Title:
GOLF GLOVE PALM-SMOOTHING MEANS
United States Patent 3600715
Abstract:
A golf glove, including a rear and a palm portion; a V-shaped opening in the rear portion of the glove, extending inward and tapering inward from the wrist edge of the glove, for permitting the glove to be donned and removed; fastening means of the "Velcro" type along the edges of the opening to fasten it closed and to facilitate individual adjustment and tightening at the wrist; first elastic means for pulling the rear of the glove laterally inward, the elastic means being curved such that the concave curvature is facing toward the wrist edge of the glove; second elastic means encircling the glove around the wrist and intersecting the fastening means, for holding the glove tightly on the hand.
US Patent References:
Glove with seamless palm and back
Howard - November 1956 - 2770809
Golf gloves
Jamison - January 1966 - 3229307
Gloves for playing sports
Sperandeo - September 1966 - 3273165
Adjustable golf glove
Woodward - March 1968 - 3372401
GLOVE CONSTRUCTION
Mazza - March 1969 - 3430265
Glove with seamless palm and back
Howard - November 1956 - 2770809
Golf gloves
Jamison - January 1966 - 3229307
Gloves for playing sports
Sperandeo - September 1966 - 3273165
Adjustable golf glove
Woodward - March 1968 - 3372401
GLOVE CONSTRUCTION
Mazza - March 1969 - 3430265
Application Number:
05/004698
Publication Date:
08/24/1971
Filing Date:
01/21/1970
View Patent Images:
Export Citation:
Assignee:
Perella, Joseph
Primary Class:
Other Classes:
2/161.500
International Classes:
A63B71/14; A63B71/08; A41D19/00; A41D19/02
Field of Search:
2/162,159,161,169
US Patent References:
| 3504379 | GLOVE | April 1970 | Glick |
Primary Examiner:
Franklin, Jordan
Assistant Examiner:
Larkin, Geo V.
Claims:
The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive privilege or property is claimed are defined as follows
1. A golf glove comprising a palm and a rear portion; said glove having a wrist portion which covers the wearer's wrist and a wrist edge which faces the wearer's arm;
2. The golf glove of claim 1, further including second elastic means passing completely around said wrist portion near said wrist edge and intersecting both said edges of said rear opening for cooperating with said fastening means to hold the glove tightly on the wrist once said fastening means is secured.
3. The golf glove of claim 1 wherein said fastening means comprises a first pad on one edge of said rear opening which has on its external surface a myriad of finely woven filaments formed into permanent hooks and which has on the fastening means on the other edge of the opening and placeable over the fastening means on the first edge of the opening, a pad covered with soft loops which interengage with the hooks.
4. The golf glove of claim 3 wherein each said pad of said fastening means extends along substantially the entire length of the opening.
5. The golf glove of claim 4, further including second elastic means passing completely around said wrist portion near said wrist edge and intersecting both said edges of said rear opening for cooperating with said fastening means to hold the glove tightly on the wrist once said fastening means is secured.
1. A golf glove comprising a palm and a rear portion; said glove having a wrist portion which covers the wearer's wrist and a wrist edge which faces the wearer's arm;
2. The golf glove of claim 1, further including second elastic means passing completely around said wrist portion near said wrist edge and intersecting both said edges of said rear opening for cooperating with said fastening means to hold the glove tightly on the wrist once said fastening means is secured.
3. The golf glove of claim 1 wherein said fastening means comprises a first pad on one edge of said rear opening which has on its external surface a myriad of finely woven filaments formed into permanent hooks and which has on the fastening means on the other edge of the opening and placeable over the fastening means on the first edge of the opening, a pad covered with soft loops which interengage with the hooks.
4. The golf glove of claim 3 wherein each said pad of said fastening means extends along substantially the entire length of the opening.
5. The golf glove of claim 4, further including second elastic means passing completely around said wrist portion near said wrist edge and intersecting both said edges of said rear opening for cooperating with said fastening means to hold the glove tightly on the wrist once said fastening means is secured.
Description:
This invention relates to a golf glove which is designed to remain smooth and taut on the hand of a golfer through prolonged use and repeated donning and removal.
