Hockey Glove Having a Flexible Cuff

This invention relates to hockey gloves and more particularly, to improved hockey gloves with means to improve wrist movements.

Hockey gloves are well known. Hockey gloves form part of the protective equipment which those who participate in the sport of hockey must wear in order to prevent serious injuries to vulnerable portions of the body. Indeed, the hands and wrists are particularly vulnerable in that they can be hit by the puck or opposing players' hockey sticks and skates and can be scraped or rammed against the ice, side boards or the nets. For this reason, hockey gloves possess considerable padding across the back of the fingers and thumb as well as across the back of the hand proper. A padded cuff portion is also provided to protect the wrist. Typically, the cuff is opened on the side of the hand opposite the thumb. The width of this opening is adjustable according to the requirements of the player by the use of lacing which extends in eyelets provided along each side of the cuff opening. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,177 (Latina).

However, such hockey gloves are discomfortable because of the rigidity of the cuff portion which restricts the movements of the wrist. Some hockey players are even removing the lacing and cutting away part of the protective material in the cuff portion to increase the freedom of the wrist movements for better control of the hockey stick, albeit to the detriment of protection.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,073 (Deutch) discloses a lacrosse glove comprising: a padded hand receiving portion; a cushioned cuff portion which is secured on said hand receiving portion by a flexible connecting means positioned in the opening between hand portion and the cuff portion, on the side of the glove above the thumb. Although a lacrosse glove is, in many respects similar to a hockey glove, the former is not used to play hockey because the protection afforded in the wrist portion is not adequate for the game of hockey.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a hockey glove which allows for improved hand movements.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide such improved hand movements without any marked reduction in the protection afforded by the cuff portion of the glove.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide such improved hand movements while minimizing the number of seams in the cuff area, thus maintaining better protection.

Therefore, hockey gloves according to the present invention include a cushion cuff portion having a longitudinal opening located on the side opposite the thumb, the opening defining an upper edge and a lower edge. The cuff portion is provided with a triangular-shaped segment adjacent one of the edges and preferably with two triangular-shaped segments located respectively adjacent each of the edges.

These triangular segments are defined by their respective edge, by the end of the cuff distal from the finger portion of the glove, and by a seam extending angularly from the edge towards the distal end of the cuff.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the upper of a left hand embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the inside of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are respectively a side view and a bottom view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 with the wrist of the wearer flexed outwardly;

FIGS. 6 and 7 are respectively a side view and a bottom view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 with the wrist of the wearer flexed inwardly.

Referring to the drawings, numeral 10 indicates a hockey glove having a hand portion 20 and a cuff portion 30.

The hand portion 20 is constructed in a manner well know to those skilled in the art.

The cuff portion 30 comprises a large padding roll 34, an upper padding 38, a lower padding 36 and a laced opening 32 defining upper edge 33 and lower edge 35.

Triangular segments 40 are defined by edge 33 or edge 35, seam 44 and the end 45 of cuff portion 30 which is distal from the hand portion 20.

Seam 44 thus defines a hinge which extends longitudinally outwardly from the end of edges 33 and 35 which is closest to hand portion 20 following an angle A relative to the centerline of the glove opening 32.

However, it will be appreciated that angle A may be more or less open without departing from the basic concept of the improved hockey glove. It will be seen that a small angle provides more flexibility while a wide angle provides less flexibility.

Similarly, a single triangular segment may be used without departing from the invention. Generally the single segment is located in the lower padding 36.

FIGs. 4 and 5 show the operation of the segment in the upper padding 38 as the wrist of the wearer is flexed outwardly while FIGS. 6 and 7 show the operation of the segment in the lower padding 36 as the wrist of the wearer is flexed inwardly.