Abstract:
This invention relates to a goalie glove with an improved inner compartment including a modified inner glove or fack adapted to reduce the risk of slippage when the athlete grasps an object or uses the mitt to catch or smother an object such as a hockey puck.  
     The proposed hockey glove inner compartment reduces the need for tight lacing of the glove on the athlete&#39;s hand and forearm and thus improves overall freedom of movement as well as hand and wrist manoeuvrability. The proposed improved hockey glove inner compartment will reduce the risk that the inner compartment becomes overly dampened by the absorption of sweat during the athletic contest and also reduce the risk of being stretched out of shape or damaged from the exertion. The hockey glove will maximize the comfort to the user with minimal loss of function or protectiveness. The improved inner compartment is also adapted to optimize the life of the overall glove construction.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to the general field of athletic equipment and is particularly concerned with a hockey glove having an improved inner compartment.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The game of hockey and in particular of ice hockey is becoming increasingly popular with expansion teams in most North American and European a large number of major industrial cities. Some of the attractiveness of the game of ice hockey relates to its inherent fast moving, energetic characteristics. These characteristics, however can create dangerous situations for its athletes.  
           [0003]    These athletes therefore wear a variety of protective equipment including protective hand gloves.  
           [0004]    The game can prove to be especially highly dangerous for the athlete playing the goalie position who must face a flurry of fast moving pucks or target objects directed at him and block or intercept the latter. The goalie also faces dangers from collisions with metal goal structures, other players, walls and sharp ice skate blades.  
           [0005]    Accordingly, there exists a great need to protect the body of the goalie athlete and, in recent years, a great variety of equipment and methods of construction of protective equipment for goalies have been proposed.  
           [0006]    In particular, a large variety of protective constructions for protecting the hands of an athlete ice hockey goalie in the form of gloves in varying degrees of rigidity and resiliency have been designed and marketed. Hockey goalies typically use two types of glove. The first is a so called blocker glove which include a large padded surface over the back of the hand and forearm and which is generally used to grasp the goalie&#39;s hockey stick. This type of glove is most often worn in the right hand of the goalie. The other hand if often protected with a so called catch glove. The catch glove which is typically worn on free hand has padding on both the back and palm side. The catch glove defines large flexible surfaces to form a pocket in a mitt shape for entrapping the hockey puck when possible.  
           [0007]    The skin structures of the human hand are provided with extremely sensitive nerve connections for enabling tactilegnosis. Because the hand skin has special elasticity, and because palm hand skin has more tactile corpuscles and nerve connections per unit area than does the skin on any other part of the body, the hand is the end organ with the highest degree of discriminating sensation and also with a high degree of sensitivity to impact.  
           [0008]    Unfortunately, the hand is also uniquely susceptible of injury to its miniature bones and delicate tissues.  
           [0009]    Since the hockey puck can travel at speeds exceeding 100 mph. the goalie&#39;s must be made of a sufficiently padded construction to prevent both pain sensation to the highly discriminating nerve connections and potential injury to the miniature bones and delicate tissues. Furthermore, the goalie&#39;s glove and especially the catch glove must allow the athlete to catch a flying puck or to smother a puck on the ice by covering it up with the glove. The catch glove must also assist in handling the goaltender stick to clear or pass the puck to another player.  
           [0010]    The construction of the glove is thus submitted to dichotomic design requirements and is often a compromise between efficient operability that will not hinder the natural body movements required of athletic performance and, on the other hand, the covering and thick padding that is required for protection of the body of the athlete.  
           [0011]    In order to achieve these dichotomic functions, the prior art hockey goalie gloves have often compromised by design choices of their inner compartments.  
           [0012]    Indeed, even though in recent years durable fabric material and efficient fattening mechanisms have come into use so as to make possible structures that are relatively less cumbersome and rigid and construction formerly made uniquely of leather, they still present a rather massive outer construction.  