Originally, to have a taut, smooth glove, a golfer obtained a glove that was too small and thus was tight on his hand. Eventually, the glove stretched and became useless, necessitating frequent replacement.
To prolong its usefulness, a golf glove was provided with elastic on its rear side. This drew the rear of the glove laterally inward and helped keep it taut and smooth through repeated wearings and resultant stretching. Yet, elastic on the rear side alone was not sufficient. Since an individual's hand is wider than his wrist, the wrist portion of a glove is either made sufficiently wide to pass over the hand, or is arranged in a manner such that it stretches or opens to pass over the hand. The glove with elastic only on the rear side might not have been sufficiently tight around the wrist to hold the glove securely on the golfer's hand when the glove was in use. Thus, while the lateral pull exerted by elastic tended to hold the glove taut, the glove still tended to bunch up, in the direction between fingers and wrist. To counteract this, either elastic was positioned around the wrist of the glove and was made sufficiently tight to hold the glove securely on the wrist, or a glove that had an opening inward from the wrist to permit the wrist of the glove to be slid over the golfer's hand, also was provided with fastening means for closing the opening after the glove had been donned. This drew the glove tight along the direction between fingers and wrist.
Since wrist thicknesses and the comfort levels of different golfers vary, elastic alone or fixed fastening means did not provide the best solution for holding gloves in place. U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,401 teaches, in combination with elastic, an adjustable buckle attached to the elastic for adjustably stretching and tightening the elastic. The buckle uses a Velcro-fastening means. Velcro consists of two pieces of material which face each other. One piece is covered with finely woven filaments formed into permanent hooks. The other is covered with soft loops. When the two pieces of material are pressed together, the hooks and loops interengage and fasten tightly, thereby completing the buckling. The glove in this prior art patent is laterally tightened across the palm of the user, but it is not continuously tightened in a direction perpendicular to the lateral tightening, i.e., the direction between fingers and wrist.
The glove of the present invention is an improvement over the prior art in that it provides both the lateral tightening that is provided by the prior art and tightening in the direction between fingers and wrist. To provide lateral tightening, elastic is attached to and extends laterally across the rear portion of the glove. This pulls the rear portion of the glove tight, and thereby stretches the attached palm portion. On its rear portion, the glove has a V-shaped opening extending inward from the wrist edge of the glove toward the fingers. This opening permits the portion of the glove that surrounds the wrist to be widened sufficiently to fit over the wide portion of the hand. Once the glove has been donned, securing means attached to the edges of the opening fasten it closed, thereby tightly securing the glove on the wrist of the wearer. Tightening of the glove around the wrist and back of the hand laterally tightens the palm portion of the glove, thereby tightening the glove on the hand of the wearer.
The present invention also tightens the glove in a direction transverse to, and usually perpendicular to, the lateral tightening. Two features of the glove cooperate to accomplish this. First, the above-described elastic means across the rear portion of the glove, which provides lateral tightening of the glove, is curved, with the concave side of the curvature facing toward the wrist edge of the glove. The outward ends of the elastic means terminate at a location that is sufficiently close to the wrist edge of the glove that they are below the portion of the glove that passes over the widest part of the wearer's hand. The center of the curvature of the elastic means extends toward the fingers of the glove sufficiently so as to pass around the inward end of the opening into the rear portion of the glove and is also between the opening and the knuckles of the wearer. When the elastic means normally contracts and pulls the glove in against the outward force exerted by the width and thickness of the hand of the wearer, the elastic means also tends to pull the rear portion of the glove toward the wrist of the wearer in a direction perpendicular to the lateral direction.
The fastening means on the wrist of the glove cooperates with the above-noted curved elastic means so that the forces on the glove exerted by the contracting elastic means do not pull the wrist of the glove off the wearer's wrist, but instead pull the finger portions and rear portion of the glove onto the hand of the wearer and thereby tighten the palm portion of the glove.
In addition, the widest portion of the V-shaped opening in the rear portion faces toward the wrist edge. When the two edges of the opening are pulled toward each other and then secured by the fastening means, the V-shape causes the rear of the glove to pull downward toward the wrist of the wearer, thereby tightening the entire glove and especially the palm portion. This tightening of the rear of the glove cooperates with the concave shaping of the elastic means on the rear of the glove to more securely hold the glove in place.
