Leg pads for a hockey goalkeeper

Abstract

A leg pad for a hockey goalkeeper playing hockey (e.g., ice hockey) is provided. The leg pad comprises a frontal portion, a medial portion, and a lateral portion respectively configured to be positioned adjacent to a front, a medial side, and a lateral side of a goalkeeper's leg when the leg pad is worn on the leg. The leg pad comprises an outer shell comprising an outer surface of the leg pad, an inner liner for facing the leg, and protective padding disposed between the molded outer shell and the inner liner. The outer shell may comprise molded foam.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 794,504 filed on Mar. 15, 2013 and hereby incorporated by reference herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates generally to protective hockey equipment and, more particularly, to leg pads for hockey goalkeepers.BACKGROUND[0003]Leg pads are worn by hockey goalkeepers to protect their legs against impacts from pucks, balls, hockey sticks or other objects and / or to protect their legs when moving (e.g., dropping) them onto a playing surface.[0004]A hockey goalkeeper's leg pad typically comprises protective padding for providing padded protection to the goalkeeper's leg and an outer covering disposed over the protective padding. The outer covering is typically made of one or more panels of synthetic pliable material such as synthetic leather (e.g., polyurethane (PU) leather) or fabric (e.g., nylon fabric, polyester fabric, Cordura™ fabric, etc.) that ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014]According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a leg pad for a hockey goalkeeper. The leg pad is wearable on a leg of the hockey goalkeeper to protect the leg. The leg pad comprises a frontal portion, a medial portion, and a lateral portion respectively configured to be positioned adjacent to a front, a medial side, and a lateral side of the leg when the leg pad is worn on the leg. The leg pad comprises: an outer shell comprising an outer surface of the leg pad; an inner liner for facing the leg; and protective padding disposed between the outer shell and the inner liner. The protective padding comprises a plurality of padding materials that are different from one another. The padding materials are disposed relative to one another to control a rebound effect in different areas of the protective padding.

Problems solved by technology

For example, in some cases, the synthetic leather or fabric may be limited in its ability to provide protection in and of itself and / or may require additional components to be added to the leg pad, such as fabric overlays for decoration and / or separate panels for attaching straps of the leg pad.

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