Patent Publication Number: US-2013239298-A1

Title: Garment with hidden pockets for securely holding personal items

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application relates to and claims priority from U.S. Prov. Ser. No. 61/538,519 filed Sep. 23, 2011, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention pertains to garments for holding personal items and, more particularly, to garments with hidden pockets adjacent armholes in the garment for securely holding personal items at a position where the personal items are easily accessible only by the wearer. 
     2. Brief Discussion of the Related Art 
     In the past, garments have been designed to have various and multiple pockets for holding personal items; however, such pockets have not been positioned to provide security for the personal items as well as pemitting the personal items to be easily accessible by the wearer of the garment. 
     Recently, the use of portable electronic devices has increased dramatically, and it is desirable to carry such devices securely in a garment Such devices include, but are not limited to, personal digital assistants, cellular/digital phones and other similar wireless communication devices such as pagers, microcomputers, e-book readers, MP3 players, recording devices and other similar portable listening devices, portable television sets, radar detectors, pedometers, remote control units, portable UPS devices, two-way radios, cameras and video recorders/camcorders, calculators and miniature flashlights. Additionally, there are a multitude of accessories related to such portable electronic devices which would be desirably carried in garments. 
     It is extremely desirable to carry such portable electronic devices securely while also holding the devices in the garment in locations easily accessible to the wearer but not easily accessible to others. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, in one aspect, the present invention relates to a garment for securely holding personal items at locations adjacent one or both of the armholes of the garment to be easily accessible to the wearer by means of a pocket structure associated with a seam in the garment. 
     In another aspect, the present invention relates to securely holding personal items at a location under an armhole of a garment by use of a pocket structure having an opening located under the armhole of the garment and a bag accessible through the opening in the pocket structure to locate the personal item under an arm of the wearer. In a further aspect, the present invention relates to a garment for securely holding personal items at a shoulder of the garment above an armhole of the garment by use of a pocket structure having an opening extending along the shoulder of the garment and a bag associated with the opening positioned along the back of the wearer. 
     Some of the advantages of the garment for securely holding personal items in accordance with the present invention include the hidden nature of the underarm pocket structure and the shoulder pocket structure, the simplicity with which the garment can be manufactured while providing the unexpected features of security and accessibility and the holding of personal items at positions so as not to be uncomfortable in use by placing the pocket structures at positions not obstructing movement of the wearer. 
     Other aspects and advantages of the garment of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the garment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like parts in each of the several figures are identified by the same reference character. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is an exterior view of the back of a garment according to, the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is an exterior view of the front of a garment according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is an interior view of the back of a garment according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is an interior view of the front of a garment according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a broken exterior view of underarm pocket structure for a garment according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a broken interior view of pocket structure for a garment according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a broken exterior view of a modification of pocket structure for the garment according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 8  is a broken side view illustrating a portion of pocket structure according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 9  is a broken interior view of a modification of pocket structure according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 10  is an exterior view of the front of a garment according to the present invention showing pocket structures carried on the shoulder of the garment, at the underarm of the garment and at a breast pocket of the garment. 
         FIGS. 11 and 12  illustrate arrangements for the breast pocket structure shown in  FIG. 10 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The present invention relates to garments having hidden pockets for securely holding personal items where the garments are designed to be worn on the torso of a wearer and have armholes for receiving opposing arms of the wearer. The garment can be any type of apparel worn on the torso of a wearer including, but not limited to, jackets, vests, shirts, sweaters, coats, sweatshirts and the like. In describing the garment herein, the parts or panels of a garment are referred to as being made of “fabric” where fabric is intended to include any material such as cloth produced by knitting, weaving or felting fibers, or any other type material, such as real or pseudo leather, plastic, rubber or any other material that can be manufactured in panels and assembled to form a garment. The term “permanent” as used herein in describing parts of seams is meant to describe edges of fabric panels that are not intended to be separated as opposed to edges of fabric panels incorporating a type of closure to allow the edges to be selectively separated. The term “closure” as used herein includes any type of mechanism or device for selectively securing or joining edges of fabric panels together including, but not limited to, slide fasteners (Zippers), snaps, buttons, magnetic parts and complementary hook and loop fasteners (Velcro) and the like. 
     A garment  20 , as shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  3  and  4 , is formed of a back fabric panel  22  and front fabric panels  24  and  26  which have edges meeting to define armholes  28  and  30  on opposite sides of the garment, As shown, sleeves  32  and  34  extend from armholes  28  and  30 , respectively; however, the garment need not have sleeves but, rather, merely requires a shape to fit a torso of a wearer and armholes for receiving arms of the wearer. The body of the garment, formed by fabric panels  22 ,  24  and  26  as shown in  FIG. 14 , can be formed as a single layer of material or as multiple layers, for example including a lining. 
