Abstract:
Confronting intra-finger gussets, peripheral banding strips, and stitching lines extending from wrist to fingertip across a palm face of a soccer goalkeeper glove help to hold the glove in a curved configuration that protects the fingers and thumb of the wearer from bending backward when hit by a soccer ball. These features, alone, or in various combinations, also contribute to a realistic feel in handling a ball.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    Gloves for soccer goalkeepers 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    This invention results from experience in making and using soccer goalkeeper gloves such as described in my U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,441. The improvements accomplished by this invention help make a soccer goalkeeper glove achieve its original purpose of protecting a goalkeeper&#39;s fingers from injury while giving the goalkeeper a feel for handling the ball. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0003]    The improved glove accomplishes this by adding three structures, usable singly or in any combination to better hold the palm and fingers of the glove to the curvature of a surface approximating that of a soccer ball. This then helps resist any back bending of the thumbs and fingers from being struck by a soccer ball. The curvature conforming features of the glove also allow comfortable finger and thumb movements by the wearer of the gloves to give the wearer a realistic feel while handling the ball. 
         [0004]    The curvature conforming structures include first, curved gussets forming confronting intra-finger surfaces to help hold the glove fingers to a curved shape. Second, a mesh material laminated into a palm face of the glove is secured with stitching along lines extending from a wrist region of the glove to the tips of the thumb and fingers of the glove. The stitching along these lines reduces any tendency of the palm face materials to stretch, which helps hold the palm and fingers to the desired curvature. Third, a length of stretch-resistant banding material has its ends secured to a wrist region of the glove and extends around the perimeter of the glove where the banding material is secured to the tips of the thumb and fingers of the glove. This helps the fingers reinforce each other and resists back bending of any one of the fingers or thumbs. 
     
    
     
       DRAWINGS 
         [0005]      FIG. 1  is a partially schematic plan view of the inventive improvements in a soccer goalkeeper glove. 
           [0006]      FIG. 2  is a partially schematic side view of the glove of  FIG. 1  conformed to a curvature approximating that of a soccer ball. 
           [0007]      FIG. 3  is a plan view of an intra-finger gusset used in the glove of  FIGS. 1 and 2 . 
           [0008]      FIG. 4  is a side elevation of the gusset of  FIG. 3 , taken along the line  3 - 3  of  FIG. 1 , to show the finger curving effect of the gusset. 
           [0009]      FIG. 5  is a schematic view of a hand showing preferred paths for tendon line stitching and showing that such tendon lines converge at a wrist region of the glove. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0010]    Lines  11 - 15  of stitching secure together a mesh material  26  and a palm face material  27  of glove  10 . The lines  11 - 15  preferably extend from wrist region  20  to finger tips  21 - 24  and thumb tip  25 . With such an arrangement, stitching lines  11 - 15  generally follow tendon lines from a wrist region to the tips of fingers and thumbs. These tendon lines converge at a wrist region of the glove as shown in  FIG. 5 . 
         [0011]    The advantage of stitching lines  11 - 15  is to restrain any stretching movement of mesh material  26  or palm material  27  in the direction of the stitching lines. This can allow mesh and palm materials  26  and  27  to stretch laterally somewhat in inter-finger regions, and laterally across the palm face, but the stitchings inhibit the mesh material from stretching in the direction of the stitch lines. This helps keep the fingers and palm of the glove conformed to a curved surface having a radius that is approximate to, or somewhat smaller than, a radius of a soccer ball. This also inhibits any back bending of the thumb and fingers when hit by a soccer ball. 
         [0012]    Stretch resistant banding strip  30  preferably extends from wrist region  20  along opposite sides of glove  10  and over the tips of fingers  21 - 24  and thumb  25 . Banding material  30  is preferably stitched or otherwise secured to glove  10  along its entire perimeter extent. This preferably includes attaching banding strip  30  to each finger and thumb tip and to mesh material  26  in intra-finger regions, as well as along side surfaces of glove  10  extending from wrist region  20 . Alternatively, banding material  30  can be stitched or secured to the sides of the glove and to the thumb and finger tips, without being stitched or secured to mesh  26 . 
         [0013]    Banding material  30  helps limit perimeter movement around the glove and thus helps the fingers and thumb support each other against bending backward when hit by a soccer ball. Banding  30  also helps keep the glove in its desired curvature. 
         [0014]    Gussets  50  are preferably formed in a U-shape such as shown in  FIG. 3  with a fold line  59  allowing each gusset to be folded approximately in half at a mid-region of its U-shape. The fold region  59  is then located at a proximal region of the glove fingers, so that the folded halves of each gusset confront each other in intra-finger regions. Gusset halves  51  and  52  thus confront each other between glove fingers having finger tips  21  and  22 , gusset halves  53  and  54  confront each other between glove fingers having tip regions  22  and  23 , and so on. A gusset having halves  57  and  58  confronting each other between a thumb and index finger are shaped differently with gusset half  57  being longer than gusset half  58  to fit appropriately to a glove shape conforming to a human hand. 
         [0015]    The halves of each folded gusset are curved, as best shown in  FIG. 4 , and this curvature helps hold the glove fingers and thumb to the curved shape shown in  FIG. 2 . It also helps prevent finger injury and facilitates a sensitive feel of a ball being handled. Gussets can also be arranged on the outside of a thumb and little finger, but it was found that the perimeter banding has greater effect in maintaining the desired curvature rather than using gussets in these areas. 
         [0016]    The finger gussets, the stitch lines along converging tendon paths, and the peripheral banding material all cooperate in holding a gloved hand to a curved surface and resisting back bending of fingers or thumbs struck by a soccer ball. These three improvements can be used separately or in different combinations, since each improvement contributes to the goal of protecting a goalkeeper&#39;s fingers while allowing a goalkeeper to have a realistic feel for handling a ball. The intra-finger mesh  26  and the banding material  30  are preferably arranged to allow fingers of a goalkeeper&#39;s hand to spread as widely apart as active spreading allows, but no further than that. This allows a goalkeeper to spread fingers and thumbs while reaching for an oncoming ball, and facilitates a realistic ball handling feel. Limiting finger spread beyond the active limit also helps resist back-bending of fingers. A blow from a soccer ball tending to bend a finger back may also tend to increase the intra-finger angle, which both the intra-finger mesh and the peripheral banding material resists. 
         [0017]      FIG. 5  shows not only the convergence at the wrist of tendon stitch lines, but also shows approximate preferred spacing of fingers at an active limit. Since hands differ in size and finger length, at a 6″ radius from the wrist the thumb and finger spread is about 3½″, and spreads between the four fingers are about 1⅝″ at the 6″ radius. These preferred finger and thumb spreads approximate the active limit for the human hand, which may be adjusted over time as our research indicates more optimal measurements in this regard. The glove structure then resists spreading beyond the active limit.