CA3058078A1

CA3058078A1 - Protective leg pad

Info

Publication number: CA3058078A1
Application number: CA3058078A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Rajesh Judge
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2018-10-11
Filing date: 2019-10-09
Publication date: 2020-04-11
Also published as: CA3020264A1

Abstract

A protective leg pad for attachment to a leg of a user has a pad body, one or more front rollers, one or more side rollers, and a leg attachment. The pad body has a front side and a back side, and the back side has a leg engagement surface that engages a portion of a leg.
The pad body also has side faces extending between the front side and the back side. The one or more front rollers extend from the front face of the pad body, and the one or more side rollers extend from at least one side face of the pad body. The leg attachment secures the leg engagement surface against a portion of the leg.

Description

PROTECTIVE LEG PAD
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] This relates to protective sporting equipment, and in particular, protective leg padding for use in hockey.
BACKGROUND

[0002] Goalie pads are used in a variety of sports to provide protection to the goalie from the game's ball, puck, or other object of play, in addition to enhancing the goalie's ability to perform their goal-keeping tasks. In hockey, the goalie pads are designed to provide protection to the goalie's feet, ankles, shins, knees, and thighs from the puck or ball in play.
The goalie pad also increases the blocking area of the goalie by the width of the goalie pad.
U.S. Patent No. 9,381,421 entitled "Goalie pad" depicts an example of a hockey goalie pad.
SUMMARY

[0003] According to an aspect, there is provided a protective leg pad for attachment to a leg of a user, the protective pad comprising a pad body having a front side and a back side, the back side comprising a leg engagement surface that engages a portion of a leg, the pad body having side faces extending between the front side and the back side, one or more front rollers extending from the front face of the pad body, one or more side rollers extending from at least one side face of the pad body, and a leg attachment that secures the leg engagement surface against the portion of the leg.

[0004] According to other aspects, the protective leg pad may comprise one or more of the following features, alone or in combination: the pad body may comprise a leg portion and a foot portion, the foot portion extending out from the front side of the pad body, the leg portion may comprise a knee portion positioned above the foot portion, and the rollers on the front face of the leg portion may be positioned on the knee portion, the leg engagement surface may comprise a leg groove that substantially anatomically matches and is coextensive with the contour of the front and sides of the human leg from the knee to the ankle and foot area, the pad body may comprise one or more rigid support structures, at least one of the rigid support structures may comprise one or more intermediate supports embedded within the pad body that support the one or more front rollers and the one or more side rollers, at least one of the rigid support structures may comprise one or more external supports attached to the front face of the pad body, the one or more external supports carrying the one or more front rollers, the one or more side rollers may comprise multiple side rollers spaced along the at least one side face of the pad body, the one or more front rollers may be centrally located on the front face pad body, and the one or more front rollers and the one or more side rollers may comprise spheres mounted for omnidirectional rotation within the pad body.

[0005] In other aspects, the features described above may be combined together in any reasonable combination as will be recognized by those skilled in the art.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] These and other features will become more apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to be in any way limiting, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of the protective leg pad.
FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of a side of the protective leg pad.
FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of another side of the protective leg pad.
FIG. 4 is a back elevation view of the protective leg pad.
FIG. 5 is a front elevation view of a pair of protective leg pads worn on the legs of a person.
FIG. 6 is a front elevation view of a protective leg pad showing an intermediate support structure.
FIG. 7 is a side elevation view in cross section of a protective leg pad showing an intermediate support structure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0007] A protective leg pad, generally identified by reference numeral 10, will now be described with reference to FIG. 1 through 7.

[0008] Referring to FIG. 5, Protective leg pad 10 is preferably worn on a leg 12 of a hockey goaltender. However, it will be understood that protective leg pad 10 may also be used in other sports where it is desired to achieve a sliding movement.
Protective leg pad 10 allows a goalie or other sport player to slide along a rough surface, such as concrete or asphalt, in a similar manner to to that of an ice hockey goalie. A goaltender may typically be limited to shuffling across a rough surface to get from one side of the net to the other. By providing a pad as described below, the goaltender may be able to slide in a lateral direction, as well as in forward and reverse. This may mimic the experience of an ice hockey player sliding on the ice.

[0009] Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, protective leg pad 10 has a pad body 14. Pad body 14 has a front side 16 and a back side 18 and side faces 20 extending between front side 16 and backside 18. Pad body 14 is preferably made of a rigid foam that has sufficient compression to protect leg 12 from impacts, however it will be understood that any material may be used that can protect from impacts from pucks, sticks, balls, players and the like. Pad body 14 may be covered in fabric, leather or other durable material. Pad body 12 may have a leg portion 15 that engages leg 12 and a foot portion 22 that extends out from the front side 16 of pad body 14 to substantially cover or engage a foot 13 of leg 12. Foot portion 22 may extend to cover the entirety of foot 13, or there may be an indentation into which a foot can fit (not shown). As shown, back side 18 may extend toward front side 16 at foot portion 22. Pad body 12 may have a knee portion 24 located above foot portion 22.

