Abstract:
The present disclosure relates to a size adjustment device and methods of use for resizing an article of clothing or other suitable article. The device includes a panel having a head section and an opposite foot section, the panel further including a first margin and an opposite second margin extending between the head and foot sections. Both the first and second margins include a set of teeth arranged thereon, with the first set of teeth further including a zipper coupled thereto. In an example use, the device is coupled to an article, such as a jacket, with the zipper of the device coupling the first set of teeth with corresponding teeth on the article, and the existing zipper on the article coupling the second set of teeth on the device with corresponding teeth on the article to thereby resize the article without sewing or other physical alterations.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION DATA 
       [0001]    This application is a nonprovisional of and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/221,516, filed Sep. 21, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    The field of the present disclosure relates generally to garments, and in particular, to a size adjustment assembly for quickly and easily adjusting the fit of a garment without requiring sewing alterations or other physical resizing of the garment. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    As people age and physical activity and metabolism slows down, it is common for people to experience weight gain and a change in body shape. As a person&#39;s body changes, their clothing no longer fits as it once did. For example, someone that normally wore a large jacket size may now require an extra-large jacket size. As is common with many people, the weight gain may be concentrated in the chest and/or midsection regions, without otherwise affecting shoulder and/or hip measurements. Accordingly, the large jacket may still “fit” the person, that is, the jacket may sit properly on the shoulders and around the person, except that the increase in chest or stomach size no longer allows the person to comfortably zip up the jacket. In these circumstances, the person likely would have to purchase a new jacket in the appropriate extra-large size, which can be an expensive undertaking, especially for high-end clothing such as premium leather jackets used by motorcyclists. Alternatively, the person may opt to wear the undersized jacket and leave the jacket unzipped. However, this solution is not ideal and would compromise many of the benefits of a jacket. Accordingly, the inventor has recognized a need for a size adjustment assembly that can be easily and quickly deployed to resize a garment without requiring sewing alterations. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0004]    The attached drawings illustrate an example adjustment assembly that may be used to widen a garment, such as a leather jacket, to increase its size for accommodating changes in a person&#39;s physique or body size. The assembly may be useful to increase the life of a garment that may no longer properly fit a person but may otherwise be in a wearable condition. 
           [0005]      FIG. 1  illustrates an example embodiment of a size adjustment assembly for widening a garment. 
           [0006]      FIG. 2  illustrates the size adjustment assembly of  FIG. 1  in a zipped configuration with the garment. 
           [0007]      FIG. 3  illustrates the size adjustment assembly of  FIG. 1 , in a partially zipped configuration 
           [0008]      FIG. 4  illustrates a rear view of the size adjustment mechanism of  FIG. 1 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0009]    This section describes particular embodiments and their detailed construction and operation. The embodiments described herein are set forth by way of illustration only and not limitation. Throughout the specification, reference to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or “some embodiments” are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. The described features, structures, characteristics, and methods of operation may be practiced in isolation or combined in any suitable manner, and can be practiced without one or more of the specific details or with other methods, components, materials, or the like. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or methods of operation are not shown or not described in detail to avoid obscuring more pertinent aspects of the embodiments. It should be understood that the foregoing written description and the embodiments in the figures illustrating use of the adjustment assembly with a jacket are merely intended to demonstrate one example embodiment. As noted previously, the adjustment assembly with the features described herein may be used with other articles of clothing, such as skirts, vests, boots, or other suitable articles having a zipper. 
         [0010]    The accompanying drawings briefly described above illustrate an example embodiment of a size adjustment assembly for resizing a garment. As described previously, one potential benefit of the assembly is that it provides a person with the opportunity to resize a garment to accommodate changes in a person&#39;s physique without requiring sewing alterations of the garment or purchase of a new garment. In addition, the size adjustment assembly may be removed quickly and easily once the person no longer requires it, such as when the person loses weight, to allow the garment to be used at its original size. If a person continues gaining weight, a larger/wider sized adjustment assembly may be used to widen the garment as needed. Additional details of various components of the size adjustment assembly is further described in detail with reference to the figures. 
         [0011]      FIGS. 1-4  collectively illustrate a size adjustment assembly  100  that may be zipped into a garment  105  for resizing the garment  105  as needed, according to one embodiment. With general reference to  FIGS. 1-2 , the size adjustment assembly  100  includes a base panel  102  having a first set of teeth  110  running along a first margin  115 , and a second set of teeth  120  running along a second margin  125  opposite of the first margin  115 . The first set of teeth  110  includes a zipper  130  in engagement with the teeth  110 , the zipper  130  being operable to travel along the teeth  110  when manually pulled upwardly or downwardly. The second set of teeth  120  does not include a zipper. It should be understood that including the zipper  130  with the teeth  110  rather than the teeth  120  is meant for illustration purposes and not meant to be limiting. In other embodiments, the zipper  130  may instead be included with the second set of teeth  120 . In general, the zipper  130  on the size adjustment assembly  100  is positioned opposite existing zipper on the garment such that the size adjustment assembly  100  may be zipped together with the garment as is further explained in detail below. 
