Padded Knee Guard

1. Field of the Invention

This invention pertains to protective wear for use during sporting activities. More particularly, this invention pertains to a guard for protecting a wearer's joint such as a knee.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Knee guards for protecting a wearer's knees during sporting activities are well known. Examples of such appear in U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,361; 3,945,047 and U.S. Pat. No. Design 373,655.

In recent years, rollerskating and in-line skating have become extremely popular. Participants in these sports desire knee protection in the event of a fall. Skaters who skate on hard surfaces such as asphalt, concrete or the like may fall subjecting the knee to injury. Joint protection is desired to protect against impact injury as well as abrasion. Also, such protection must permit easy flexion of the joint during normal skating as well as provide comfort for the wearer. Such protection is also of increased interest in so-called "extreme" skating where skaters perform acrobatic acts such as flips or the like.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a knee pad includes a first protective padding sized to cover a knee of a user with the first protective padding positioned over the front of the knee and extending downwardly to cover an upper portion of the lower leg of the user. A second padding is hinged to the first padding. The second padding is positioned and sized to cover a lower portion of an upper leg of the user when the first padding is positioned over the front of the knee. A stretchable fabric has a first edge secured to the edges of the paddings. The fabric is sized to extend from the paddings around the back of the knee and to be releasably fastened to the paddings.

FIG. 1 is a front, top and left side perspective view of a knee pad according to the present invention shown in use on a right knee of a user;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the pad of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front elevation view of the pad according to the present invention with an impact cover removed;

FIG. 4 is a rear elevation view of the pad of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a side sectional view of the pad of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a view taken along line 6--6 of FIG. 5 with omission of the impact cover.

With reference to all the various drawing figures in which identical elements are numbered identically throughout, a description of the preferred embodiment invention will now be provided.

In the figures, a knee guard or knee pad 10 is shown, including a first protective padding 12 and a second protective padding 14. Paddings 12 and 14 are formed of cushioned foam material 12', 14' enclosed in fabric liners 15 and 17.

The pad 12 presents an inner concave surface 12a sized to cover the front of a user's knee. The pad 12 has an outer convex surface 12b and opposite sidewalls 12c, 12d, top wall 12e and bottom wall 12f. Similarly, pad 14 has a flat inner surface 14a, flat outer surface 14b, a top surface 14c, bottom surface 14d and side surface 14e, 14f .

Fabrics 15 and 17 are stitched together at walls 12c and 14d to define a hinge 16 between an upper edge 12c of pad 12 and a lower edge 14d of pad 14 such that pad 14 may pivot relative to pad 12 as illustrate by the phantom lines in FIG. 5. The second pad 14 is sized to cover a lower portion of an upper leg of a user when the first pad 12 is positioned over the user's knee.

A first side 12e, 14e of the pads 12, 14 define a pad edge. Stitched to the pad edge (at the intersection of surfaces 12a, 12e and 14a, 14e) is a first edge 22 of a sheet 20 of stretchable fabric best illustrated in FIG. 6. An opposite edge 23 of the fabric 20 is provided with a hook and loop fastener 24 (such as fasteners sold under the well-known trademark VELCRO.TM.) on both sides of fabric 20. A slit 27 is formed through the loop fastener 24 and partly into the fabric 20 along a line which is in-line with the hinge 16. The slit 27 divides the loop fastener 24 into an upper portion 24a aligned with pad 14 and a lower portion 24b aligned with pad 12.

As best shown in FIG. 6, the thickness of the cushion 12 separates the pad 12 into a rear surface 12a and a front surface 12b as well as side surfaces 12e and 12f. Adjacent to intersection of sides 12b and 12f, a first flap 26 is stitched to the padding fabric 15.

The flap 26 is generally V-shaped in cross-sectioned to provide a first flap 27 and a second flap 28, both having hook fasteners 29 on their opposing inner surfaces with the hook fasteners 29 selected to mate with the loop fastener 24b which is positioned on opposite sides of the fabric 20. Similarly, a V-shaped flap 30 having its apex stitched to fabric 17 at the intersection of surfaces 14a and 14e, is provided with hook fasteners 31 to mate with the loop fastener 24a on sheet 20.

