GB2475509A

GB2475509A - Adjustable hood system

Info

Publication number: GB2475509A
Application number: GB0920312A
Authority: GB
Inventors: James Hodgson; Gary Martin
Original assignee: Berghaus Ltd
Current assignee: Berghaus Ltd
Priority date: 2009-11-19
Filing date: 2009-11-19
Publication date: 2011-05-25
Anticipated expiration: 2029-11-19
Also published as: GB0920312D0; GB2475509B

Abstract

An Adjustable hood system comprises two resiliently extensible cords 61, 62. One of the cords 61 extends around the periphery of the front opening 63 of the hood and can be tensioned to alter the front opening. The other cord 62 extends circumferentially from one side of the front opening around the back of the hood to the opposite side of the front opening. The second cord being tensioned to reduce the horizontal volume of the hood. The cords are carried by fabric channels and the free ends of the cords pass through cord locks 50a, 50b.

Description

HOOD VOLUT'1E ADJUSTMENT This invention has to do with systems for providing volume adjustment of garment hoods.

BACKGROUND

In jackets and coats having hoods, especially waterproof jackets, it is conventional to have one or more tightening cords for adjusting the volume of the hood. Typically one tightening cord is used to tighten and cinch down the front opening aperture of the hood around the face in order to better protect the user from bad weather. It is also now common to provide for adjustment of the horizontal volume of the hood to comfortably accommodate different head sizes. In an expanded state, some hoods can accommodate a helmet worn on the head of the user. By tightening the hood horizontally to grip the head, the hood twists with the user's head as they turn their head from side to side.

without this adjustment the hood tends to remain stationary as the user turns their head, obscuring their vision to the sides.

Figs. 1 and 2 show a typical mechanism for front opening aperture adjustment. The adjustment of the aperture is achieved with a tightening cord 10 extending around the aperture 12 -through a fabric tunnel formed at the edge -so that the front opening of the hood can be tightened around the face. With the cord slackened (fig. 1), the hood is easily pulled on and off. With it tightened, there is good protection from wind, rain etc. Typical arrangements have free cord ends 14 emerging from the tunnel at the front to either side of the neck so that pulling on the ends with the right and left hands tightens the hood. The cord ends usually have end enlargements or tags 16 so that they do not retract entirely into the tunnel. In alternative arrangements the free cord ends may be internal, that is inside the jacket so that the jacket zip must be undone to access them, or even extended down further inside the jacket to terminate inside pockets of the jacket to avoid the ends of the cords flapping about.

The free cord ends 14 are secured by releasable cord locks 18 through which the cord 10 runs. In their default (released) condition they grip the cord frictionally, usually by having relatively movable adjacent parts through which the cord runs, and a spring urging these parts out of alignment to grip or kink the cord (see fig. 5) . The cord lock has a release button, pressed against the spring force, which brings the cord paths into alignment so that the cord can slide freely.

Cord lock bodies may hang free on the hood cords, enabling tightening because they cannot pass back into the tunnel, or they may be fixed into the tunnels or at the tunnel openings.

Figs. 3 and 4 show a typical arrangement for horizontal volume adjustment. A loop or two lengths of tightening cord 20 extend from the sides of the front aperture horizontally around the sides of the hood to an S adjustment point at the back of the hood. Similarly to the front opening adjustment, the cords 20 run through a fabric tunnel 22 formed horizontally around the sides and back of the hood. Tightening the cords reduces the horizontal volume of the hood to tighten the hood around the user's head.

As seen in fig. 2, the free cord ends 24 emerge from the tunnel 22 at the rear of the hood, so the user can reach behind and grasp the cord ends 24 together in one hand and pull them to tighten the cords. As with the front aperture adjustment, the cord ends have enlargements or tags 16 so that they do not retract entirely into the tunnel.

The free cord ends 24 are secured by a single cord lock 26, which operates in the manner described above.

Normally both of these adjustment arrangements are provided together in the hood, as seen in fig. 4, where the horizontal adjustment cord 20 can be seen extending around towards the rear of the hood, with the free ends of the front opening aperture adjustment cord 10 accessible at the front of the hood. Using these cords to independently adjust the front opening and the horizontal volume of the hood, a good fit to the user's head can be achieved. An example of such a hood adjustment system is seen in Us 5369809.

