Abstract:
The present invention provides a chamois for use with athletic shorts and/or pants. The chamois comprises an elastic portion that stretches to conform to a wearer&#39;s body to reduce irritation and a relatively inelastic portion that resists stretch to inhibit breakdown of the foam in support areas.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to chamois and, more particularly, to chamois having relatively higher elastic and relatively lower elastic or inelastic portions. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Cycling pants/shorts of various configurations have become popular because they provide some cushioning between the bicycle seat and the cyclist, and they minimize chafing of the body of the cyclist. Cycling shorts conventionally include an inner pad, or chamois as they are known in the art, located in the crotch and buttocks regions of the cyclist. Shorts and pants are used interchangeably in this application. While some chamois are composed of a number of pieces of flexible material that are stitched together, other chamois are formed of one piece of material. As used in this application flexible generally means pliable or bendable. 
     One conventional chamois is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,101, titled C YCLING  S HORTS WITH  A NATOMICAL  S EAT  P AD , issued Dec. 21, 1993, to Septh et al., incorporated herein by reference as if set out in full. The &#39;101 patent provides cycling shorts having a padded, three-layer, seat liner having a plurality of integrally formed and embossed break lines. 
     While these early chamois provided some improvement and comfort, the early chamois, such as the &#39;101 chamois, still caused irritation to the wearer. To reduce irritation, and provide increased comfort and durability, multiple density chamois were developed. Such multiple density chamois are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,687,917, titled C HAMOIS FOR  C YCLING  P ANTS AND  M ETHOD OF  M AKING , issued Feb. 10, 2004, to Forsyth et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,702, titled the same, issued May 20, 2003, to Forsyth et al., both of which are incorporated herein by reference. The multiple density chamois provided increased support in the areas where increased support was necessary, and increased pliability where increased pliability was necessary. The multiple density chamois enhanced chamois performance, but still caused irritation to users. 
     Recently, a trend has begun where the chamois is constructed out of not just one or more density and/or thickness materials, but elastic materials as well. Elastic as used in this application generally means stretchable, unlike the use of the term flexible, which refers to pliable. Using elastic and flexible material allows the chamois to stretch and bend with the user&#39;s body tending to reduce irritation. 
     While using elastic material provided some benefits, the support material tends to breakdown after repeated stretch and retraction of the foam. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a chamois that corrected this and other problems with the prior art. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     To attain the advantages and in accordance with the present invention, a chamois is provided. The chamois comprises a garment facing side and a body facing side. The chamois further comprises at least two materials, one material being a relatively elastic material and the second material being a relatively inelastic material. 
     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 
       The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the present invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles thereof. Like items in the drawings are referred to using the same numerical reference. 
         FIG. 1  is a body-side plan view of a chamois constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded, cross-sectional view of the chamois of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 2A  is an assembled cross-section view of the chamois of  FIG. 1 , showing the chamois without the optional elastic anti-microbial material layer  216 ; 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded, cross-sectional view of an alternative chamois constructed in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is an exploded, cross-sectional view of an alternative chamois constructed in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 5  is an exploded, cross-sectional view of an alternative chamois constructed in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present invention will now be explained with reference to  FIGS. 1 to 5 . While the present invention is explained with particular reference to chamois for cycling shorts, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize on reading the disclosure that the present invention has multiple uses and multiple configurations. In particular, the present invention would be useful in any multi-density system where at least a portion of the system needs to be elastic. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a chamois  100  constructed in accordance with the present invention. Chamois  100  has a buttocks region  102  and an abdominal region  104 . Buttocks region  102  has a plurality of buttocks support areas  106  defined by seams  108 . Seams  108  may be embossed seams, welded seams, bonded seams, adhesive seals, stitched seams, or a combination thereof. 