           [0013]    Most conventional prior art goalie catch glove include a thumb area, a thumb spoiler, a finger area, a pocket between the thumb and finger area, a cuff protector and a back cuff. The pocket has laces or webbing spanning the area between the thumb and finger areas. A top web stands across the top of the pocket from the tip of the thumb area to the tip of the finger area.  
           [0014]    Typically a first cuff portion joins the glove portion for protecting the palm side of the wrist and the lower forearm of the goaltender and a second cuff portion is provided across the back side of the glove for protecting the back side of the wrist and lower forearm of the goaltender. There is typically also provided a hand opening for the goalie&#39;s hand to be inserted and securing straps which are tightenable across the back of the goalie&#39;s hand to ensure a secure grip on the glove. The securing straps are tightenable and fastenable via a hook and pile fastening material such as VELCRO (Trademark). Preferably, there is also a removable wrist pad also secured via VELCRO.  
           [0015]    This prior art construction suffers from numerous drawbacks one of which is particularly vexatious. Indeed, the inner construction often does not allow for proper gripping. For example, the goalie&#39;s hand must be able to grip various objects without slipping. Also, the prior art construction is such that it requires thugh tightening of the securing straps which inhibits freedom of movement and, hence, athlete performance.  
           [0016]    In a field where fractions of seconds become crucial, this has proven to be unacceptable. Accordingly, there exists a need for a goalie glove having an improved inner compartment.  
           [0017]    Advantages of the present invention include that the proposed goalie glove has an improved inner compartment including a modified inner glove or fack adapted to reduce the risk of slippage when the athlete grasps an object or uses the mitt to catch or smother an object such as a hockey puck.  
           [0018]    Also, the proposed hockey glove inner compartment reduces the need for tight lacing of the glove on the athlete&#39;s hand and forearm and thus improves overall freedom of movement as well as hand and wrist maneuverability.  
           [0019]    Furthermore, the proposed improved hockey glove inner compartment will reduce the risk that the inner compartment becomes overly dampened by the absorption of sweat during the athletic contest and also reduce the risk of being stretched out of shape or damaged from the exertion.  
           [0020]    The hockey glove having the improved inner compartment in accordance with the present invention will maximize the comfort to the user with minimal loss of function or protectiveness. The improved inner compartment is also adapted to optimize the life of the overall glove construction. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0021]    An embodiment of the present invention will now be disclosed, by way of example, in reference to the following drawings in which:  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 1: in an elevational view, illustrates a hockey goalie catch glove having an improved inner compartment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention shown in phantom lines;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 2: in an elevational view with a section taken out, illustrates the hockey goalie catch glove shown in FIG. 1 with its improved inner compartment shown in full lines;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 3: in a partial perspective view with sections taken out, illustrate part of the improved inner compartment of the hockey goalie glove shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 mounted over the hand of an intended user, the hand of the intended user being partly shown in phantom lines;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 4: in a partial elevational view with sections taken out, illustrates a section of the improved inner compartment part of the hockey goalie glove shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the inner compartment being shown attached to a section of the hockey glove and in an opened configuration.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0026]    Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a goalie hockey catch glove  10  having an improved inner compartment  12  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIGS. 1 and 2, illustrate a goalie catch glove and it should be understood that the improved inner compartment  12  could be used with other protective hand gears such as a hockey goalie blocker glove or any other suitable hand protective gear without department from the scope of the present invention.  
         [0028]    Also, it should be understood that although FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a left hand glove the inner compartment  12  could be used in a right hand glove without departing from the scope of the present invention simply by inverting the structure.  
         [0029]    The glove  10  has an external configuration conventional in most respects, having a main glove portion including a thumb receiving section  14 , a finger receiving section  16  and a pocket section  18  extending therebetween. The pocket section  18  has laces or webbing  20  spanning the area between the thumb and finger areas  14 ,  16 .  
         [0030]    The glove  10  finds a palm side  22  and an opposed back side  24 . A first cuff portion  26  joins the glove portion for protecting the palm side of the wrist and lower forearm of the goaltender and a second cuff portion  28  is provided across the back side  24  of the glove  10  for protecting the back side of the wrist and lower forearm of the goaltender.  
