Patent ID: 7614090

Claim:
A headwear piece comprising: a crown defining a surface for engaging a wearer's head so as to maintain the headwear piece in an operative position on the wearer's head, the crown surface defining an opening having a variable effective diameter, the crown comprising a rope comprising a plurality of elongate elements each having an actual length and interconnected with each other with the rope in a first state so as to define an effective length extending around at least a portion of the crown, the plurality of elongate elements elastically maintained at the effective lengths at least partially by reason of their interconnection with each other and extendable towards their actual lengths by exerting a tensile lengthwise force on the rope to place the rope in a second state as an incident of a user's head being directed into the opening so as to thereby produce a tensile force on the rope whereby the headwear piece is in an operative position on a wearer's head, the rope at least one of (a) defining at least a part of the crown surface and (b) bearing against a wall that defines at least a part of the crown surface and having an exposed surface facing outwardly away from the crown surface, the effective diameter of the crown surface being greater with the rope in the second state than with the rope in the first state, the elongate elements flattened at the exposed surface of the rope with the rope in the second state so that there are no appreciable gaps between adjacent elongate elements at the exposed surface of the rope and so that there is a repeating pattern of at least one substantially identical shape viewable at the exposed surface of the rope over a substantial portion of the length of the rope, developed as an incident of the elongate rope being changed from the first state into the second state wherein at least one of the elongate elements has a hollow construction made from filaments that are one of: in the form of a cloth; woven; or bundled.