One piece brief with hook and pile closures

A one-piece brief comprises an upper band portion with front and rear panels. A short tab portion depends from the center of the front panel while a longer crotch portion descends from the center of the rear panel. Fastening tapes are provided at the edges of the front and rear panels and at the lower edges of the tab and crotch portions. A resilient waist band extends along a top edge of the upper band portion and carries at one end an outwardly extending fastening tape which engages another fastening tape at an opposite end of the waist band to be used in properly aligning side edges of the front and rear panels.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates in general to clothing and in particular to a 
new and useful brief which is particularly suited to persons having a 
physical disability or impairment. 
For elderly people or people suffering from a permanent or temporary 
disability which impairs their movement, it is sometimes difficult to don 
and remove conventional briefs. 
Particularly with people suffering from back pain or injury, it is 
difficult or sometimes impossible to bend sufficiently to don the 
conventional garment. 
A garment which can be worn without requiring any bending would be 
particularly useful to such people. 
Briefs and diaper structures are known which have detachable sides so that 
the garment can be donned without requiring the person to bend over in any 
way. One example can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,440 to McGowan which 
shows briefs for a handicapped person having front and rear panels which 
are connected at the crotch and which use hook and pile (Velcro, a trade 
name) fasteners. This garment still requires one of the large panels to be 
drawn up around the crotch area and then fastened at the sides. 
An arrangement having a detachable crotch area as well as detachable sides 
is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,763 to Abrams et al. This structure also 
uses hook and pile fasteners with totally detachable front and back 
panels. A problem with this structure is that the front and back panels 
must be aligned correctly before they can be attached. This may require 
even more maneuvering than would be used in conventional brief designs. 
U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,501 to Erickson et al shows an abdominal scultetus 
which is fastenable at the sides by a pleurality of horizontally extending 
hook and pile fasteners. The complex design is particularly useful in 
dressings for people who have undergone surgery. 
Other designs for diapers and brief structures can be found in the 
following patents: 
U.S. Pat. No. 2,493,113 to Dance 
U.S. Pat. No. 2,431,571 to Lehr 
U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,432 to Ravkind et al 
U.S. Pat. No. 3,207,155 to Casey 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,230 to Lafleur. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is drawn to a structure for mens' or womens' briefs 
which has a crotch connected to a rear panel of the brief that can be 
brought up to the front panel of the brief being wrapped around the front 
of the person and attached to the rear panel at side edge of the front and 
rear panels. 
This orientation of parts for the one piece brief permits an impaired 
person to simply lock on the rear panel of the brief and then easily bring 
the front panel and crotch portion to the front. A waste fastening tab 
which is formed as an extention of a waste band for the brief is provided 
to exactly align the top edge of the waste band and vertically align side 
fastening tapes for the edges of the front and rear panels to be brought 
together. 
In a mens' design for the briefs, verticle hook and pile tapes are provided 
on the crotch portion and can meet with verticle tapes on the outside of 
the front panel to permit verticle adjustment of the crotch portion. 
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a one-piece 
brief which comprises an upper band portion having front and rear panels 
and a crotch portion descending from the middle of the rear panel. Hook 
and pile fasteners are provided at side edges of the front and rear panels 
and a waste band is provided which has an extended fastening tape that can 
engage around the waste of the person enfastened with a tape on another 
part of the waste band. This aligns the fastening tapes at the edges of 
the front and rear panels. The crotch portion is also provided with 
fastening tapes so that it can be brought up to the front panel and 
fastened thereto. 
A further object of the invention is to provide a one-piece brief which is 
simple in design, rugged in construction and economical to manufacture. 
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are 
pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part 
of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its 
operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, reference 
is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which 
preferred embodiments of the invention are illustrated.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring to the drawings, the invention embodied in FIGS. 1 and 2 
comprises a one-piece brief generally designated 10 having an upper band 
portion 12 with an upper horizontal edge 14. The upper band portion 12 has 
a front panel 16 and a rear panel 18 connected to the front panel 16. The 
front panel 16 has a first open verticle side edge 20 and the rear panel 
18 has a second open verticle side edge 22. A resilient waist band 24 is 
connected to and extends along the upper edge 14. Resilient band 24 can be 
made of the elastic fabric or any other resilient material which is 
usually used as a waist band in briefs. 