         [0031]    A hand opening  30  is provided for allowing the goalie&#39;s hand to be inserted. Securing straps (not shown) are tightenable across the back of the goalie&#39;s hand to ensure a secure grip on the glove. Typically the securing straps are tightenable and fastenable via hook and pile fastening material such as VELCRO (Trademark). The construction of the goalie glove heretofore depicted is somewhat conventional.  
         [0032]    One of the main characteristic of the present invention resides in the presence of a close-fitting modified inner glove  32 .  
         [0033]    Referring now more specifically to FIGS. 3 and 4, there is shown in greater details the construction of the inner glove  32 . The inner glove  32  is preferably of the so called fingerless type adapted to envelope the palm portion of the hand and a lower section of the fingers while allowing a distal section of the fingers to be exposed. A modified glove adapted to envelope only specific sections of fingers or only specific fingers is more appropriately commonly referred to as a fack rather than a glove.  
         [0034]    However, in the preset text the component  32  will be referred to as the inner glove  32 .  
         [0035]    The inner glove  32  include a main sheet of material preferably having a general rectangular configuration and folded so as to define a sheet palm section  34 , a sheet back section  36 , a sheet first side section  38  and a sheet second side section  40 .  
         [0036]    The generally rectangular piece of material is configured and sized so as to receive the palm section of the hand and a proximal section of the fingers when in the closed configuration shown in FIG. 3.  
         [0037]    The inner glove  32  also includes a general cylindrical thump sleeve  42  communicating with the sheet first side section  38  adjacent a peripheral edge thereof. The thumb sleeve  42  is configured and sized for receiving a proximal section of the thumb  44  of the hand of intended user.  
         [0038]    The sheet of material further defines a first longitudinal peripheral edge  46  and an opposed second longitudinal edge  48 . The first and second longitudinal edges  46 ,  48  are spaced relative to each other so that the palm section of the inner glove  32  substantially covers the palm section of the hand of the intended user from a position substantially adjacent the wrist  50  of the intended user to a position adjacent the metacarpo-phalandial connections between the palm and the fingers  52  of the intended user.  
         [0039]    The back section  36  and the second side section  40  are separated from each other by respective side peripheral edges  54 ,  56 . The back section  36  can thus be pivoted about the first side section  38  relative to the palm section  34  and the second side section  40  to a relatively open configuration shown in FIG. 4 facilitating insertion of the hand of the intended user.  
         [0040]    A releasable fastening means for fastening the back section  36  in its closed configuration shown in FIG. 3 wherein the first side peripheral edge  54  lies in a generally adjacent relationship relative to the second side peripheral edge  56 , is further provided. The releasable fastening means may take any suitable form.  
         [0041]    In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the releasable fastening means includes a first and a second fastening strip respectively extending adjacent the first and second longitudinal edges of both the back section  36  and the second side section  40 .  
         [0042]    The first and second fastening strips  58 ,  60  are provided with releasable locking means for locking corresponding half sections thereof together. The locking means preferably takes the form of hook-and-loop material such as VELCRO (Trademark). The first and second fastening strips  58 ,  60  are preferably sewn, glued or otherwise mounted on the exterior surface of the back section  36  and the second side section  40 .  
         [0043]    In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the material of the inner glove may conveniently be soft, treated leather or assimilated leather or suitable clothe construction provided that the material will resist stretching in order to provide a close and secure fit to the user&#39;s hand throughout the duration of the athletic contest.  
         [0044]    A cushioning pad  62  is secured to the inner surface of the palm section  34 . The cushioning pad  62  is preferably made out of a substantially cushioning material such as a thick piece of leather, a polymeric resin or the like. The cushioning pad  62  is adapted to be secured to the inner surface of the palm section  34  by sewing lines  64  or any other suitable means.  
         [0045]    The inner glove  32  is adapted to be secured to the palm section  16  of the goalie glove  10  by suitable fastening means such as sewing lines, glue, rivets, stitching, lacing or any combination of these fasteners. Alternatively, the inner glove  32  may be releasably secured to the thump section  16  instead of being permanently affixed thereto.  
