Abstract:
A sports glove has a front tab for securing the glove on the hand of the user, a slit to facilitate direct embroidery and a direct embroidered design on the back thereof. Also discussed is a method for the direct embroidery of a log or design directly to the back of a glove.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates generally to gloves, and more specifically to sports gloves such as golf gloves having an improved design that allows the direct embroidery of a logo or design directly to the back of the glove to improve the appearance of the glove.  
           [0002]    Gloves, which are particularly adapted for use in sports such as golf, baseball, tennis, bicycling, rowing, soccer or motor sports are well known and have been popular for years. It is also known to customize or place a design such as a team or company logo on such gloves. These designs are commonly embroidered onto a separate patch, which is then sewed onto the glove&#39;s hook and loop closure tab. This approach, however, has the disadvantage of adding a layer of textile material to the glove, which tends to decrease the flexibility of the glove and detracts from the overall appearance of the glove.  
           [0003]    A separate patch could be avoided by direct embroidering a logo or design onto the back of the glove, but direct embroidering is not suitable for gloves which have a traditional closure tab on the back of the glove. Traditional closure tabs contain a hook and loop fastener and direct embroidery onto a hook and loop fastener interferes with its intended function by making the loop portion of the closure non-functional. Furthermore, there is a very limited amount of space available, generally less than 1.25 square inches in size, on the back of gloves having this design. Thus, it is common for a glove manufacturer to make many “generic” blank gloves which are shipped to an intermediate who then adds a desired design or logo by sewing a previously embroidered patch to the glove or adhesively securing a plastic or laminated emblem to the glove or by using a magnetic logo attachment  
           [0004]    On the other hand, it would be desirable to have a sports glove with a logo or design embroidered directly on the back thereof and the present invention provides such a glove. In a sense this invention is in the nature of an improvement of the design shown in U.S. Design Pat. No. D445,964 S which issued Jul. 31, 2001 to Gambordella for Golf Glove with Hook-and-Loop Enclosure. By improving upon the design of the Gambordella patent, it has been found that a much larger company logo or design can be embroidered directly to the back of a golf or sports glove with a minimum of effect on the flexibility of the glove, a significant improvement in the visual appeal of the custom logo glove and with improved manufacturing processing efficiency.  
           [0005]    These and other advantages will be appreciated from the following disclosure taken in conjunction with the attached drawings and appended claims.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    In accordance with the present invention, a sports glove is disclosed having a front tab for securing the glove on the hand of the user, a slit to facilitate the direct embroidery of a logo or design utilizing currently available embroidery technology, and a method for the direct embroidery of a logo or design directly to the back of the glove. In accordance with the method of this invention, a direct embroidered sports glove is made by the steps of:  
           [0007]    providing a sports glove with a front tab for securing the glove on a hand of a user, a slit to accommodate a conventional embroidery hooping frame, and an open back;  
           [0008]    placing the hooped glove on a conventional embroidery machine;  
           [0009]    Embroidering a logo or design directly onto the back of the glove.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]    The foregoing and other objects will become more readily apparent by referring to the following detailed description and the appended drawings in which:  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 is a top plan elevation of a preferred embodiment of a glove of this invention showing the tab in open position and a modified slit; and  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 is a bottom elevational view of the preferred embodiment of FIG. 1 showing the direct embroidery of a logo or design on the open back thereof; and  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 is an elevational view showing the glove of FIG. 1 mounted on an embroidery hoop. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0014]    Referring to FIGS. 1-3 of the drawings, a preferred embodiment of an improved sports glove of the present invention is shown and indicated generally by the numeral  10 . Glove  10  has a palm portion  12 , thumb  14 , and individual fingers  16 ,  18 ,  20  and  22 . Glove  10  is intended to be secured on the hand of a user by a hook and loop type securement such as Velcro or the like. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1 a hook covered tab  24  is shown in open configuration, it being understood that in use, tab  24  will be secured to cooperating loop patch  26  in a conventional manner and, of course, that in the alternative, tab  24  can be a loop covered tab and patch  26  can be a cooperating hook covered patch.  
         [0015]    Glove  10  can be constructed of any suitable flexible fabric. Preferable glove  10  is made of soft leather, synthetic leather, or similar material.  
         [0016]    As shown in FIG. 1, a slit  28  extends from the open end  30  of glove  10  below tab  24  and patch  26 . The length of slit  28  is great enough that the open end  30  of glove  10  can be stretched over a conventional embroiderying device, for example either a tubular, oval sock, or rotary frame, for the direct embroidery step of this invention. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the combination of a palm side tab  24  and extended slit  28  allows glove  10  to be stretched over a conventional hoop and directly embroidered in accordance with this invention.  
         [0017]    Referring now to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 glove  10  has a back  32  with a design  34 , which has been directly embroidered onto back  32 . FIG. 3 shows glove  10  mounted on a conventional embroidery frame  36  which has an annular projection  38  over which is glove  10  and hooping ring  40  which holds glove  10  in position. As viewed is FIG. 3 glove  10  is “opened” with the backside  42  of logo  34  facing upwardly.  
         [0018]    Hooping ring  40  is inserted inside glove  10  and then applied over projection  38  of frame  36 . It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the directly embroidery of a logo or design is not limited to the size of the conventional tab but is only limited by the size of hoop over which glove  10  is stretched for the direct embroidery step. The available area on the back of the modified glove area is much larger than the customization area that is available on a conventionally designed glove with the hook and loop closure on the back of the glove) Thus, while a conventional glove is limited to a relatively small design, less than 1.25 square inches area for logo or design placement is typical, the present invention allows designs as large as 2.50 inches in diameter (up to 4.9 square inches area for placement of a logo or design) using a conventional 9 cm tubular embroidery hoop. A logo or design area as large as 2.25″×3.25″ (up to 7.3 square inches of area for the direct embroidery of a logo or design) can be achieved with the use of a conventional tubular, oval sock, or rotary hooping device. The additional customization area made available for direct embroidery of a logo or design by this invention offers a substantial marketing advantage because of the available size and direct embroidery verses the conventional customization methods).  
         [0019]    If desired, for example where it is desired to direct embroider a soft natural leather glove, an insert sheet of synthetic material can be secured inside glove  10  to providing support where the logo is to be embroidered.  
         [0020]    Glove  10  is suitable for use in a broad range of sports gloves. For example, glove  10  may be a driving glove, roping glove, horse riding glove, shooting glove, baseball glove, racquetball glove, soccer glove, football glove, casual, dress or leisure glove, motorcycle glove, truck driving glove, bicycle glove, police glove, weightlifting glove, or tennis or similar glove. Even further uses for glove  10  will be within the broad scope of the present invention.  
         [0021]    While a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described herein, it will be appreciated that the invention is subject to variation and modification and it is intended to be limited only by the following claims.