As a further feature of the present invention, the fastening means consists of a conventional fastening device known as Velcro, which has been described above. The Velcro fastening extends along substantially the entire length of the edges of the opening into the glove. When the edges of the opening are fastened to one another by being pressed together, it is desirable to cause as much of the length of the edges to be fastened together as is possible for a particular wearer's hand. The portions of the edges which are over the wearer's wrist can easily be fastened together. Further up toward the knuckles of the wearer, the hand broadens and there is a smaller likelihood that the edges will overlap to be pressed together. With wearers having different width hands, and with the glove stretching through long wear, the Velcro fastening means extending along substantially the entire length of the opening into the glove enables the wearer to engage as much of the length of the two parts of the fastening means as can be interengaged and ensures that the glove will always be taut on the hand of the user. Were the fastening means merely to be at or near the wrist edge of the glove, the remainder of the opening would not be held closed by fastening means and the sides of the opening could separate and cause the glove to become loose on the hand.
The glove of the invention includes another elastic means attached to and extending completely around the glove at the wrist. This second elastic means intersects the fastening means on the edges of the opening into the glove. When the fastening means are engaged, the second elastic means draws the glove tight around the wrist. Therefore, when the first elastic means contracts and pulls the glove, the palm is smoothed.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a golfer's glove which enables a golfer to comfortably and conveniently use a golf club without interference in the use of the club arising out of the design of the glove.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a golfer's glove which is securely held on the hand of the golfer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a golfer's glove the palm portion of which will remain taut and smooth during use of the glove after repeated donning and removal of the glove.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel means for fastening a golf glove on the hand.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a view of the rear of a glove designed in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 2 is a fragment of the glove of FIG. 1 with the rear opening opened;
FIG. 3 is a view of the palm of the glove of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a view of a blank which is folded to form the glove of FIGS. 1 and 3; and
FIG. 5 is a view in the direction of arrows 5 in FIG. 1, showing the mounting of an elastic strip.
Glove 10 is formed from a single panel 12 (FIG. 4) of conventional glove material, such as leather.
Panel 12 comprises palm portion 13, which covers the palm of the hand, and a rear portion 15, which covers the rear of the hand. Panel 12 is folded over and is fastened together at seam 14 (FIG. 3) along the side of the glove away from thumb 16.
Panel 12 includes an opening 18 for a thumb portion and a thumb cover 20, integral with panel 12, which extends into opening 18. In the completed glove, cover 20 covers the surface of the golfer's thumb that contacts the golf club. There is no glove seam between the golfer's thumb and palm and the golf club. This permits a more secure grasp of the golf club without interference from or discomfort arising from the presence of seams along the contact surface.
A thumbcovering panel 22 is attached along seam 24 to thumb cover 20 of panel 12 and to the edges of opening 18 in panel 12, thereby completing coverage of the thumb of the golfer.
The glove may also include covers 28 for the other fingers. Panel 12 includes appropriate finger portions 29 which, with the use of appropriate inserts, can be seamed together, to make finger covers in the conventional manner.
Rear portion 15 of panel 12 has an opening 30 therein which extends inward from wrist edge 32 of the rear of the glove. The opening is V-shaped, with the wider end of the V facing toward wrist edge 32 of the glove. Fastening means 34, 36 are provided along the edges of the opening (FIG. 2). Preferred fastening means are comprised of a material known as Velcro. One element 34 of Velcro consists of a piece of a material which is covered with a myriad of finely woven filaments which are formed into permanent hooks. The other element 36 of the Velcro-fastening means comprises a piece of material covered with a myriad of soft, readily engageable loops. When the inwardly facing pad of loops 36 is pressed against the outwardly facing pad of hooks 34, the two interengage, forming a secure fastening means.
As illustrated, the Velcro fastening extends along substantially the entire length of the sides of the opening 30. For reasons described above, this maximizes the tautening and smoothing of the palm of the glove.
A first elastic strip 40 is secured along its entire length laterally across rear portion 15 of the glove. The elastic normally tends to contract and thereby draws inward the lateral edges of portion 15. This exerts a lateral pull on the palm of the glove, which keeps the palm portion 13 taut.