The knee pad 10 can be placed in front of a user's knee with knee received within concave surface 12a. The fabric 20 is stretched around the back of a user's leg and the loop fastener 24b received within V-shaped flap 26 with hook fastener 24b on both sides of fabric 20 being secured to the opposing hook fasteners 29 on the V-shaped flap 26. Likewise, the loop fastener 24a can be received within the upper V-flap 30 and secured to the hook fastener 31.

In addition to securing the pad 10 to the user's leg in the manner above described, an upper strap 40 is stitched to the fabric 17 of upper pad 14 at the intersection of surface 14b and 14e. The strap 40 is sized to extend around the back of the user's upper leg and extend over the front 14b of the upper pad 14. The upper pad 14, on its forward surface 14b, is provided with a hook fastener 42 and the strap 40 is provided with a mating loop fastener 44 to releasably secure the strap 40 to the pad 14.

The lower edge of the first pad 12 includes a ring 46 secure to the pad 14 by a short strap 48 stitched to both the pad 12 and to the ring 46 (at the intersection of surface 12b and 12f). An elongated strap 50 with canvas reinforcement 51 is stitched to an opposite side of the pad 12 at the intersection of surfaces 12b and 12e. The elongated strap 50 is sized to extend around the back of the user's lower leg and be received through the ring 46 and folded over onto itself behind the leg of the user. The elongated strap 50 has a first field 52 of a hook fastener and a second field 54 of a mating loop fastener such that the strap 50 can be folded over onto itself and secured in a desired position of tightening. In a preferred embodiment, the upper strap 40 is elastic and the lower strap 50 is non-elastic. Also, in a preferred embodiment, the fabric 20 is preferably a sewable, four-way stretchable fabric such as DuPont's LYCRA.RTM. blended fabrics. The upper foam material 14' preferably has a density of 1.03 grams per square inch while the foam 12' of the lower pad 12 preferably has a density of about 0.44 grams per square inch.

The front face 126 of the lower padding 12 includes hook and loop fastener strips 60. An abrasive resistant high impact plastic shell 62 is provided with mating pressure sensitive adhesive hook fastener strips 64 (such as SCOTCHMATE SJ-3526 of 3M Corporation) to mate with the loop fastener strips 60 on the pad 12. The shell 62 is positioned to cover the knee of the user when the pad 10 is secured to the knee and leg.

With the structure thus described, an improved knee pad 10 is disclosed. The pad 10 includes an abrasive resistant shell 62 positioned over the knee to absorb abrasive impact and prevent abrasive damage. The pad 10 includes a dense foam 14', 12' for protecting the knee from impact as well as protecting the upper leg. The structure of the pad secures the pad 10 to the knee and leg in a manner far superior to that previously available. For example, the stretchable fabric 20 (also referred to as a sock) is not secured with both of its edges permanently secured to the pad 10 such that a user must stretch the material when placing the user's foot and leg through the sock 20. Instead, one end 23 of the sock 20 is releasable at the flaps 26, 30. As a result, the pad 10 is easier to place on the leg of the user. Further, hook and loop fasteners 24a, 24b are being attached to mating hook and loop fasteners 31, 29, both sides of the fabric 20 are secured along the entire length of edge 23, to the V-shaped flaps 26, 30. Therefore, greater strength of attachment is provided. Also, the sock 20 covers both the lower leg, knee and upper leg of the user to provide greater surface area for attachment as well as for comfort. Since the V-shaped flaps 26, 30 are separate and the slit 27 is formed in the fabric 20 to align with the hinge joint 16, there is a high degree of flexibility between the upper and lower paddings 12, 14. In addition to the above, the straps 40, 50 provide further secure attachment of the knee pad 10 to the leg.

From the foregoing detailed description the present invention it has been shown how the invention has been attached in the preferred manner. However, modifications and equivalents of the disclosed concepts such as those which readily occur in one skilled in the art are appended to be included within the scope of the claims which are appended hereto.