More recently, it has been proposed for example in W02/058495 to use as single mechanism to adjust both the horizontal dimension of a hood and the front opening. The cords in this jacket extend, one on either side of the hood, from below the face opening, upwardly along the side edges of the opening and then horizontally along the sides of the hood, where they meet at an adjustment point at the rear of the hood. The user reaches around and pulls the free ends of the hood to simultaneously cinch down the front opening and tighten the hood horizontally around the user's head.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

In general terms, a hood volume adjustment system is proposed herein in which the horizontal volume of the hood can be adjusted, independently of any adjustment of a front aperture opening of the hood, using a tightening cord that has free ends at the front of the hood, rather than at the back. This makes it easier for the user to pull on the ends of the cord to tighten the hood around their head, as they no longer have to reach behind their head to do this.

Where the hood also has a tightening cord extending around the front opening aperture, with free ends to the front of the hood, the free ends of the horizontal tightening cord can conveniently be arranged adjacent the ends of the front opening tightening cord, allowing the user to grasp and pull the free ends of both cords at the same time to simultaneously cinch down the front opening and tighten the hood horizontally around their head.

However, as the proposed system uses separate cords for the two adjustments, the ability to make these adjustments independently is retained.

In one aspect, the invention provides an adjustable hood system comprising: a hood having a front opening aperture for exposing the user's face; a front aperture tightening element that is attached to the hood and extends at least partially around the front opening aperture, the front aperture tightening member having free ends exiting the hood at the front of the hood that can be pulled by the user to reduce the size of the front opening aperture; and a circumferential tightening element that is attached to the hood and extends around the back of the hood from adjacent one side of the front opening aperture to the other side of the front opening aperture, the circumferential tightening element having free ends exiting the hood at the front of the hood that can be pulled by the user to reduce a dimension of the hood along the path of the circumferential tightening element.

The two tightening elements are separate, allowing independent adjustment of the front opening aperture and the circumferential dimension of the hood. Conveniently, however, the free ends of the two tightening elements to either side of the hood can be located sufficiently close to one another that they can be grasped together by the user, enabling simultaneous adjustment of the front opening aperture and circumferential dimension where that is desired by the user.

The hood system preferably includes at least two releasable clamps, one on each side of the front opening aperture, to clamp the free ends of the tightening elements. Two clamps may be provided to either side of the aperture, one for an end of the front aperture tightening element and the other for an end of the circumferential tightening element. More preferably, a single releasable clamp is attached to the hood on each side of the front aperture to clamp respective free ends of both tightening elements together. The clamps are preferably adjacent respective lateral sides of the front opening aperture.

In a second aspect the invention provides an adjustable hood system comprising: a hood having a front opening aperture for exposing the user's face; and a circumferential tightening element that is attached to the hood and extends around the back of the hood from adjacent one side of the front opening aperture to the other side of the front opening aperture, the circumferential tightening element having free ends exiting the hood at the front of the hood that can be pulled by the user to reduce a dimension of the hood along the path of the circumferential tightening element.

In this aspect the hood system preferably also comprises two releasable clamps connected to the hood on opposite sides of the front opening aperture releasably clamping a respective one of the free ends of the circumferential tightening element.

The circumferential tightening element preferably extends in a generally horizontal plane around the hood.

The releasable clamps are preferably in the same plane as the circumferential tightening element.

In both aspects of the invention set forth above, the tightening elements are preferably resiliently extensible. They may be or comprise a tightening cord, for example a length of elastic cord. Many kinds are known, e.g. the type known as "shock cord" available in a variety of thicknesses and degrees of elasticity according to the purpose. Alternatively, the tightening elements may be static cords.

The tightening elements may be retained in a fabric tunnel attached to the inside or the outside of the hood, or formed within layers of the hood where the hood has multiple layers. In some embodiments the tightening elements may be exposed on the exterior of the hood for part or all of their length.

The free ends of one or both of the tightening elements may extend from the releasable clamps adjacent the front aperture further down the hood and preferably beyond the bottom edge of the hood where they may be more easily grasped by the user. The free ends can terminate on the outside of a garment of which the hood forms a part or inside the garment, for instance inside pockets of the garment. The free ends of the tightening elements extending downwardly away from the releasable clamps may follow the same path, for example sharing a common fabric tunnel.

The paths followed by the tightening elements preferably diverge at the releasable clamps, the circumferential tightening element following a path around the back of the hood between the two clamps and the front aperture tightening element following the top perimeter of the front aperture opening between the two clamps.

The free ends of the tightening elements preferably terminate in enlargements or tags in a known manner.