Elastic strip 40 is curved with its concave side 42 facing toward wrist edge 32 of the glove. As a result, when elastic 40 contracts, it not only draws the lateral edges of portion 15 laterally inward, but it also draws finger portions 28 of the glove more tightly onto the golfer's hand and attempts to pull the wrist portion of the glove off the golfer's wrist and toward the fingers. Elastic 40 is positioned between the base of finger portions 28 and the inner end of opening 30 in the rear of the glove. In order for elastic 40 to serve, as described below, to tauten the palm portion of the glove by pulling it toward the wrist of the wearer, the elastic 40 should be positioned as far downward toward the wrist of the glove as possible. By means of elastic strip 40, the golf glove is tightened not only in the lateral direction, but in a direction transverse to, and in particular, perpendicular to, the lateral direction. This ensures that the palm of the glove will remain smooth and taut.
The wrist of the glove is fastened by the above-described fastening means 34, 36, whereby the pull exerted by elastic 40 does not move the wrist of the glove off the wearer's wrist, but instead tightens the glove on the golfer's hand.
The glove is also provided with a second elastic strip 46 like strip 40 which passes completely around the glove near wrist edge 32 which is secured to the glove in the same manner as strip 40 and which intersects fastening means 34 and 36. When fastening means 34 and 36 are engaged, elastic strip 46 tightly secures the wrist of the glove on the wrist of the wearer. Thus, when the first elastic strip 40 contracts, its pull serves only to tighten the finger portions and palm portions on the hand of the wearer and does not remove the glove from the golfer's wrist.
There has just been described a novel golfer's glove which includes Velcro-fastening means for securing the glove on the golfer's hand and elastic means which cooperate with the Velcro-fastening means to ensure that the glove will remain tightly on the golfer's hand and that the palm portion of the glove will remain smooth and taut.
Although this invention has been described with respect to particular embodiments, it should be understood that many variations and modifications will now be obvious to those skilled in the art, and, therefore, the scope of this invention is limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.
Originally, to have a taut, smooth glove, a golfer obtained a glove that was too small and thus was tight on his hand. Eventually, the glove stretched and became useless, necessitating frequent replacement.
To prolong its usefulness, a golf glove was provided with elastic on its rear side. This drew the rear of the glove laterally inward and helped keep it taut and smooth through repeated wearings and resultant stretching. Yet, elastic on the rear side alone was not sufficient. Since an individual's hand is wider than his wrist, the wrist portion of a glove is either made sufficiently wide to pass over the hand, or is arranged in a manner such that it stretches or opens to pass over the hand. The glove with elastic only on the rear side might not have been sufficiently tight around the wrist to hold the glove securely on the golfer's hand when the glove was in use. Thus, while the lateral pull exerted by elastic tended to hold the glove taut, the glove still tended to bunch up, in the direction between fingers and wrist. To counteract this, either elastic was positioned around the wrist of the glove and was made sufficiently tight to hold the glove securely on the wrist, or a glove that had an opening inward from the wrist to permit the wrist of the glove to be slid over the golfer's hand, also was provided with fastening means for closing the opening after the glove had been donned. This drew the glove tight along the direction between fingers and wrist.
Since wrist thicknesses and the comfort levels of different golfers vary, elastic alone or fixed fastening means did not provide the best solution for holding gloves in place. U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,401 teaches, in combination with elastic, an adjustable buckle attached to the elastic for adjustably stretching and tightening the elastic. The buckle uses a Velcro-fastening means. Velcro consists of two pieces of material which face each other. One piece is covered with finely woven filaments formed into permanent hooks. The other is covered with soft loops. When the two pieces of material are pressed together, the hooks and loops interengage and fasten tightly, thereby completing the buckling. The glove in this prior art patent is laterally tightened across the palm of the user, but it is not continuously tightened in a direction perpendicular to the lateral tightening, i.e., the direction between fingers and wrist.
