GB2506629A

GB2506629A - Infant garment having anti-slip zones

Info

Publication number: GB2506629A
Application number: GB201217761A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Matthew Bolton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2012-10-03
Filing date: 2012-10-03
Publication date: 2014-04-09
Anticipated expiration: 2032-10-03
Also published as: GB201217761D0; GB2506629B

Abstract

An infant garment 10 of flexible material comprises garment sections for receiving at least the legs of an infant, the sections comprising two leg enclosures 11 each leg enclosure being provided with a knee 11a and shin area 11b thereof with a respective plurality of zones 13 of slip-resisting material arranged at spacings imparting an anti-slip property to the relevant area as a whole while retaining the overall flexibility of the garment material in that area. Optionally the leg enclosure can be provided with an upper thigh area 11c above the knee, which is also provided with a plurality of zone of slip-resisting material 14. Similar zones 15 can be provided on the top 12a and/or bottom of a foot enclosure 12 arranged at a free end of each leg enclosure. The slip resistant may be elevated relative to the surface of the flexible material and have a high coefficient of friction.

Description

INFANT GARMENT

The present invention relates to an infant garment.

Infant garments, particularly for children at the crawling or pre-walking stage, are available in many forms, amongst the most popular of which are one-piece enveloping suits designed to enclose the body, arms, legs and feet of the wearer. The suits conventionally have an entry/egress opening extending down the front of a body-enclosing section and inside of each of two leg-enclosing sections and an associated closure system such as buttons, studs or hook-and-burr fasteners. Such an enveloping garment is made of a suitable textile material which, while offering comfort for the wearer, does not have any anti-slip properties. Consequently, a crawling infant wearing such a textile garment, or any other textile garment with leg-enclosing sections, will find little or no grip relative to many surfaces and consequently may often experience difficulty in moving forward.

This deficiency has been addressed in the past by, inter alia, knee pads forming accessories to or part of a garment, for example as disclosed in DE 202005012101, DE 2007010208, DE 20321130, US 2009048550, US 20100154094 and others. However, these solutions are not optimal, particularly since the knee area is only part of the total area relied on by a crawling infant for traction. The prior art knee pads are, moreover, relatively large-size and stiff attachments to the garment, which inevitably add a degree of weight and reduce the flexibility of the garment or, at least, leg sections of the garment.

The ease of wearing the garment by an infant is thus compromised.

The present invention therefore has a principal object of providing an infant garment with enhanced resistance of slipping while the wearer is crawling, but without compromising the flexibility of the garment.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following

description.

According to the present invention there is provided an infant garment of flexible material with garment sections for receiving at least the legs of an infant, the sections for receiving the legs comprising two leg enclosures each provided in each of a knee area thereof and a shin area thereof with a respective plurality of zones of slip-resisting material arranged at spacings imparting an anti-slip property to the knee area as a whole and the shin area as a whole while retaining the overall flexibility of the flexible material of the garment in the knee and shin areas. -Such a garment provides improved resistance to slipping, not only in the knee areas, but also in other areas recognised as participating in the generation of traction required for crawling, namely the shin areas. The latter have been overlooked in prior art garments.

The enhanced traction in each of these areas is achieved not by large-area zones of slip-resisting material, but by a plurality of discrete or effectively discrete zones which are spaced apart from one another at, in particular, spacings which impart an anti-slip property to the area as a whole, but do not lead to loss of the overall flexibility of the garment flexible material in the area concerned. Typically, the total area of the slip-resisting zones need not be more than half, and preferably about a quarter or even down to about an eighth, of the area constituting the knee or shin area. The particular relationship can to some extent vary depending on the shape of the zones of slip-resisting material. These can, for example, be shaped with protrusions extending beyond a mere core form, such as a circle. Appeal of the garment to infants can be increased by shaping the zones of slip-resisting material to resemble forms such as stars, moons, butterflies, animals, etc. Because the anti-slip property is confined to discrete zones within the shin areas and knee areas the overall flexibility of the garment in these areas need not be impaired as in the case of the prior art knee pads. Inclusion of the shin areas means that the crawling infant can find additional grip not only when crawling along floor surfaces, but also when moving along or off soft furniture, which is a capability absent from prior art garments.