A short tab portion 26 depends from the center of the front panel 16 and 
has a first lower horizontal edge 28. A long crotch portion 30 depends 
from a center of the rear panel and has a second lower horizontal edge 2. 
The crotch portion 30 is longer than the tab portion 26. 
Vertical lengths of fastening tape 34 and 36 are connected to the first and 
second vertical side edges 20 and 22 respectively. Tape 34 may be of the 
pile type and tape 36 may be of the hook type so that when these two tapes 
are brought into contact with each other they will form a fastening 
connection. 
A first length of waist fastening tape 42 is connected to the waist band 24 
and extends outwardly beyond the first edge 20. A second length of waist 
fastening tape 44 is connected to the opposite end of waist band 24 and 
has an edge which lies flush with the second edge 22. 
A first length of crotch portion fastening tape 38 is connected to the edge 
28 of crotch portion 26 and likewise a second length of crotch portion 
fastening tape 40 is connected at the lower edge 32 of crotch portion 30. 
In FIG. 1, the inner surface of the brief is shown which is meant to come 
into contact with the wearers' skin. Tapes 36, 38 and 44 are mounted on 
the outside surface of the one-piece brief (these tapes being shown by 
dotted lines) while tapes 34, 40 and 42 are connected to the inside 
surfaces of the brief. Tape 42 of course extends beyond the end of waist 
band 24. 
To don the brief shown in FIG. 1 a person merely places the brief with the 
rear panel behind and then wraps the front panel across the front. The 
first length of waist fastening tape 42 can be held and conveniently 
brought into contact with the second length of waist fastening tape 44. 
This automatically aligns the vertical fastening tapes 44 and 36 which can 
then be pressed together. To complete the donning process, the crotch 
portion 30 is brought up between the legs and tape 40 pressed onto tape 
38. 
In this way, the person can wear the briefs of the present invention 
without having to bend. A person lying on a bed can don the briefs in an 
equally simple manner by simply lying on the rear panel 18 and then 
repeating the steps set forth above. 
FIG. 2 shows the assembled brief 10 from the front. 
Curved lower transition edges or zones 46 separate crotch portion 26 and 30 
while outer transition zones 48 and 49 form the rest of a leg engaging 
hole when the brief is assembled as shown in FIG. 2. 
The brief of FIGS. 1 and 2 is primarily suited for women. 
FIGS. 3 and 4 show a brief according to the invention which is primarily 
suited for men. All numerals which designate the same elements as in FIGS. 
1 and 2 carry the same reference numerals. Corresponding but slightly 
modified elements carry the same reference numeral but with a prime. 
In FIG. 3 the rear panel 18 is the same but the front panel 16 prime has a 
slightly shorter tab portion 26 prime with a first lower edge 28 prime. 
Instead of using a single horizontal crotch portion fastening tape 38 as 
in FIG. 1, a pair of horizontally spaced vertically extending fastening 
tapes 54 are used. These are mounted on the outside surface of panel 16 
prime. 
The long crotch portion 30 prime carries a front covering portion 50 which 
has the second lower edge 32 prime of crotch portion 30 prime. A pair of 
horizontally spaced vertically extending fastening tapes 52 are provided 
on the inside surface of cover portion 50 which can be pressed into 
engagement with tapes 54 on the outside surface of front panel 16 prime. 
In this way, a degree of vertical adjustment can be achieved to change the 
volume of the crotch area of the assembled brief as shown in FIG. 4. The 
solid line for edge 32 prime in FIG. 4 shows a larger volume area while 
the phantom line for edge 32 prime shows a smaller volume area. 
Transition zones 46 prime, 48 prime, and 49 prime are similar to the 
transition zones of FIG. 1 but curve slightly differently to accommodate 
the different lengths for the crotch portions. 
As noted above the brief 10 prime of FIGS. 3 and 4 is primarily suited for 
men. 
In FIGS. 5 and 6 a brief generally designated 10" is the same as the briefs 
shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 but is suited for pregnant women. The front panel 
is replaced by an elastic front panel portion 16" which accommodates the 
larger abdomen of a pregnant woman. 
In all of the embodiments, the long crotch portions 30 or 30' can be lined 
with an extra layer of absorbant material such as cotton. The remainder of 
the brief except for the fasteners and waist band can also be made of 
cotton or other suitable material. 
While specific embodiments of the invention have been shown and described 
in detail to illustrate the application of the principles of the 
invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied 
otherwise without departing from such principles.