     While chamois  100  is shown with two separate buttocks support areas  106 , areas  106  could be connected into a single area  106  or each shown pad  106  could be split into multiple pad areas as a matter of design choice. Further, the overall shape of buttocks support areas  106  is a matter of design choice. Moreover, as shown in  FIG. 1 , chamois  100  may contain additional support areas, such as, for example, abdominal support area  110 . More, less, or different support areas are possible as a matter of design choice. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , a cross-sectional view of chamois  100  about line  2 - 2  is shown. As shown, chamois  100  resides between a garment, such as cycling short  200  and a wearer, such as cyclist body  202 . Chamois  100  comprises a garment facing elastic cloth layer  204  situated proximate the short  200 . A relatively high elasticity foam layer  206  is provided on cloth layer  204  and generally traverses the entire chamois  100  although elastic foam layer  206  does not need to be contiguous. Elastic foam layer  206  may be comprised of a number of elastic or stretchable foams such as, for example, high density closed cell foam, low density open cell foam, combinations thereof, or the like. A plurality of foam pads  208  are arranged on elastic foam layer  206 . Foam pads  208  comprise a relatively low elastic foam or an inelastic foam, such as, for example, high density closed cell foam, low density open cell foam, combinations thereof, or the like. As used herein, relatively inelastic generally means less elasticity than the elastic materials, which includes inelastic materials. For example, the relatively elastic portions of the chamois may experience a stretch of about 5% with complete recovery using a 2-lb weight to stretch the material. A stretch of about 5% means about a 5% change in the dimension (length, width, diagonal, etc.) being tested. Other relatively elastic portions may experience stretch of about 2% to 25% or more depending on the specific materials used for construction. The relatively inelastic portions typically have stretch values of less than 1 or 2% and as close to zero stretch as possible, but can have stretch values of up to about 5% less than the stretch of the relatively elastic portion. However, for relatively elastic portions of the chamois being around 20%, the relatively inelastic portion of the chamois should be around 5% or less. Also, foam pads  208  may comprises single density foams, such as, for example, 60 kg open cell foam that are generally known in the art, or the like, or multi-density foams, such as, for example, 60 kg open cell foam and 120 kg closed cell foam that are generally known in the art, or the like. If support areas  106  and  110  comprise a single area, only one foam pad  208  would be provided. 
     Finally a body side elastic cloth layer  210  is provided proximate the body. Cloth layer  210  may comprise a wickable, absorbable, or hydrophobic material as a matter of design choice. Cloth layer  210  generally traverses all of chamois  100 . Optionally, portions  212  of cloth layer  210  (off-set in phantom) may be replaced with relatively low elastic or inelastic material substantially aligned with foam pads  208 . Non-stretchable synthetic leather provides one possible portion  212 . Portions  212  could be contiguous with cloth layer  210 . Alternatively, through holes  214  could be cut into cloth layer  210  and portions  212  could be arranged in through holes  214 . Alternatively, portions  212  could reside on cloth layer  210  and be substantially aligned with foam pads  208 . 
       FIG. 2A  depicts an assembled cross-section view of the chamois  100 . With reference to  FIGS. 2 and 2A , the cloth layers  204 ,  210 , foam layer  206 , and foam pads  208  each include a cycling short or garment facing side (i.e., a side that faces towards the garment) and a body facing (i.e., a side that faces towards the body). More particularly, as viewed in  FIGS. 2 and 2A , the lower sides of the cloth layers  204 ,  210 , foam layer  206 , and foam pads  208  are the garment facing sides of these layers and pads, and their upper sides are the body facing sides of these layers and pads. 
     When the chamois  100  is assembled as shown for example in  FIG. 2A , at least a portion of the body facing side of cloth layer  204  may contact or abut at least a portion of the garment facing side of the foam layer  206 . Yet further, as described above, the foam layer  206  may generally traverse the entire chamois  100 . Accordingly, in some embodiments, the garment facing side of the foam layer  206  may solely contact or abut the body facing side of cloth layer  204 . 
     With continued reference to  FIG. 2A , which shows one possible assembled condition for the chamois  100 , at least a portion of the garment facing side of one or more of the foam pads  208  may contact or abut at least a portion the body facing side of the foam layer  206 . Additionally, at least a portion of the body facing side of the foam layer  206  may abut or contact at least a portion of the garment facing side of cloth layer  210 . Yet further, at least a portion of the body facing side of one or more of the foam pads may contact or abut at least a portion of the garment facing side of cloth layer  210 . 