Additional anti-slip capability can be achieved if the leg enclosures are each provided in an upper thigh area thereof above the knee area with a plurality of zones of slip-resisting material arranged at spacings imparting an anti-slip property to the upper thigh area as a whole while retaining the overall flexibility of the flexible material of the garment in the upper thigh area. The upper thigh areas also participate in contributing traction to an infant wearing the garment, particularly when the infant is clambering over furniture. -This capability can be extended still further if, in the case of a garment having garment sections for receiving the feet of an infant, the sections for receiving the feet comprise a respective foot enclosure arranged at a free end of each leg enclosure and provided in at least one of an upper foot area thereof and a lower foot area thereof with a respective plurality of zones of slip-resisting material arranged at spacings imparting an anti-slip property to that foot area or those foot areas as a whole while retaining the overall flexibility of the flexible material of the garment in the foot area or areas. Spaced zones of slip-resisting material present in either or both of the upper foot area and lower foot area of each foot enclosure can provide a significant contribution to traction during different crawling and clambering actions, particularly during transition from a crawling to a standing position. By contrast, the knee pads present in prior art garments are completely ineffective in such circumstances.

The slip-resisting material is preferably elevated relative to the surface of the textile material. Consequently, the zones of slip-resisting material stand proud of the textile material carrier and provide enhanced grip by virtue of their three-dimensionality.

The zones of slip-resisting material, which as already mentioned can be variously shaped and the shapes can diffe! within a given area, preferably have surfaces with a high coefficient of friction, in particular a coefficient several times greater than that of the flexible textile material of the garment, for example at least five times greater and preferably at' least ten times greater. The slip-resisting material thus has a frictionally gripping surface achieving by the chemical composition of the material and/or a structuring of the surface, such as a microscale roughness.

For preference, the zones of slip-resisting material are provided by hardened material applied in liquid phase. Special paint formulations available on the market (e.g. Puff Paint' (Registered Trade Mark)) which expand upwardly (rise) under the application of heat are particularly suitable for that purpose and can be applied in simple manner by screen printing. Alternatively, the zones can be provided by pieces of slip-resisting material fixed to the textile material. Such pieces of slip-resisting material can comprise at least one of plastics material and elastomeric material. The pieces are preferably fixed to the textile material by thermal bonding or adhesive.

For convenience in terms of, especially, pattern symmetry and for uniform distribution of the gripping property the zones of slip-resisting material are preferably substantially equidistantly spaced, for example by substantially 1 centimetre to 2 centimetres. The spacing can be correlated with the sizes and shapes of the zones, with smaller spacings appropriate to smaller sizes of the zones.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, the single figure of which --is a schematic view of an infant garment embodying the invention.

Referring now to the drawing there is shown an infant garment 10 of flexible textile material, such as cotton, synthetics or cotton and synthetics mix, in the forni of a one-piece romper suit with shaped sections for encasing the torso, arms, legs and feet of an infant, particularly an infant in the age range of approximately one to two years. The garment has two leg enclosures 11 each with a terminating foot enclosure 12. A buttoned division in the centre of the torso-receiving section and insides of the leg-receiving sections provides access for fitting the garment to and removing the garment from a wearer.

The illustrated form of the garment is by way of example only and can be realised in various configurations. The essential minimum requirement is the provision of two leg enclosures, preferably with associated foot enclosures and preferably joined together to form a trouser-type garment.

In the case of an infant with mobility, but at the pre-walking stage, thus with only a crawling capability, a problem with textile garments as mentioned in the introduction is the relatively poor traction offered by the constituent textile material, which is intrinsically slippery with a low coefficient of friction. Previous attempts to address this deficiency have focussed on the knee area, which is the primary, but not the sole, point of leverage or traction for a crawling infant. Slip-resisting pads in the knee area can also have the disadvantageous consequence of diminishing the flexibility of the garment in this area.