     The garment as shown in  FIG. 14  includes hidden pocket structures  36  and  38  disposed below armholes  28  and  30 , respectively, and a hidden pocket structure  40  disposed along an upper portion of the garment body to be located over the shoulder of the wearer. Each pocket structure is formed of an opening  0  and a bag B formed by a suitable material, normally a fabric similar to the fabric from which the garment is made, with the bag being accessible via the opening. As more clearly shown in  FIG. 8 , the fabric panels have edges joined together to form a seam having a selectively openable and closable portion forming the opening  0  for a pocket structure. 
     The bags for pocket structures  36  and  38  are disposed under the respective armholes  28  and  30  such that the bags are positioned along opposite sides of the wearer whereby a personal item disposed in a bag is accessible by an arm on the opposing side of the wearer. The fabric panels are formed of separate pieces of material having edges forming a permanently closed seam portion  46 . A closure for opening  44  is shown in  FIG. 8  as a slide fastener with a pull tab  48 ; and, as illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , only the pull tabs for the closure are visible, it being noted that the pull tabs typically are disposed within a flap F of a slide fastener construction so as not to be readably visible. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 5 , the bag for the pocket structure can be secured to a fabric panel at a single lateral or longitudinal position  50  with bartacks  52  at spaced locations below 50. The pockets can also be secured at their peripheries as shown in  FIGS. 6 ,  7  and  9 , it being noted that  FIG. 9  illustrates the bag being formed of a mesh material. Apertures  54  can be formed in the bags to allow passage or muting of wires therethrough. To buttress securement of the bags shown in  FIGS. 6 and 9 , dual stitching lines  56  and  58  can be utilized. The bags B of the pocket structures can be formed by a single layer of fabric secured at its periphery to one of the fabric panels of the garment body or can be fanned as a separate bag secured as its periphery to one of the fabric panels of the garment body. 
     As noted above, any desirable closure can be utilized to selectively open and close the opening, which can be formed by a selectively operable and closable seam portion. 
       FIG. 10  shows a breast pocket  60  on a left side of the garment body and a welt pocket  62  positioned on the right side of a fabric panel at the front of the garment body. The welt pocket  62  is angularly disposed adjacent the armhole  30  so as to be essentially hidden by the arm of the wearer. The breast pocket  60  has a welt hidden pocket structure  64  as shown in  FIGS. 11 and 12  within art outer pocket  66  so as to be hidden from view within the outer pocket.  FIG. 11  shows the outline of the breast pocket  60  with the inner welt pocket  64  therein, and  FIG. 12  shows a divided welt pocket within the outer pocket. in the breast pocket shown in  FIG. 12 , a stitch line  68  runs down the center and is not stitched to the shell fabric but, rather, the bag is stitched to the exterior shell at the welt, the sides, the top and the bottom. The hidden pocket bag is sewn to the shell of the garment by the exterior pocket stitching, and the divided hidden pocket bag permits use of the compartments  70  and  72  on either side of the stitch line for different objects, such as writing implements. A magnet arrangement  74  can be disposed above welts W to hold the breast pocket arrangement in place. 
     As described above, the hidden pockets for the garment can be made along the seams normally present in a garment along the sides under the armholes and along the shoulders. To this end, the garment body is formed of at least two fabric panels associated with the armholes of the garment with the edges of the fabric panels being joined together to form a seam having a selectively openable and closable portion (opening  0 ) with an open position and a closed position and joined together to define a permanent portion for the seam. The bags for the pocket structures are positioned so as to be unobtrusive yet easily accessible with an opposing arm. That is, a pocket structure located under a left armhole of the garment can be accessed by the right arm of the user. Similarly, a pocket structure located on a left shoulder of the garment can be accessed by the right arm. In this manner, personal items held in the pocket structures are easily accessible to the wearer but are not accessible to others due to their locations relative to the armholes. The pocket structure bags can be made of a water repellent/waterproof fabric to protect the item held therein, and the use of a mesh fabric for the bag increases ventilation. 
     If desired, the hidden pocket structures can be secured to the garment using only bartacks at the four corners of a pocket bag with only the slide fastener (Zipper) pull being visible from the back of the garment. The pocket structures can be located on either side of the garment, individually, or on both sides. The bag of a pocket structure can be created using either one layer or two layers of fabric which can be mesh, a performance material or any other desired fabric. When a single layer of fabric is used to form the bag, the single layer is sewn to the exterior shell of the garment. The buttonholes or apertures formed in the bags allow access to the front lining of the garment and wiring systems. Using bartacks at the top and bottom of the side seam and the corners of the pocket bag, the bartacks are the only indication of a pocket without opening the pocket or examining by pulling apart the exterior flap of the slide fastener or other closure. Preferably, the closure tabs am not visible from the front of the garment but only from the side and/or the back. 
     Inasmuch as the present invention is subject to many variations, modifications and changes in detail, it is intended that all subject matter discussed above or shown in the accompanying drawings be interpreted as illustrative only and not be taken in a limiting sense.