Apparel – Guard or protector – For wearer's head
Patent
1997-09-19
1999-08-03
Oleksa, Diana L.
Apparel
Guard or protector
For wearer's head
21814, 351155, A42B 106
Patent
active
059308346
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
THIS INVENTION relates to headwear, and it has more particular reference to articles of headwear fitted with sunglass means for eye protection purposes.
BACKGROUND ART
For sporting and recreational activities in particular, it is customary to wear a hat or cap over the scalp in conjunction with normal types of tinted sunglasses separately located on the ears and nose with a "lens blade" disposed in front of the eyes so that sunlight will be diffused for glare-reduction purposes. Various attempts have been made to provide hats and caps having permanently affixed sunglass means, but these have to date suffered from one disadvantage or another, including the fact that the sunglass means has always been a permanently visible part of the hat or cap even when conditions do not make the use of the sunglass means warranted.
The present invention has accordingly been devised to overcome the problems associated to date with headwear fitted with or requiring separate sunglass means for eye protection purposes, and it has for its principal object to provide a novel article of headwear combining therewith a sunglass sheet or lens which is adapted to be retracted into the headwear and thus not readily visible, if at all, when the sunglass benefits are not required. Other objects of the invention are to provide a combination of cap, hat or other article of headwear with a sunglass sheet, as aforedescribed, which will be efficient and durable, yet relatively inexpensive.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
With the foregoing and other objects in view the invention resides broadly, according to one aspect thereof, in an article of headwear of the type including a hat body adapted to be fitted over the scalp of a wearer and having a flexible head band to engage about the forehead of the wearer, there being an affixed brim adjacent the head band and having a front brim portion projecting forwardly in use in front of and above the wearer's eyes; characterised in that: flexible tinted sunglass sheet adapted to be arranged in operative disposition substantially upright and arcuately around the front of the head band in front of the wearer's eyes when the hat body is fitted over the wearer's scalp, and to the flexible head band that upon removal of the hat body, the sunglass sheet and head band may be flexed to permit the sunglass sheet to be moved flexibly in the rearwards direction from said operative disposition to a stored inoperative disposition within the hat body in which the sunglass sheet will extend upwards from the head band and be held adjacent the scalp when the hat body is re-fitted to the wearer.
Preferably, the flexible tinted sunglass sheet is made from sheet material of uniform thickness, being of elongated form and symmetrical to each side of a middle nose-bridging portion. Preferably too, the flexible tinted sunglass sheet has downwardly curved upper edge portions at each side extremity for head band attachment purposes, while it has eyeglass-shaped portions with curved lower edges at each side of the nose-bridging portion. In one embodiment, the flexible tinted sunglass sheet has resilient cheek-contact members fitted to the lower edges of both eyeglass-shaped portions. The flexible tinted sunglass sheet may also have a resilient nose-contact member fitted to the lower edge of the nose-bridging portion, the resilient contact members preferably being made of foam rubber.
According to the invention, the flexible tinted sunglass sheet is preferably formed by cutting same from a sheet of polycarbonate material, the sunglass sheet suitably having a thickness between 0.25 mm and 0.5 mm. For best practical purposes, the flexible tinted sunglass sheet is suitably affixed to the head band by sewing its upper edge to the exposed face or edge of the head band.
The article of headwear may itself be a hat, cap or partial cap, with the head band being discontinued at the rear to be replaced by adjustable connecting straps for example. Also the brim may be of continuous annular form in the c
REFERENCES:
patent: 1696198 (1928-12-01), Gross
patent: 2500280 (1950-03-01), Feldman
patent: 4179753 (1979-12-01), Aronberg et al.
patent: 4869586 (1989-09-01), Chung
patent: 5177810 (1993-01-01), Minton et al.
patent: 5491841 (1996-02-01), Valletta
patent: 5581807 (1996-12-01), Peterson
LandOfFree
Headwear with retractable sunglass sheet does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Headwear with retractable sunglass sheet, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Headwear with retractable sunglass sheet will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-838775