For the releasable clamps, a cord lock is preferred.

The release action may be by pressing a release element such as a button. Various conventional cord locks are suitable. Preferably the cord lock force and the properties (e.g. elasticity) of the cords are chosen so that the cords can be pulled through the cord lock to tighten the hood simply by pulling on their ends, overriding the lock without needing to press the release, but the locking force is then nevertheless sufficient to secure the cord, to keep the hood tightened, when the user stops pulling on the end. Where the two cords share cord locks, the cord locks may be of a known type having two distinct channels for the cords.

The cord locks may be mounted externally on the hood or, alternatively, may be hidden inside the hood or more preferably sandwiched between two layers of the hood.

In a further aspect, the invention provides a garment comprising an adjustable hood system in accordance with the first or second aspect above. The garment may be a coat, jacket or one-piece suit, for example a waterproof jacket, soft shell' jacket, windproof jacket, insulated jacket or suit such as a ski jacket/suit or mountaineering jacket/suit or any other, typically outdoor, garment with a hood, especially other performance outdoor garments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

An example is now described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figs. 1 and 2 show front perspective views of a hood having a known arrangement for adjusting a front opening aperture of the hood; Fig. 3 shows a rear perspective view and fig. 4 a front perspective view of a hood having a known arrangement for adjusting the horizontal volume of the hood, with an adjustment point at the back of the hood; Fig. 5 shows a cross-section of one example of the many conventional cord locks that can be used with embodiments of the present invention; Figs. 6 and 7 respectively show a front view and a back view of a hood having an adjustment system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 8 illustrates a user adjusting the front opening aperture of a hood having an adjustment system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 9 illustrates a user adjusting the circumferential (horizontal') dimension of the hood of fig. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate a hood 60 that, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, has a volume adjustment system including two resiliently extensible tightening cords 61, 62. One of the cords 61 extends around a front opening aperture 63 of the hood and can be tensioned to cinch down the front aperture 63 around the user's face. The other cord 62 extends from one side of the front aperture 63 around the back of the hood to the opposite side of the front aperture 63 in a generally horizontal plane. This second cord 62 can be tensioned to reduce the horizontal volume of the hood.

The hood has a front edge forming a fabric tunnel 64 at the hem across the top and down the sides of the front aperture 63 through which the aperture adjusting cord 61 runs.

As seen in fig. 6, the free ends 65a, 65b of the front aperture cord 61 are gripped by cord locks 50a, 50b, that are fixed to the hood adjacent opposite lateral sides of the front opening aperture 63. In this example, they are positioned about half way along the sides of the aperture and are spaced a small distance (e.g. 2 to 3cm from) the edge of the front opening aperture 63.

From the cord locks 50a, SOb the free ends 65a, 65b of the aperture adjusting cord 61 continue through fabric channels along respective edges of the sides and around to the bottom of the front aperture 63. The channels and the cord ends each extend about one third of the way along the bottom edge of the front aperture 63, where the cords then turn downwards to protrude below the bottom edge 66 of the hood where they can be grasped and pulled by the user to tighten the front opening aperture around the user's face. The cord ends terminate in plastic enlargement 67 in a conventional fashion.

A further fabric channel 70 (see fig. 7) is formed in the hood, extending circumferentially around the back of the hood from one cord lock 50a to the other cord lock SOb. The ends of this channel 70 end adjacent and in-line with the cord locks. The horizontal adjustment cord 62 runs through this channel 70, with the free ends of the channel passing through the same cord locks 50a, 50b as the ends of the front aperture cord 61.

From the cord locks 50a, Sob, the free ends 71a, 71b of the horizontal adjustment cord follow the same paths as the front aperture cord 61, sharing the same fabric channel, to also protrude below the bottom edge 66 of the hood, where they too can be grasped and pulled by the user to reduce the circumferential dimension of the hood, reducing the hood's horizontal volume, to pull the hood against the user's head. With this arrangement, as seen in fig. 7, no adjustment point is required at the back of the hood for horizontal adjustment. The ends 7la, 71b terminate in plastic enlargements 72.

The cord locks SOa, 50b are secured within the hood, and may have their positions marked e.g. by stitching or patterning on the outside of the hood. In fact a user can readily feel the cord locks through the fabric and does not need to see where they are. In alternative embodiments the cord locks may be exposed on the outside of the hood but by sandwiching then within the fabric of the hood they are less likely to present a snagging point.