         [0046]    A releasable connection between the inner glove  32  and the outer structure could allow for drying of the inner glove without the requirements of blowing air thereunto with an air blower, such as a hair dryer as it is often done when moisture caused by the sweat of the athlete accumulates.  
       SPECIFICATION  
       [0047]    Hockey goalies typically use two types of glove. The first is a so-called blocker glove, which includes a large padded surface over the back of the hand and forearm and which is generally used to grasp the goalie&#39;s hockey stick. The other hand is often protected with a so-called catch glove, which is typically worn on free hand and has padding on both the back and palm side. The catch glove defines large flexible surfaces to form a pocket in a mitt shape for entrapping the hockey puck when possible.  
         [0048]    Since the hockey puck can travel at speeds exceeding 100 mph, the goalie glove must be made of a sufficiently padded construction to prevent both pain sensation to the highly discriminating nerve connections and potential injury to the miniature bones and delicate tissues of the hands. The goalie&#39;s catch glove must allow the athlete to catch a flying puck or to smother a puck on the ice by covering it up with the glove. The catch glove must also assist in handling the goaltender stick to clear or pass the puck to another player.  
         [0049]    The construction of the glove is thus submitted to dichotomic design requirements and is often a compromise between efficient operability that will not hinder the natural body movements required of athletic performance and, on the other hand, the covering and thick padding that is required for protection of the body of the athlete. This invention satisfies both elements described, without compromise.  
         [0050]    Indeed, even though in recent years durable fabric material and efficient fastening mechanisms have come into use so as to make possible structures that are relatively less cumbersome and rigid than construction formerly made uniquely of leather, they still present a rather massive outer construction.  
         [0051]    Most conventional prior art goalie catch glove include a thumb area, a thumb spoiler, a finger area, a pocket between the thumb and finger area, a cuff protector and a back cuff. The pocket has laces or webbing spanning the area between the thumb and finger areas. A top web stands across the top of the pocket from the tip of the thumb area to the tip of the finger area.  
         [0052]    Typically, a first cuff portion joins the glove portion for protecting the palm side of the wrist and the lower forearm of the goaltender and a second cuff portion is provided across the back side of the glove for protecting the back side of the wrist and lower forearm of the goaltender. There is typically also provided a hand opening for the goalie&#39;s hand to be inserted and securing straps which are tightenable across the back of the goalie&#39;s hand to ensure a secure grip on the glove. The securing straps are tightenable and fastenable via a hook and pile fastening material such as VELCRO (trademark). Preferably, there is also a removable wrist pad also secured via VELCRO.  
       SPECIFICATION (Continued)  
       [0053]    This prior art construction suffers from numerous drawbacks one of which is that is does not allow for proper gripping without slipping. Also, the prior art construction is such that it requires thugh tightening of the securing straps which inhibits freedom of movement and, hence, athlete&#39;s performance.  
         [0054]    In a field where fractions of seconds become crucial, this has proven to be unacceptable. Accordingly, there exists a need for a goalie glove having an improved inner compartment.  
       Revendication Page  
       [0055]    I revendicate the rights to fix any form of gloves inside of a hockey goalkeeper catching glove with the help of any products or combination of products as stitchings, glue, velcro (tradermark), rivets etc . . . . The glove can be adjuste with the help of velcro (tradermark) straps, laces, buckles or any other products that will hold the glove in place firmely on the hand.  
         [0056]    The glove can stay permanently in the goalkeeper catching glove or it can be remove from the hockey goalkeeper catching glove to be fix again inside the goalkeeper catching glove.  
         [0057]    I revendicate the idea of fixing a glove in a hockey goalkeeper catching glove because this idea was not on the market before the deposit of my patent pending and for the advantages mentioned in the precedent page.  
         [0058]    The inner glove system could be use in a lacrosse goaltender catching glove or in a baseball glove or an other sport where the players have to use a catching glove.