Patent Publication Number: US-6704938-B2

Title: Method and apparatus for attachment protective pads

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. The Field of the Invention 
     The present invention pertains to a method and apparatus for mounting protective padding on ordinary clothing and, in particular, to mounting protective padding on ordinary clothing in such fashion as to avoid damage to the clothing while not requiring any modification of the clothing. 
     2. The Prior Art 
     There are many instances in daily life when it is desirable and/or necessary to have protection on ones person. To date there has been no way to keep protective pads in place on knees and/or elbows without requiring either modification of clothing or using painfully binding limb encircling straps. A large number of work areas require a worker to move about on their knees and this can become quite painful if there is no protective padding provided. 
     The primary type of protective knee and elbow pads that are readily available comes with the pad attached to an elastic sleeve. The limb is inserted through the sleeve and the elastic is intended to keep the pad in place. However, this type of protection has no guaranty of the pad staying in place as the worker moves around and it becomes quite uncomfortable after a while because the elastic sleeve tends to bunch up behind the knee or inside the elbow. 
     There have been many attempts to overcome these problems, mainly by using the hook and eye loop fastening system sold under the trademark VELCRO. U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,364 to Edelson discloses a shin guard attachable to a sock by such a VELCRO strip. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,269 Porner; U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,123 to Hull; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,689 Matthews are representative of the many patents which show knee pads of various sorts attached to the exterior of a garment by means of VELCRO hook and loop fasteners. The primary drawback to these types of arrangements is that they require the garment to be modified by permanent attachment of one portion of a VELCRO hook and loop fastener. This portion of the VELCRO hook and loop fastener is quite unsightly when the pad is not in place thereby limiting the usefulness of the garment. The VELCRO hook and loop fastener does not necessarily assure that the pad will always be in place and becomes a collector of debris when the pad is not in place. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,355 to Ritter discloses a different approach to solving the problem by having a knee protector with the ability to rigidly affix itself to the knee of a user without the use of straps or bands. This seems to be a painful way to accomplish the desired result. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,081 to Torres discloses a knee and shin pad assembly received in pockets on the fronts of legs of a pair of work pants. The VELCRO hook and loop strips are used to close the pockets, not hold the pads to the pants. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,403 to Wilcox discloses a protective knee system having affixing means consisting of a snap fitting or VELCRO hook and loop fasteners integral with the side seam of a pair of pair of pants. 
     None of the above patents shows of suggests the present invention which provides a method and apparatus for attaching protective padding a worker wearing ordinary work and/or street clothing. All of the prior art requires special modification of work or street clothing which makes the clothing unsuitable for wear without the padding in place, particularly in an environment other than a work site. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a plurality of fasteners attached around the periphery of a pad, such as a knee or elbow pad, with the fasteners capable of detachably gripping ordinary clothing of the worker to secure the pad at the joint to be protected. The fasteners do not damage to material of the clothing, secure the pad in place at all times, and are readily attached to and detached from any ordinary street and/or work clothing. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 shows the present invention in use holding a protective knee pad in place; and 
     FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a representative knee pad incorporating the subject invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows the left leg  10  of a worker wearing an ordinary pair of pants  12 , such as khakis or jeans, to which a knee pad  14  has been attached using the principles of the present invention. The knee pad  14  is provided with a plurality of clips  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  attached around the periphery of the knee pad. Each clip is adapted to be attached to the clothing in such fashion as to hold the knee pad in place while not damaging the clothing. 
     It will be appreciated that the clips that can be used with the present invention come in a wide variety of styles and materials. The only requirement is that they have clothing gripping jaws, which will not damage the clothing, and clamping means to hold the jaws closed on the clothing. The clips may be attached to the protective pad in a number of ways including, but not restricted to, fabric and/or elastic loops or metal rings or combinations thereof 
     The subject invention is not limited to the style of knee pad showing in the drawings. This is merely representative of the many styles of pads including rigid pads, flexible pads, articulated pads, soft pads, and any combination of the foregoing types. 
     It will be readily apparent that the subject invention can also be used for elbow pads and/or for attaching any other pads to appropriate portions of the wearer. The subject invention allows the pads to be attached to ordinary clothing without modification of the clothing to received the pads, as in the case of the pads attached by VELCRO hook and loop fasteners as discussed above, and assures that the pad will remain in place during use. 
     The present invention may be subject to many modifications and changes without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof The present specification should therefore be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive of the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.