The glove of the present invention is an improvement over the prior art in that it provides both the lateral tightening that is provided by the prior art and tightening in the direction between fingers and wrist. To provide lateral tightening, elastic is attached to and extends laterally across the rear portion of the glove. This pulls the rear portion of the glove tight, and thereby stretches the attached palm portion. On its rear portion, the glove has a V-shaped opening extending inward from the wrist edge of the glove toward the fingers. This opening permits the portion of the glove that surrounds the wrist to be widened sufficiently to fit over the wide portion of the hand. Once the glove has been donned, securing means attached to the edges of the opening fasten it closed, thereby tightly securing the glove on the wrist of the wearer. Tightening of the glove around the wrist and back of the hand laterally tightens the palm portion of the glove, thereby tightening the glove on the hand of the wearer.
The present invention also tightens the glove in a direction transverse to, and usually perpendicular to, the lateral tightening. Two features of the glove cooperate to accomplish this. First, the above-described elastic means across the rear portion of the glove, which provides lateral tightening of the glove, is curved, with the concave side of the curvature facing toward the wrist edge of the glove. The outward ends of the elastic means terminate at a location that is sufficiently close to the wrist edge of the glove that they are below the portion of the glove that passes over the widest part of the wearer's hand. The center of the curvature of the elastic means extends toward the fingers of the glove sufficiently so as to pass around the inward end of the opening into the rear portion of the glove and is also between the opening and the knuckles of the wearer. When the elastic means normally contracts and pulls the glove in against the outward force exerted by the width and thickness of the hand of the wearer, the elastic means also tends to pull the rear portion of the glove toward the wrist of the wearer in a direction perpendicular to the lateral direction.
The fastening means on the wrist of the glove cooperates with the above-noted curved elastic means so that the forces on the glove exerted by the contracting elastic means do not pull the wrist of the glove off the wearer's wrist, but instead pull the finger portions and rear portion of the glove onto the hand of the wearer and thereby tighten the palm portion of the glove.
In addition, the widest portion of the V-shaped opening in the rear portion faces toward the wrist edge. When the two edges of the opening are pulled toward each other and then secured by the fastening means, the V-shape causes the rear of the glove to pull downward toward the wrist of the wearer, thereby tightening the entire glove and especially the palm portion. This tightening of the rear of the glove cooperates with the concave shaping of the elastic means on the rear of the glove to more securely hold the glove in place.
As a further feature of the present invention, the fastening means consists of a conventional fastening device known as Velcro, which has been described above. The Velcro fastening extends along substantially the entire length of the edges of the opening into the glove. When the edges of the opening are fastened to one another by being pressed together, it is desirable to cause as much of the length of the edges to be fastened together as is possible for a particular wearer's hand. The portions of the edges which are over the wearer's wrist can easily be fastened together. Further up toward the knuckles of the wearer, the hand broadens and there is a smaller likelihood that the edges will overlap to be pressed together. With wearers having different width hands, and with the glove stretching through long wear, the Velcro fastening means extending along substantially the entire length of the opening into the glove enables the wearer to engage as much of the length of the two parts of the fastening means as can be interengaged and ensures that the glove will always be taut on the hand of the user. Were the fastening means merely to be at or near the wrist edge of the glove, the remainder of the opening would not be held closed by fastening means and the sides of the opening could separate and cause the glove to become loose on the hand.
The glove of the invention includes another elastic means attached to and extending completely around the glove at the wrist. This second elastic means intersects the fastening means on the edges of the opening into the glove. When the fastening means are engaged, the second elastic means draws the glove tight around the wrist. Therefore, when the first elastic means contracts and pulls the glove, the palm is smoothed.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a golfer's glove which enables a golfer to comfortably and conveniently use a golf club without interference in the use of the club arising out of the design of the glove.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a golfer's glove which is securely held on the hand of the golfer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a golfer's glove the palm portion of which will remain taut and smooth during use of the glove after repeated donning and removal of the glove.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel means for fastening a golf glove on the hand.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a view of the rear of a glove designed in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 2 is a fragment of the glove of FIG. 1 with the rear opening opened;
FIG. 3 is a view of the palm of the glove of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a view of a blank which is folded to form the glove of FIGS. 1 and 3; and
FIG. 5 is a view in the direction of arrows 5 in FIG. 1, showing the mounting of an elastic strip.
