Athletic Pants With Integrated Leg Covers For Gear Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Athletic gear, particularly for sports like hockey and football, is gear-intensive, leading to complexity in preparation, equipment management, and player fatigue due to the weight and volume of gear, with existing solutions like Velcro causing issues with apparel sticking together.
Innovation Solution
Design of athletic pants with hollow legs and a protective pocket in the midsection, along with cover portions that can be positioned over leg sections to securely hold shin and knee guards without the need for additional securing mechanisms like tape, and a compression garment with integrated features for an athletic cup and supporter.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple separate pieces of protective equipment and apparel are used, then adequate protection and preparation are achieved, but equipment management complexity and player fatigue increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate protective equipment pieces into an integrated pants system. The hockey pants incorporate integrated cup protection, garter belts for sock retention, and shin guard retention features all as unified components rather than separate items, reducing equipment management complexity while maintaining protective adequacy
Solution Approach 2:
The pants are designed with multi-functional features: the same garment provides protection, retention of other equipment, and compression. The garter belt serves both as a structural component of the pants and as a sock retention mechanism, eliminating the need for separate sock securing devices
2Reliability
If Velcro is used to secure hockey socks to pants, then socks are retained in position, but apparel may become inadvertently stuck to other players' apparel
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the Velcro fastening mechanism from the design, extracting the problematic adhesive element. Instead of using Velcro to secure socks, the design relies on the garter belt's elastic tension and the physical integration of the sock into the pants structure, eliminating the risk of apparel sticking to other players
3Reliability
If multiple separate securing mechanisms like tape and Velcro are used, then protective gear is secured in position, but the preparation process becomes more burdensome and gear weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple securing functions into the pants structure itself. The garter belt and retention features are built-in, eliminating the need for separate tape applications and Velcro attachments. This integration simplifies the preparation process while maintaining gear positioning stability
Data Source
AI summary
Athletic pants including a compression garment made of a stretchable fabric configured to substantially conform to the contours of a person wearing the compression garment. The compression garment includes a hollow torso section having an opening at its upper end and a pair of hollow legs extending in a direction away from the opening and terminating in a cuff. Cover portions are disposed over and surround at least a portion of each leg. Each of the cover portions having attached and free ends, with the cover portions being attached at their attached ends to the compression garment and otherwise being unattached to the compression garment such that the free ends are selectively positionable respectively along the length of the leg over which the cover portion is disposed.