Abstract:
The present invention provides an athletic glove. The athletic glove has an improved padding construction to allow for increased flexibility of the glove. The improved padding construction includes a crescent shaped pad aligned with the middle and index finger. The glove also provides improved palm constructions to improve moisture management and grip. The improved construction includes using moisture or temperature management fabric in strategic locations on the palm or an open palm construction to allow direct contact between a player&#39;s palm and the shaft of an athletic stick.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to padded athletic gloves and, more particularly, lacrosse and hockey gloves having padding with improved flexibility and improved palms.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Lacrosse and hockey are examples of two sports where the ability to handle a stick is essential for playing the game, both offensively and defensively. Offensively stick handling is essential for ball or puck control, and defensively the stick is frequently used to “check” the offensive player in an attempt to dislodge the ball or puck. Because the stick is sometimes used to “stick check,” the offensive player&#39;s hands are vulnerable to injury.  
         [0003]     In order to protect the hands from injury, lacrosse and hockey gloves are frequently made of wear resistant material and padded. The wear resistant material and pads allow for some protection, but greatly decrease the comfort and flexibility of the gloves. In particular, the wear resistant material causes the glove to become hot causing hands and palms to become slick with perspiration. Perspiration can cause difficulties with stick handling. The pads protect the hand from injury, but can cause the glove to be inflexible, which also makes stick handling more difficult.  
         [0004]     To combat these problems, many padded gloves are provided with multiple seams separating the pads. Typically, these seams form a plurality of cubes along the backhand to allow for increased flexibility, see for example, United States design patent Des 346,046, issued Apr. 12, 1994, titled R IGHT  H AND  H OCKEY  G LOVE ; Des 376,676, issued Dec. 17, 1996, titled H OCKEY  G LOVE ; Des 387,505, issued Dec. 9, 1997, titled H OCKEY  G LOVE , and United States Utility Patents 6,550,069, issued Apr. 22, 2003, titled P ADDED  S PORTS  G LOVE  H AVING  I MPROVED  F LEXIBILITY  A ND  B REATHABILITY ; 4,815,147, issued Mar. 28, 1989, titled H IGH  F LEXIBILITY  P ROTECTIVE  G LOVE , all incorporated herein by reference. Some gloves incorporate curved seams or the like to more conform the glove padding to the contours of the player&#39;s hand.  
         [0005]     To reduce the heat, and perspiration caused therefrom, many sport gloves contain ventilation paths. These ventilation paths include holes or opening in the glove or open, mesh fabric. Mesh fabric, while providing relatively good airflow, is not very durable, and other than allowing airflow does not provide any moisture management.  
         [0006]     While the above improvements make the athletic gloves better, most currently available athletic gloves leave much to be desired regarding moisture management, durability, and flexibility. Thus, it would be desirous to develop an improved padded athletic glove.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     The present invention relates to an improved padded athletic glove. The gloves comprise a finger section having at least a middle finger and an index finger. The fingers are coupled to a backhand section and extend therefrom. At least one pad coupled to the backhand section is substantially aligned with the middle finger and the index finger of the finger section. The pad has at least one curved seam defining a shape of the pad.  
         [0008]     The present invention also provides an improved athletic glove having a palm section comprising at least one piece of wear resistant material and at least one piece of fabric. The at least one piece of fabric provides moisture management and/or temperature regulation.  
         [0009]     The present invention also provides an improved athletic glove having a palm section comprising an edge that defines an open palm section. The open palm section allows contact between a player&#39;s palm and a shaft.  
         [0010]     The foregoing and other features, utilities and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
       [0011]     The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments of the present invention and are a part of the specification. The illustrated embodiments are merely examples of the present invention and do not limit the scope of the invention.  
         [0012]      FIG. 1  is a backhand plan view of a lacrosse glove consistent with an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0013]      FIG. 2  is a palm plan view of a lacrosse glove consistent with an embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0014]      FIG. 3  is a palm plan view of a lacrosse glove consistent with another embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0015]     The present invention will now be described with reference to  FIGS. 1 and 3 . It is to be understood that the drawings are diagrammatic and schematic representations of particular embodiments of the present invention, and are not limiting, nor are they drawn to scale.  
         [0016]     Referring first to  FIG. 1 , an athletic glove  100  is shown in a top plan view (a.k.a. the backhand side of the glove). Athletic glove  100  is shown as a left-handed glove, but a right-handed glove would be substantially identical and will not be explained herein. Athletic glove  100  includes a finger section  102 , a thumb section  104 , a backhand section  106 , and a wrist section  108 . Thumb section  104  is typically constructed similar to finger section  102 , but is identified separately due to the thumbs location apart from the rest of the fingers.  
         [0017]     A first plurality of pads  110  are positioned on portions of glove  100 , including pads on finger section  102 , thumb section  104 , and wrist section  108 . A second plurality of pads  112  resides on backhand section  106  substantially aligned with an index finger  114  and a middle finger  116  on athletic glove  100 . A third plurality of pads  118  reside on the remaining portion of backhand section  106 .  
         [0018]     Second plurality of pads  112  are defined by seams  120 ,  122 , and  124 . Seam  120  is the transition between first plurality of pads  110  on finger section  102 , and as such is a substantially straight seam. Seam  122  and seam  124  are curved seams such that the pads associated with second plurality of pads  112  have semi-circular, arched, elliptical, or crescent shapes. Notice, while seam  122  and seam  124  are shown as smooth curves, the seams could be a series of straight seams arranged to provide an overall arched or crescent shape. Also, seam  120  is shown as a relatively straight-line seam, it could be arched or curved similar to seam  122  or seam  124 . Moreover, shown in phantom, one or more seams  126  could run vertically through second plurality of pads  112  as desired. Vertical seam  126 , if included, could be curved, straight, or some other configuration.  
