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The present invention relates to athletic apparel and, more particularly, to an improved fly system for youth athletic apparel (e.g., football pants).
Youth athletic apparel known in the art, such as youth football pants, are difficult for the wearer to remove without help from an adult. As a result, coaches or parents often need to be available to assist young players who find themselves in need of micturition or defecation. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a fly system that may be easily unfastened and refastened by a youth without need for adult help.
Disclosed is a system and method providing an improved fly system for use in youth athletic apparel as well as other apparel. An embodiment of the improved fly system may be integrated into a pant and comprises a buckle arrangement consisting of a single D-ring, a belt feature with a hook or loop material patch, an anchor patch of hook or loop material positioned on the waist of the pant, and a hook and loop fly.
In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various views unless otherwise indicated. For reference numerals with letter character designations such as “102A” or “102B”, the letter character designations may differentiate two like parts or elements present in the same figure. Letter character designations for reference numerals may be omitted when it is intended that a reference numeral to encompass all parts having the same reference numeral in all figures.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical fly system known in the prior art; and
FIGS. 2-4 illustrate an exemplary football pant featuring an exemplary embodiment of an improved fly system according to the novel solution.
Embodiments and aspects of the present invention provide solutions to various needs in the art by providing an improved fly system for youth athletic apparel such as, but not limited to, football pants.
FIG. 1. depicts a typical fly system 100 known in the art. As can be seen in the FIG. 1 illustration, the fly system 100 includes a lace-up fly 105 coupled with a belt 110 and “double D ring” buckle arrangement 115. As would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, once the wearer has put on the pants 120, the lace-up fly 105 may be pulled tight and tied off. Notably, before the lace-up fly 105 may be pulled tight, the wearer may have to string the lace through one or more of the various eyelets. Once the lace-up fly 105 is pulled tight and tied, the wearer must then insert the belt 110 through both D-rings of the buckle arrangement 115, loop the belt 110 back over the top of the second D-ring and through the first D-ring, and then cinch the belt/buckle arrangement tight. Not surprisingly, for many youth athletes, unfastening and refastening the fly system 100 is a daunting task.
FIGS. 2-4 illustrate an exemplary football pant featuring an exemplary embodiment of an improved fly system according to the novel solution. As can be seen in the illustrations, the exemplary fly system 200 includes a hook and loop fly fastening arrangement 205 (e.g. VELCRO) as well as a belt 210 featuring a strip 212 of hook material. Advantageously, the belt 210 may be inserted through a single D-ring buckle arrangement 215, pulled back over the top of the single D-ring and fastened to a strip 214 of loop material featured on the waist of the pants 220. Consequently, a wearer of pants featuring the improved fly system 200 may quickly and easily fasten and unfasten fly system 200 without undue effort. Further, it is envisioned that certain embodiments of the solution may also include integral pads to the pant 220, there alleviating the need for wearers to insert/remove pads.
The close-up views of the exemplary embodiment 200 of an improved fly system depicted in FIGS. 2-4 show the exemplary embodiment with the hook and loop fly in both a closed and an open position. As can be easily seen in the illustrations, a loop strip 205B and a hook strip 205A may be easily separated to open the fly and re-mated to close the fly.
Systems, devices and methods of the various inventions have been described using descriptions of embodiments thereof that are provided by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. The described embodiments comprise different features, not all of which are required in all embodiments. Some embodiments utilize only some of the features or possible combinations of the features. Variations of embodiments that are described and embodiments that comprise different combinations of features noted in the described embodiments will occur to persons of the art.
Moreover, it will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that systems, devices and methods of the inventions are not limited by what has been particularly shown and described herein and above. Therefore, although selected aspects have been illustrated and described in detail, it will be understood that various substitutions and alterations may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. As such, the scope of the invention is limited only as it may be defined by a claim.