Abstract:
A one piece athletic garment provides protection in a sport such as hockey and includes a unitary body enclosure having a torso section, legs, and sleeves and that includes protection for elbows, knees, shins, shoulders, and chest and protective pants.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    The present application is based on and claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/796,149, filed Apr. 27, 2006, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
         [0002]    The present application is a Section 371 National Stage Application and claims priority of International patent application Serial No. PCT/US2007/010205, filed Apr. 26, 2007, and published in English the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    The present invention relates to protective athletic garments and in particular to a unitary garment which provides protection to several body areas. 
         [0004]    Ice hockey is played on a hard surface, a sheet of ice. Rigid vertical boards define the playing area on the sheet of ice. In addition, a puck made of hard rubber is used in playing hockey and the puck travels at high speeds when “shot”, occasionally leaving the ice to hit a player. In addition, players maneuvering on the ice collide with one another, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. All of these activities pose a multitude of inherent safety hazards in playing ice hockey. It is for these reasons hockey players are equipped with an array of safety gear to lessen pain from collisions and the risk of injury. The safety equipment includes a helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, mouth guard, protective gloves, heavily padded shorts (breezers), an athletic protector, shin and knee pads, chest protector and a neck guard. These are independent pieces of protective equipment that the player secures individually into place. 
         [0005]    Although most people visualize the typical hockey player as a young adult or an adult player needing such protection due to the speeds and aggressiveness at which such players play the game, youth players also need bodily protection not only to protect from injury, but also to eliminate the fear of falling on the ice or colliding against the hockey boards or with other players. Youth players need all of the protective equipment that an adult hockey player needs. 
         [0006]    However, youth players do not necessarily have the ability to independently properly secure the various pieces of protective equipment that are necessary to play the sport safely. Parents may spend considerable time in securing the equipment to a youth player. In addition, such youth players when removing the independent pieces of protective equipment in a locker room crowded with other youth players tend not to pay attention to where the removed equipment is placed. The independent pieces of protective equipment after being removed are often times tossed aside and co-mingled with similar pieces of protective equipment from other youth players. Oftentimes independent pieces of protective equipment are picked up by other youth players and taken home by the wrong player. This results in missing equipment the next time a player plays. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The present invention includes a one piece athletic garment that is donned by an athlete and which provides protection to a plurality of body areas such as the elbows, knee/shin area, and chest area. 
         [0008]    In one embodiment, the present invention includes a one piece hockey garment comprising a unitary body enclosure for accepting legs, arms and a torso of a player and having elbow protectors, knee and shin protectors, a chest protector and protective pants as part of the garment. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  is a plan view of the present invention with portions of the suit be shown separated. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is a plan view of a hockey suit. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view of a chest protector. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view of an elbow protector. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  is a perspective view of a knee/shin protector. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0014]    A one piece hockey suit of this invention is generally illustrated at  10  in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . The one piece hockey suit  10  enables a player to put on all necessary protective equipment by donning a single garment. By removing this single garment all protective gear is also removed. The one piece hockey suit saves time in both putting on various pieces of protective equipment and then taking off the protective equipment since the protective equipment is all included in the hockey suit  10 . Additionally, the suits  10  keeps together all the protective equipment to ensure that all the pieces of protective equipment are kept together so that the next time the player needs to use the equipment, none of the pieces are missing. 
         [0015]    The hockey suit  10  comprises a unitary garment  12  that includes a torso section  14  and a pair of sleeves  16  and  18  extending therefrom and a pair of pant legs  20  and  22  extending from a waist section  24 . The garment  12  maybe constructed from a single section of cloth or may be assembled from distinct pieces of cloth sewn together or bonded by any other suitable method. The garment  12  in one example is made of a moisture wicking fabric. 
         [0016]    The one piece hockey suit  10  also includes a shoulder/chest protector  26  and hockey pants  28  commonly referred to as breezers. Both the shoulder/chest protector  26  and the breezers  28  are preferably detachably attached to the garment  12 . 
         [0017]    The torso section  14  further includes a neck opening  30 . The shoulder/chest protector is preferably attached to the garment  12  near the neck opening  30  through the use of a zipper  32 . The zipper  32  extends around the neck opening  30  with part of the zipper  32  being sewn directly to the chest protector while the other part of the zipper  32  being sewn or attached to the garment  12  so that the shoulder/chest protector is attached to the garment, as best seen in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0018]    The shoulder/chest protector includes left and right hard shell shoulder sections  34  to protect the player&#39;s shoulder, and a cushioned chest protector section  36  and a cushioned back protector section  38 , as best illustrated in  FIG. 3 . The chest protector section  36  includes foam pads  37  for protecting the chest (the foam pads of the back protector section  38  for protecting the back of a player are not illustrated). 