         [0019]     Third plurality of pads  118  have shapes defined, somewhat, by necessity to fit around second plurality of pads  112 . Seam  124  between second plurality of pads  112  and third plurality of pads  118  are generally curved to match the shape of second plurality of pads  112  such that second plurality of pads  112  and third plurality reside substantially adjacent to each other without significant gaps between the pads. Other seams of third plurality of pads could be straight lines, such as horizontal seam  128 , angled seam  130 , or curved seams  124 .  
         [0020]     Stick handling during play requires finger and hand placement. Sometimes, the fingers of the hand operate in unison. Operating in unison would include wrapping all your fingers around a stick or shaft. Other times, however, the fingers do not operate in unison, but rather the fingers are arranged in divergent ways. For example, one common lacrosse grip involves wrapping the index, ring, and pinky fingers around a shaft but extending the index finger along the shaft. Pervious placements of the curved and/or crescent shaped pads did not take into account the divergent positioning of the fingers. Accordingly, incorrect placement of the curved and/or crescent pads limited flexibility. Arranging second plurality of pads  112  substantially aligned with the index finger and middle finger may provide flexibility of the glove more consistent with the both unison and divergent finger placement and retain other benefits associated with curved and/or crescent pads. Also, providing seam  120  as a curved or arched seam would increase flexibility (as would providing one or more of the other seams along the transition between finger section  102  and backhand section  106  as curves or arches).  
         [0021]     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , a bottom plan view of athletic glove  200  is shown (a.k.a. the palm side of the glove). Athletic glove  200  is shown as a right-handed glove, but a left-handed glove would be substantially identical and will not be separately explained herein. Similar to glove  100 , glove  200  can be separated into a finger section  202 , a thumb section  204 , a palm section  206 , and a wrist section  208 .  
         [0022]     The surface of finger section  202 , thumb section  204 , and palm  206  includes a wear resistant fabric  210 , such as, for example, leather or synthetic leather. Wear resistant fabric  210  optionally has a plurality of ventilation holes  212 . Ventilation holes  212  provide good durability for the gloves, but is a relatively non-breathable type of fabric and limits the players ability to “feel” the shaft when they are gripping the shaft. Optional ventilation holes  212  improve the temperature of the glove, but do little or nothing to help with the feel.  
         [0023]     To help with ventilation, many athletic gloves use a breathable mesh fabric for most all or portions of the area currently covered by wear resistant material  210 . As used in the herein, breathable mesh fabric describes a fabric with a plurality of opening woven into the fabric where the openings are visible without close inspection or stretching of the fabric. Some gloves are made with the majority of wear resistant material  210  replaced by mesh fabric. While large portions of mesh fabric improve ventilation and feel, mesh fabric is not very durable causing the mesh area of the palm to become frayed, which is a violation of most organized rules for sports, such as lacrosse. For these gloves, many players cut the mesh fabric away completely and grip the shaft with the bear hand, which is also a less than desirable solution. Instead of replacing a majority of wear resistant material with mesh, other gloves replace only limited portions with mesh. While these smaller portions fray less quickly, but they do eventually fray long before the remained of the glove needs to be replaced, the ventilation and feel is greatly reduced.  
         [0024]     Instead of mesh fabric, the present invention uses more durable breathable fabrics  214  in combination with wear resistant material  210  to improve ventilation, feel, and durability. Breathable fabrics  214 , such as polyesters, nylons, spandex, or the like, and combinations thereof, such as a polyester spandex blend, are less durable than wear resistant material  210 , but more durable than the mesh fabrics currently used in conventional athletic gloves. Moreover, breathable fabrics  214  could include other technology to assist with total moisture management or temperature regulation of the player&#39;s hand. Moisture management fabrics as generally known in the textile arts, but include, for example, denier gradient fabrics, wicking fabrics, hydrophobic fabrics, and absorbent fabrics. Temperature regulation fabrics also are generally known in the art and include fabrics having phase change materials (PCMs).  
         [0025]     Using a temperature regulation fabric in palm section  206  provides the added benefit of reduced heat transfer between the player&#39;s hand and the gripped shaft. Reducing the heat transfer between the player&#39;s hand and the gripped shaft causes the shafts gripped with glove  200  to have less of a temperature feel than gripping shafts with conventional gloves.  
         [0026]     As mentioned above, at least one conventional lacrosse glove has a palm section consisting of a majority of mesh fabric. Players typically cut the mesh fabric out of the glove. This is a less than desirable solution for a variety of reasons. Referring now to  FIG. 3 , a lacrosse glove  300  is shown consistent with the present invention. Glove  300  is similar to gloves  100  and  200  and those portions will not be explained herein. However, glove  300  has a palm section  302 . Palm section  302  comprises an edge  304  of wear resistant material outlining an open palm section  306 . Open palm section  306  allows the player to grip a shaft without other fabrics in the way. Further, edge  304  is less likely to fray as it is designed to be connected to an open section of the glove. Optionally, wear resistant material pieces  308  could cross over portions of open palm section  306  as desired.  
         [0027]     While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to an embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various other changes in the form and details may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.