[0010] Protective leg pad 10 has one or more front rollers 30 located on and extending from front side 16 and one or more side rollers 32 located on and extending from at least one side face 20. Preferably, protective leg pad 10 will be a set of two protective leg pads 10 to be worn on each leg with the one or more side rollers being spaced along the medial side face 20 of each protective leg pad 10, as shown in FIG. 5. The one or more front rollers 30 may be positioned on knee portion 24 of pad body 12 such that when the goaltender kneels, the primary point of contact with the ground is front rollers 30. Front rollers 30 may be centrally located on the front face of pad body 14. As depicted, front rollers 30 and side rollers 32 are spheres mounted for omnidirectional rotation, however it will be understood that other rollers may be used. Front rollers 30 and side rollers 32 may extend partially into pad body 14 or may be attached to the outer surface of pad body 14.

[0011] Pad body may have one or more rigid support structures 34. In one example, shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, rigid support structure 34 may be one or more intermediate supports 36 embedded within pad body 14. Intermediate supports 36 may support front rollers 30 and side rollers 32. Front rollers 30 and side rollers 32 may extend into pad body 14 and attach to intermediate supports 36 or intermediate supports 36 may assist in resisting movement of front rollers 30 or side rollers 32 relative to pad body 14 when pad body is compressed. In another example, shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, rigid support structure 34 may be one or more external supports 38 attached to the outside of pad body 14.
External supports 38 may be on top of or underneath any coverings of pad body 12. An external support may be attached to front side 16 of pad body 14 and carry front rollers 30, and an external support may be attached to side face 20 and carry one or more side rollers 32.
External supports 38 may be a single internal support, or may be multiple external supports.

[0012] Back side 18 of pad body 14 has a leg engagement surface 40 that engages a portion of leg 12. Leg engagement surface 40 may be a groove 42 shaped into back side 18 as shown in FIG. 4. Groove 42 may be designed to substantially anatomically match leg 12 such that groove 42 is coextensive with the contour of the front and sides of leg 12 from the knee to the ankle and foot area. Groove 42 may be designed to accommodate a player that is wearing a shoe or a roller blade or other type of footwear. A leg attachment 44 secures leg 12 to leg engagement surface 40. As depicted, leg attachment 44 is a plurality of straps 46 and buckles 48 spaced along the length of protective leg pad 10 that wrap around leg 12.
Leg attachment 44 may have one or more flaps 50 that help to secure protective leg pad 10 to leg 12 and further protect the portion of leg 12 that is not covered by protective leg pad 12.

[0013] In this patent document, the word "comprising" is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article "a" does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the elements is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be one and only one of the elements.

[0014] The scope of the following claims should not be limited by the preferred embodiments set forth in the examples above and in the drawings, but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the description as a whole.

Claims

What is Claimed is:

1. A protective leg pad for attachment to a leg of a user, the protective pad comprising:
a pad body having a front side and a back side, the back side comprising a leg engagement surface that engages a portion of a leg, the pad body having side faces extending between the front side and the back side;
one or more front rollers extending from the front face of the pad body;
one or more side rollers extending from at least one side face of the pad body; and a leg attachment that secures the leg engagement surface against a portion of the leg.

2. The protective leg pad of claim 1, wherein the pad body comprises a leg portion and a foot portion, the foot portion extending out from the front side of the pad body.

3. The protective leg pad of claim 2, wherein the leg portion comprises a knee portion positioned above the foot portion, and wherein the rollers on the front face of the leg portion are positioned on the knee portion.

4. The protective leg pad of claim 1, wherein the leg engagement surface comprises a leg groove that substantially anatomically matches and is coextensive with the contour of the front and sides of the human leg from the knee to the ankle and foot area.

5. The protective leg pad of claim 1, wherein the pad body comprises one or more rigid support structures.

6. The protective leg pad of claim 5, wherein at least one of the rigid support structures comprises one or more intermediate supports embedded within the pad body that support the one or more front rollers and the one or more side rollers.

7. The protective leg pad of claim 5, wherein at least one of the rigid support structures comprises one or more external supports attached to the front face of the pad body, the one or more external supports carrying the one or more front rollers. .

8. The protective leg pad of claim 1, wherein the one or more side rollers comprise multiple side rollers spaced along the at least one side face of the pad body.

9. The protective leg pad of claim 1, wherein the one or more front rollers are centrally located on the front face pad body.

10. The protective leg pad of claim 1, wherein the one or more front rollers and the one or more side rollers comprise spheres mounted for omnidirectional rotation within the pad body.