Patent ID: 7615023

Claim:
A method of donning a support, comprising the steps of: (a) positioning a garment including a permanent tubular portion designed to fit and completely surround a portion of a body including an area of the body; (b) positioning a flexible, elastically stretchable framework in abutment with the area of the body, the framework comprising an integrally molded network of interconnected, elastomeric segments; (c) applying tension at points of the framework such that the framework is expanded and the framework is tensioned in its abutment with the area of the body, said step of applying tension being performed by pulling on fastening components that are attached to said framework; and (d) independently affixing each of the fastening components to the garment while applying tension to the framework to secure the expanded framework in its forced abutment with the area of the body (e) wherein said framework includes: (i) left and right sides comprising first and second exterior lateral segments and top and bottom sides comprising first and second exterior transverse segments, which left, right, bottom and top sides collectively define a perimeter of the framework, (ii) first, second, third, and fourth interior, mutually exclusive subsets of transverse segments, each of which extends between and interconnects the left and right sides of the perimeter of the framework, (iii) first and second interior, mutually exclusive subsets of lateral segments, each of which extends between and interconnects the top side of the perimeter of the framework and the second interior subset of transverse segments, and each of which intersects and interconnects the first interior subset of transverse segments, and (iv) third and fourth interior, mutually exclusive subsets of lateral segments, each of which extends between and interconnects the bottom side of the perimeter of the framework and the second interior subset of transverse segments, and each of which intersects and interconnects the third and fourth interior subsets of transverse segments, (v) wherein each subset of segments comprises one or more segments.