In departure from the approach taken in the prior art, each leg enclosure 11 of the garment is provided in each of a knee area ha thereof and a shin area lib thereof with a respective plurality of discrete zones 13 (shown for only one leg enclosure) of slip-resisting material. The slip-resisting material is a material with a relatively high-coefficient of friction, such as an expanded man-surface paint, an elastomeric material or a plastics material with a quasi rubber-like character, particularly a coefficient of friction several times higher than that of the textile material. If the material is paint, it can be a paint which after application in liquid state either self-cures or else hardens and rises under the application of heat. If the material is provided by pre-shaped pieces of rubber or a rubber-like plastic it may be possible to conveniently secure such pieces to the textile material of the garment by thermal bonding, in effect a heat-sealed attachment. The zones 13 of slip-resisting material can be of any desired shape such as a geometric shape, but preferably -to provide an added attraction for the infant wearer -a shape simulating a bird, animal, animal paw print, fish, insect or a variety of such shapes.

The zones 13 of slip-resisting material are spaced from one aother, preferably approximately equidistantly spaced, to such an extent that in each of the knee and shin areas flexibility of the garment flexible material is retained in the area as a whole, i.e. diminished only to an inconsequential degree, but an anti-slip property is imparted to the area as a whole, analogously to a studded shoe sole where grip is imparted by discrete studs while retaining the flexibility of the sole. A crawling infant wearing the garment is thus able to gain traction not only from the knee areas 11 a, but also the shin areas 11 b, which improves mobility over floor surfaces and considerably assists mobility on irregular surfaces such as present in upholstered furniture.

Additional tractive properties can be gained if each of the leg enclosures 11 is provided on an upper thigh area 1 ic with discrete zones 14 (shown for one leg enclosure only) of slip-resisting material of substantially the same kind and disposition as the zones 13. Similarly, each of the foot enclosures 12 can be provided on at least one of the upper foot area 12a and a lower foot area (not visible in figure) with discrete zones 15 (shown for one foot enclosure only) of slip resisting materials analogous to the zones 13 and 14. The zones can, however, be of a smaller size and also less widely spaced by comparison with the zones 13 and 14 so as to take account of the small-size foot upper and lower areas.

Examples of zone area sizes and zone spacings have been given in the introduction.

These parameters can be readily determined by a garment manufacturer starting from an arbitrary zone area of, for instance, 0.5 to 2.0 square centimetres, to obtain with such a zone area a balance between textile material flexibility and anti-slip character in the respective knee/shin/foot area as a whole, The boundary between insufficient anti-slip character on the one hand and insufficient flexibility on the other hand can be determined by simple trial using pieces of slip-resisting material of the selected shape(s) and size(s) or even by mere calculation based on the ratio of the zone areas to the surrounding areas of textile material.

Claims

CLAIMS1. An infant garment of flexible material with garment sections for receiving at least the legs of an infant, the sections for receiving the legs comprising two leg enclosures each provided in each of a knee area thereof and a shin area thereof with a respective plurality of zones of slip-resisting material arranged at spacings imparting an anti-slip property to the knee area as a whole and the shin area as a whole while retaining the overall flexibility of the flexible material of the garment in the knee and ship areas.
2. A garment as claimed in claim 1, wherein the leg enclosures are each provided in an upper thigh area thereof above the knee area with a plurality of zones of slip-resisting material arranged at spacings imparting an anti-slip property to the upper thigh area as a whole while retaining the overall flexibility of the flexible material of the garment in the upper thigh area.
3. A garment as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, the garment having garment sections for receiving the feet of an infant, the sections for receiving the feet comprising a respective foot enclosure arranged at a free end of each leg enclosure and provided in at least one of an upper foot area thereof and a lower foot area thereof with a respective plurality of zones of slip-resisting material arranged at spacings imparting an anti-slip property to that foot area or those foot areas as a whole while retaining the overall flexibility of the flexible material of the garment in the foot area or areas.
4. A garment according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the slip-resisting material is elevated relative to the surface of the flexible material.
5. A garment according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the zones of slip-resisting material define surfaces with a high coefficient of friction.
6. A garment according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the zones of slip-resisting material are provided by hardened material applied in liquid phase.
7. A garment according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the zones of slip-resisting material are provided by pieces of slip-resisting material fixed to the textile material.
8. A garment according to claim 7, wherein the pieces of slip-resisting material comprise at least one of plastics material and elastomeric material.
9. A garment according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the pieces of slip-resisting material are fixed to the textile material by thermal bonding or adhesive.
10. A garment according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the zones of slip-resisting material in each area are substantially equidistantly spaced.
11. A garment according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the zones of slip-resisting material in each area are spaced apart by substantially 1 centimetre to 2 centimetres.