         [0012]    With continued reference to  FIGS. 1-2 , the base panel  102  may have a generally inverted V-shape or may resemble a generally triangular shape with a truncated upper section. As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , in one embodiment, the base panel  102  includes a head section  135  having a width smaller than a foot section  140 , with the base panel  102  generally widening downwardly along the first and second margins  115 ,  125  from the head section  135  to the foot section  140 . For example, in some embodiments, the head section  135  may have a width of between 1-2 inches, and the foot section  140  may have a width of 2 inches or more, such as between a range of 2 to 4 inches or up to 6 inches. 
         [0013]    The inverted V-shape of the size adjustment assembly  100  helps accommodate a typically wider girth around a user&#39;s midsection as compared to a user&#39;s chest. In other embodiments, the size adjustment assembly  100  may not have tapered margins, but instead may be generally rectangular, with the first and second margins  115 ,  125  arranged parallel to one another. Alternatively, the size adjustment assembly  100  may instead have a narrower foot section  140  and a wider head section  135  to provide for additional room around a user&#39;s chest instead of around the user&#39;s waist as in the previously described embodiment. In such embodiments, the size adjustment assembly  100  may be the reverse of the illustration in  FIG. 1 , and may have width dimensions similar to those described above. For example, the head section may have a width ranging from 2-4 inches and the foot section may have a width ranging from 1-2 inches. It should be understood that in other embodiments, the shape of the size adjustment assembly  100  may be different to provide a number of different configurations and help accommodate specific needs of the user. 
         [0014]    With particular reference to  FIG. 3 , the garment  105  (shown as a portion of material for illustration purposes) includes teeth  145  running along a first margin  150 , and teeth  155  running along a second margin  160  opposite the first margin  150 . The teeth  145  include a zipper  165  engaged therewith, while the teeth  155  do not include a zipper. In other embodiments, the zipper  165  may be engaged with the teeth  155  instead of the teeth  145 . As described previously, the zipper  165  of the garment  105  and the zipper  130  of the size adjustment assembly  100  are located on opposite margins so that the size adjustment assembly  100  can be installed easily and quickly using the existing zipper configuration of the garment  105 . 
         [0015]    The following section describes an example use of the size adjustment assembly  100  with the garment  105  in accordance with one embodiment. With collective reference to  FIGS. 1-4 , the garment  105  (e.g., a leather jacket) is first unzipped by lowering the zipper  165  and separating the teeth  145 ,  155  to open the garment  105 . With the garment  105  fully unzipped, the base panel  102  is aligned between the teeth  145 ,  155  of the garment  105 , with the head section  135  arranged near a top-side of the garment  105  (e.g. adjacent the collar or neck of the wearer), and with the foot section  140  near the waist portion of the wearer. In this configuration, the teeth  115  of the size adjustment assembly  100  are interconnected with the teeth  145  of the garment  105 . To fully secure the teeth  115 ,  145  together, the zipper  130  of the size adjustment assembly  100  is zipped up to attach the size adjustment assembly  100  along the margin  150  of the garment  105 , such that the first margin  115  of the size adjustment assembly  100  is adjacent the first margin  150  of the garment  105 . 
         [0016]    With the size adjustment assembly  100  partially coupled to the garment  105 , the user may then put on the garment  105  and zip up the garment  105  as one would normally zip up a jacket. For example, once the garment  105  is on, the user aligns the teeth  120  on the second margin  125  of the size adjustment assembly  100  with the teeth  155  on the second margin  160  of the garment  105 . Thereafter, the user zips up the garment  105  with the zipper  165  to fully secure the size adjustment assembly  100  and the garment  105  as illustrated in  FIG. 1 . In this configuration, the size adjustment assembly  100  provides additional room to accommodate a larger chest and/or a larger midsection. As noted previously, if the user loses weight or otherwise decides that the larger size is no longer needed, the size adjustment assembly  100  may be removed by unzipping both zippers  130 ,  165 . The garment  105  may then be zipped up as usual. 
         [0017]    Preferably, the size adjustment assembly  100  is made of the same material, color, and design to match the appearance of the garment  105 . In some embodiments, the size adjustment assembly  100  may include tassels or other design features  170  to provide an additional aesthetic appeal or to better coincide with existing design features of the garment  105 . 
         [0018]    It should be appreciated that in the above description of embodiments, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that any claim require more features than those expressly recited in that claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in a combination of fewer than all features of any single foregoing disclosed embodiment. 
         [0019]    The claims following this written disclosure are hereby expressly incorporated into the present written disclosure, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. This disclosure includes all permutations of the independent claims with their dependent claims. Moreover, additional embodiments capable of derivation from the independent and dependent claims that follow are also expressly incorporated into the present written description. 
         [0020]    Without further elaboration, it is believed that one skilled in the art can use the preceding description to utilize the invention to its fullest extent. The claims and embodiments disclosed herein are to be construed as merely illustrative and exemplary, and not a limitation of the scope of the present disclosure in any way. It will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art, with the aid of the present disclosure, that changes may be made to the details of the above-described embodiments without departing from the underlying principles of the disclosure herein. In other words, various modifications and improvements of the embodiments specifically disclosed in the description above are within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, the order of the steps or actions of the methods disclosed herein may be changed by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions is required for proper operation of the embodiment, the order or use of specific steps or actions may be modified. The scope of the invention is therefore defined by the following claims and their equivalents.