The cord locks may be of any suitable type, preferably operating on the principle as seen in Fig. 5, which is conventional. That is to say, the cord lock 50 consists of a lower casing 51 and an upper button element 52 mounted slidably in the casing. The button element has a transverse cord channel 53, corresponding with opposed cord openings 54 through the wall of the casing.

A spring 55 between the casing floor and the underside of the button urges the button upwards, tending to keep the casing and button cord openings 54,53 out of line so that cord 56 passing through is kinked and gripped frictionally. Pressure on the button 52 against the spring 55 brings the cord channels into line so that the cord 56 can slide through freely. In the illustrated embodiment, the cord locks 50a, SOb have two channels each, one for the front aperture cord 61 and the other for the horizontal adjustment cord 62.

Conveniently, in this example, the both sets of cord ends 65a, 71a, 65b, 71b protrude from the bottom edge of the hood adjacent one another, so that the two ends 65a, 7la to one side of the hood can be grasped together in one hand and the other two ends 65b, 71b can be grasped together in the other hand, so that both cords 61, 62 can be pulled and tightened at once, adjusting the front opening aperture and the circumferential dimension of the hood simultaneously.

However, where the user desires, they can alternatively choose to grasp and pull the ends of only one or other of the cords 61, 62 to adjust only the front opening aperture (as in fig. 8) or only the horizontal volume (as in fig. 9), whether or not the front opening aperture has already been cinched down or not.

The enlargements 67, 72 at the ends of the two cords 61, 62 and/or the cords themselves may be distinguished from one another in any of a number of suitable ways to help the user select the correct cord to pull when they are wanting to make a single adjustment. For example the cords and/or enlargements may be coloured differently from one another, shaped differently, sized differently or textured differently, or distinguished from one another using a combination of any two or more of these approaches.

The skilled person will appreciate that various modifications to the specifically described embodiment are possible without departing from the invention.

Claims

CLAIMS1. An adjustable hood system comprising: a hood having a front opening aperture for exposing the user's face; a front aperture tightening element that is attached to the hood and extends at least partially around the front opening aperture, the front aperture tightening member having free ends exiting the hood at the front of the hood that can be pulled by the user to reduce the size of the front opening aperture; and a circumferential tightening element that is attached to the hood and extends around the back of the hood from adjacent one side of the front opening aperture to the other side of the front opening aperture, the circumferential tightening element having free ends exiting the hood at the front of the hood that can be pulled by the user to reduce a dimension of the hood along the path of the circumferential tightening element. S...SS.....
2. An adjustable hood system according to claim 1, wherein the free ends of the two tightening elements to either side of the hood are located sufficiently close to one another to be grasped together by the user.
3. An adjustable hood system according to claim 1 or claim 2, comprising at least two releasable clamps, one on each side of the front opening aperture, to clamp the free ends of the tightening elements.
4. An adjustable hood system according to claim 3, wherein one releasable clamp is attached to the hood on each side of the front aperture to clamp respective free ends of both tightening elements together.
5. An adjustable hood system according to claim 4, wherein the paths followed by the tightening elements diverge at the releasable clamps, the circumferential tightening element following a path around the back of the hood between the two clamps and the front aperture tightening element following the top perimeter of the front aperture opening between the two clamps.
6. An adjustable hood system comprising: a hood having a front opening aperture for exposing the user's face; and S... * S *..*a circumferential tightening element that is *S..S. * *attached to the hood and extends around the back of the S...5555 hood from adjacent one side of the front opening aperture *0S to the other side of the front opening aperture, the circumferential tightening element having free ends exiting the hood at the front of the hood that can be pulled by the user to reduce a dimension of the hood along the path of the circumferential tightening element.
7. An adjustable hood system according to claim 6, S wherein the circumferential tightening element extends in a generally horizontal plane around the hood.
8. An adjustable hood system according to claim 7, comprising releasable clamp elements for respective ends of the circumferential tightening element, the releasable clamps being in the same plane as the circumferential tightening element.
9. An adjustable hood system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the tightening elements are resiliently extensible.
10. An adjustable hood system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least portions of the tightening elements are retained in a fabric tunnel. * *
11. A garment comprising an adjustable hood system in * S accordance with any one of the preceding claims.S S...S S.. -
12. A hood volume adjustment system in which the horizontal volume of the hood can be adjusted, independently of any adjustment of a front aperture opening of the hood, using a tightening cord that has free ends at the front of the hood. *4e 4. * * ** **I *1I S..I *_ S. * S * S. I *S SI