Patent ID: 7547299

Claim:
A disposable wearing article, comprising: front and rear waist regions each having opposite inner and outer surfaces; a crotch region extending in a longitudinal direction of said article between said front and rear waist regions; and a pair of engagement members respectively joined to the inner surface of one of said waist regions in transversely opposite side edge portions of said one of said waist regions; wherein each of said engagement members has opposite inner and outer surfaces, the outer surface of said engagement member faces the inner surface of said one of said waist regions, and the inner surface of said engagement member faces away from the inner surface of said one of said waist regions; wherein each of said engagement members comprises: a fixed portion in which the outer surface of said engagement member is permanently directly attached to the inner surface of the respective side edge portion of said one of said waist regions; a free portion free of direct attachment to the respective side edge portion of said one of said waist regions, and extending continuously from the fixed portion exclusively inwardly toward the other engagement member in a transverse direction of said article, wherein the outer surface of said engagement member in the free portion is spaced from the inner surface of the respective side edge portion of said one of said waist regions by an air gap; and a fastening element disposed on the inner surface of said engagement member in said free portion and releasably engageable with the inner or outer surface of the other one of said waist regions for coupling said waist regions together to form a waist hole in use; wherein a width measured in the transverse direction of said fixed portion is about the same as that of the free portion and about half of that of the entire engagement member.