         [0019]    The chest protector section  36  and the back protector section  38  are secured to each other by flaps  39  using hook and loop fasteners. The flaps  39  are secured to either to the back protector section or the chest protector section by hook or loop elements at their distal ends. Correspondingly, either section  36  or section  38  carries counterpart fastening elements, that is either hooks or loops. In addition, the chest protector section  36  is divided into left and right subsections which are joined by a hook and loop fastener extending along flaps  40  running along the length of the two subsections. When the flaps  39  are secured to the chest protector and the flaps  40  are secured to each other to join the two subsections of the chest protector section  36 , a protective shield around the player&#39;s torso is formed. 
         [0020]    The hard shell shoulder section  34  includes a pocket  35  in which is disposed a plastic protective shoulder shield  33 . The pockets  35  are each secured shut by hook and loop fastener  41  to retain the shield. The shield  33  in one example is a molded plastic insert that conforms to the general configuration of the shoulder to provide protection therefore. 
         [0021]    The shoulder/chest protector includes a bicep protector  42  that extends from the shoulder section  34  sufficiently to provide protection to the player&#39;s biceps. The bicep protector  42  is secured to a player&#39;s bicep area by flaps  44  that are attached at one end to the bicep protector  42  and include hook and loop fasteners at a distal end with either the hook or the loop fastener being on a distal end of the flap  44  and the mating counterpart (either hook or loop) being on the bicep protector  42  such that when the end of the flap is attached to the bicep protector  42 , the bicep protector is secured in place. By securing the flaps  44 , the shoulder section  34  is also secured to the player. 
         [0022]    The breezers  28  are detachably attached to the garment  12  through use of hook and loop fasteners with the breezers  28  shown in broken lines in  FIG. 2 . A strip  51  of either hooks or loops is secured to the garment  12  at the waist section  24  while the mating counterpart (either hooks or loops) are secured to the breezers  28 . Through the use of the hook and loop fasteners, the breezers are securely attached to the garment  12  and are part of the one piece hockey suit  10 . 
         [0023]    The hockey suit  10  also includes elbow protectors  46  and  48  disposed in the elbow area of the sleeves  16  and  18 , respectively. The elbow protectors  46  and  48  include pockets  50  and  52  formed in the sleeves. A hard shell elbow shield  54  and  56  is located in pockets  50  and  52  respectively. The pockets  50  and  52  are closed through the use of hook and loop fasteners to retain the shield within the pocket. The shields  54  and  56  may be removed from the pockets  50  and  52  for replacement or cleaning of the suit  10 . 
         [0024]    The elbow protectors  46  and  48  are additionally secured around the player&#39;s arm&#39;s by corresponding left and right straps  58  and  60  that extend through respective apertures  61  in the sleeve as best illustrated in  FIG. 4  where only one elbow protector  48  is shown. 
         [0025]    The sleeves  16  and  18  include thumb holes  62  and  64  through which the player&#39;s thumb is inserted to retain the sleeve the full length of the player&#39;s arm and over the wrist area. 
         [0026]    Hockey gloves  66  and  68  are attached to the sleeves  16  and  18  by glove attachment straps  70  and  72 . Glove attachment straps  70  and  72  are attached to the sleeves  16  and  18  at a proximal end and include either hook or loop fastener elements at a distal end, while the gloves  66  and  68  include the mating counterpart, that is either loops or hooks. The straps  70  and  72  are preferably elastic and are approximately four inches long. Alternatively the gloves  66  and  68  are secured to the garment  12  by extending the straps through an opening in the hockey glove and attaching the end of the strap back on to the sleeve. 
         [0027]    Leggings  20  and  22  include knee and shin protectors  74  and  76 . As best illustrated in  FIG. 5 , the shin protectors  74  and  76 , only one of which is shown in  FIG. 5 , include shin protector pockets  78  and  80  which are positioned along the front of the legs  20  and  22  to protect the shin and knee area of the player. Rigid knee and shin shields  82  and  84  are disposed in the pockets  78  and  80 . The knee and shin shields are preferably made of plastic and are removable from the pockets and the pocket is held shut by hook and loop fastener  93 . The knee and shin protectors are secured against the knee and shin by upper and lower straps  86  and  88  that are preferably attached to the shield. The straps  86  and  88  are threaded through apertures  87  and  89  which are located in the pockets  80 . The straps  86  and  88  are then wrapped around the player&#39;s calf region to hold the knee and shin protector in place. 
         [0028]    The suit  10  further includes a pair of front and back girdle straps  94  and  96  of which only the front straps are shown. The straps  94  and  96  have hook elements which engage the yarn of hockey socks  98  and  100  thereby holding the hockey socks in place. 
         [0029]    The suit  10  also includes an athletic cup pocket  102  for retaining an athletic cup  104 . 
         [0030]    To clean the garment  12 , the breezers, the shoulder/chest protector, gloves, hockey socks are detached and the shoulder shields, elbow shields, shin and knee shields and athletic cup are removed from their respective pockets. 
         [0031]    Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.