Glove 10 is formed from a single panel 12 (FIG. 4) of conventional glove material, such as leather.
Panel 12 comprises palm portion 13, which covers the palm of the hand, and a rear portion 15, which covers the rear of the hand. Panel 12 is folded over and is fastened together at seam 14 (FIG. 3) along the side of the glove away from thumb 16.
Panel 12 includes an opening 18 for a thumb portion and a thumb cover 20, integral with panel 12, which extends into opening 18. In the completed glove, cover 20 covers the surface of the golfer's thumb that contacts the golf club. There is no glove seam between the golfer's thumb and palm and the golf club. This permits a more secure grasp of the golf club without interference from or discomfort arising from the presence of seams along the contact surface.
A thumbcovering panel 22 is attached along seam 24 to thumb cover 20 of panel 12 and to the edges of opening 18 in panel 12, thereby completing coverage of the thumb of the golfer.
The glove may also include covers 28 for the other fingers. Panel 12 includes appropriate finger portions 29 which, with the use of appropriate inserts, can be seamed together, to make finger covers in the conventional manner.
Rear portion 15 of panel 12 has an opening 30 therein which extends inward from wrist edge 32 of the rear of the glove. The opening is V-shaped, with the wider end of the V facing toward wrist edge 32 of the glove. Fastening means 34, 36 are provided along the edges of the opening (FIG. 2). Preferred fastening means are comprised of a material known as Velcro. One element 34 of Velcro consists of a piece of a material which is covered with a myriad of finely woven filaments which are formed into permanent hooks. The other element 36 of the Velcro-fastening means comprises a piece of material covered with a myriad of soft, readily engageable loops. When the inwardly facing pad of loops 36 is pressed against the outwardly facing pad of hooks 34, the two interengage, forming a secure fastening means.
As illustrated, the Velcro fastening extends along substantially the entire length of the sides of the opening 30. For reasons described above, this maximizes the tautening and smoothing of the palm of the glove.
A first elastic strip 40 is secured along its entire length laterally across rear portion 15 of the glove. The elastic normally tends to contract and thereby draws inward the lateral edges of portion 15. This exerts a lateral pull on the palm of the glove, which keeps the palm portion 13 taut.
Elastic strip 40 is curved with its concave side 42 facing toward wrist edge 32 of the glove. As a result, when elastic 40 contracts, it not only draws the lateral edges of portion 15 laterally inward, but it also draws finger portions 28 of the glove more tightly onto the golfer's hand and attempts to pull the wrist portion of the glove off the golfer's wrist and toward the fingers. Elastic 40 is positioned between the base of finger portions 28 and the inner end of opening 30 in the rear of the glove. In order for elastic 40 to serve, as described below, to tauten the palm portion of the glove by pulling it toward the wrist of the wearer, the elastic 40 should be positioned as far downward toward the wrist of the glove as possible. By means of elastic strip 40, the golf glove is tightened not only in the lateral direction, but in a direction transverse to, and in particular, perpendicular to, the lateral direction. This ensures that the palm of the glove will remain smooth and taut.
The wrist of the glove is fastened by the above-described fastening means 34, 36, whereby the pull exerted by elastic 40 does not move the wrist of the glove off the wearer's wrist, but instead tightens the glove on the golfer's hand.
The glove is also provided with a second elastic strip 46 like strip 40 which passes completely around the glove near wrist edge 32 which is secured to the glove in the same manner as strip 40 and which intersects fastening means 34 and 36. When fastening means 34 and 36 are engaged, elastic strip 46 tightly secures the wrist of the glove on the wrist of the wearer. Thus, when the first elastic strip 40 contracts, its pull serves only to tighten the finger portions and palm portions on the hand of the wearer and does not remove the glove from the golfer's wrist.
There has just been described a novel golfer's glove which includes Velcro-fastening means for securing the glove on the golfer's hand and elastic means which cooperate with the Velcro-fastening means to ensure that the glove will remain tightly on the golfer's hand and that the palm portion of the glove will remain smooth and taut.
Although this invention has been described with respect to particular embodiments, it should be understood that many variations and modifications will now be obvious to those skilled in the art, and, therefore, the scope of this invention is limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.