Adjustable Support Leg Garment for Knee Stability and Mobility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing leg garments fail to provide adjustable and variable support for reducing loads at the knee, hip, ankle, and spine, while also promoting muscle strengthening during activity, and are often cumbersome or require professional fitting.
Innovation Solution
A leg garment with reinforced areas and adjustable support elements, including sagitally mirrored anchor points, support elements that spiral around the body, and tensioning mechanisms to dynamically adjust support, along with cable systems and channels for enhanced muscle engagement and load distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If neoprene sleeves or rigid knee braces are used to provide support, then knee stability is improved, but movement freedom deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support garment uses dynamic elastic materials and adjustable tensioning elements that adapt to movement. The elastic bands and drawstrings allow the garment to maintain support while accommodating various ranges of motion, resolving the contradiction between stability and movement freedom by making the support system flexible rather than rigid.
Solution Approach 2:
The garment allows users to adjust support parameters through tensioning elements, drawstrings, and elastic components. This enables the same garment to provide varying degrees of stability depending on movement requirements, allowing optimization between support and mobility for different activities.
2Force
If garments with enhanced support are designed, then load reduction at knee and hip is improved, but ease of application deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support garment is divided into multiple functional zones with separate adjustable elements (waistband, hip bands, thigh bands, calf bands). Each zone can be independently adjusted, allowing users to achieve proper fit and support without complex assembly, resolving the contradiction between enhanced support and ease of application.
Solution Approach 2:
The garment incorporates dynamic adjustment mechanisms including drawstrings, elastic components, and tensioning elements that allow users to easily modify support levels during application and wear, making enhanced support accessible without requiring professional fitting.
3Adaptability or versatility
If exercise equipment is built into clothing for muscle training, then muscle strengthening during activity is improved, but device complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support garment serves multiple functions: providing compressive support, enabling muscle training through integrated elastic bands, and offering proprioceptive feedback. By combining these functions into a single garment rather than separate devices, the invention achieves muscle training capability without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The garment uses flexible elastic bands and thin film materials to provide training resistance and support. These flexible components integrate seamlessly into the clothing structure without requiring rigid mechanical parts, maintaining garment simplicity while enabling muscle strengthening functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention is directed at a series of leg garments that provide support for reducing loads at the knee, hip, ankle, and spine, as well as options for leg shape contouring, muscle training, pain reduction, and injury treatment. The leg garments may comprise a base layer with reinforced portions disposed throughout. The leg garments may comprise adjustable support elements. The size, shape, position, quantity, and material composition of the reinforced portions and the adjustable support elements may be selected to achieve the desired tensive properties for the leg garment. Various tensioning mechanisms may be positioned at strategic areas to further control the leg garments' tensive properties, improving effectiveness and comfort. In some embodiments, cables may run through channels in the reinforced portions or support elements.