside coolers provide less protection to the contents within the cooler, and may be more prone to wear over time as compared to the hardsided counterparts.

However, hardside coolers may be more difficult to carry and store, as hardside coolers have a hard outer body, which typically is not flexible.

Further, it may prove problematic in some instances to attach components or gadgets to the hardside cooler.

However, the repeated removal of the liner from the cooler may prevent the softside carrier from retaining its original shape; thus, the liner may fall out of the carrier if the cooler is tipped over.

Additionally, the soft lid of the softside carrier may not fasten securely as a hardside cooler having a hard lid, in some situations.

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