     As described above, foam layer  206  may generally traverse the entire chamois  100  , and the foam pads may generally be positioned in support areas  106  and  110 . With reference to  FIG. 1 , support areas  106  and  110  may occupy a portion of the area encompassed by chamois  100 . Further, the perimeter of chamois  100  may generally encompass each of these support areas  106  and  110 , and thus may generally encompass the perimeters of one or more of the foam pads  108  positioned in these support areas  106  and  110 . Since foam layer  206  may generally transverse the entire chamois  100 , the perimeter of foam layer  206  may generally correspond to the perimeter of chamois  100 . Accordingly, like the perimeter of the chamois  100 , the perimeter of foam layer  206  may generally encompass the perimeters of one or more of the foam pads  108 . 
     Optionally, cloth layer  210  may contain anti-microbial material. Anti-microbial material is generally known in the art and will not be further explained herein. Instead of incorporating an anti-microbial material into cloth layer  210 , a separate elastic anti-microbial material layer  216  may be provided. 
     Support areas, such as, for example, buttocks support areas  106  and abdominal support areas  110  are typically designed to provide support for the wearer&#39;s body. Ideally, the additional support is provided by a relatively high density foam pad  208 , a relatively thicker foam pad  208 , or a combination of a relatively denser foam pad and relatively thicker foam pad  208 , although foam pad  208  could be the same density and thickness as foam layer  206 . Moreover, foam pads may contain multi-density foams as described above. 
     As mentioned above, repeated stretching and contracting of foams increase the fatigue and accelerate the breakdown of the foam. This tends to decrease the overall effectiveness of the support areas, such as, buttocks support areas  106  and abdominal support areas  110 . Providing pads  208  as relatively low elasticity and or inelastic materials reduces the stresses the foam experiences and inhibits the breakdown of the material, which tends to enhance the overall performance. Alternatively, providing relatively inelastic seams  108  and/or relatively inelastic portions  212  reduces the stresses as well. Combining relatively inelastic pads along with inelastic seams  108  and/or inelastic portions  212  would also reduce the stress. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , a chamois  300  is shown. Chamois  300  is generally similar to chamois  100  above, and the similarities will not be re-explained herein. Chamois  300  has a plurality of foam pads  308  arranged on elastic foam layer  206 . Foam pads  308  are substantially aligned with support areas, such as, for example, buttocks support area  106 . Foam pads  308  may comprise either a relatively high or low elasticity foam, such as any of the foams mentioned above. In this case where foam pads  308  are elastic, layer  210  has portions  312  comprising a relatively low elasticity or inelastic material, such as, for example, synthetic leather, are arranged as relatively low elasticity or inelastic constraints on the ability of foam pad  308  to stretch. 
       FIG. 4  shows another chamois  400  consistent with the present invention. Chamois  400  is similar to chamois  100  or  300 , but elastic layer  206  contains a number of through holes  402  corresponding to the number of support areas, such as support areas  106 . Foam pads  208  are aligned within through holes  402  instead of residing on elastic layer  206 . 
       FIG. 5  shows another chamois  500 . Chamois  500  is consistent with either chamois  100  or  300 , and comprises cloth layers  204  and  210 . Cloth layer  210  may have portions  212  designed with relatively low elasticity or inelastic material. Similarly, cloth layer  204  may have portions  512  (similar to portions  212  described above). Residing between cloth layers  204  and  210  is an elastic foam layer  506 . Elastic foam layer  506  has a number of through openings  508  containing foam pads  510 . Foam pads  510  comprise a relatively low elasticity or inelastic foam material and are substantially contained in foam layer  506 . 
     Instead of openings  508 , as shown in phantom in  FIG. 5 , elastic foam layer  506  could be replaced with two foam layers  512  arranged with foam pads  510  contained between the layers. 
     Finally, referring back to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , if cloth layer  210  did not include anti-stretch portions  212  and foam  208  was relatively high elasticity foam, constructing seams  108  out of a relatively low elasticity or inelastic material or construction could function to inhibit the stress on foams  208 . 
     While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to embodiments 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.