Protective garment wearable with boots and comprising attached socks

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. W91CRB-04-C-027 awarded by the United States Department of the Army. The Government has certain rights in the invention.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention pertains to a protective garment that may be advantageously worn by a firefighter, rescue worker, or chemical worker, or by a person engaged in an outdoor activity. The protective garment is wearable with a pair of boots and comprises a pair of leg portions, each having an attached sock, which may be detachably attached.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A protective garment, as described in the preceding paragraph, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,717, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,717, the protective garment has cuffs, which extend downwardly, over and around leg-encasing portions of the boots when the garment and boots are worn.

As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,717, each leg portion of the protective garment terminates in a sock. U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,717 does not disclose or suggest that the socks and the protective garment may be separately made so as to be separately sizable to fit a wearer, or that the socks are attached detachably to the leg portions.

Further background of this invention is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,057, which discloses a protective garment having a pants liner with a moisture barrier attached to a boot cuff.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded, fragmentary, perspective view of a protective garment constituting or contemplated embodiment of this invention, as worn by a person who is wearing socks.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, perspective, fragmentary detail of one of two leg portions of the protective garment of FIG. 1 as worn with a boot, which is uninsulated except for the protective garment. One leg of an outer shell is shown fragmentarily.

FIG. 3 is a further enlarged, fragmentary, sectional detail of an alternative embodiment of this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a protective garment 10 for a wearer W, such as a firefighter, rescue worker, or chemical worker, constitutes a preferred embodiment of this invention. The protective garment 10 may be also worn by a person engaged in an outdoor activity, such as hunting, fishing, or riding on a snowmobile. Preferably, the protective garment 10 is wearable as a lining system under an outer shell G (see FIG. 1) with which the protective garment 10 is integrated, as by sewing, and which is made from a material providing resistance to abrasion and to puncturing. Alternatively, the protective garment 10 is wearable as an other garment. In either instance, the protective garment 10 is wearable over socks S made from a lightweight material. Details of the outer shell G and of the socks S are outside the scope of this invention.

Moreover, in either instance, the protective garment 10 is wearable with a pair of boots 20 to be respectively worn over the right and left feet of the wearer W. Each boot 20 has a leg-encasing portion 22 and a foot-encasing portion 24. Each boot 20 comprises a boot shell made from a conventional, rubberized fabric or from a natural or synthetic leather, which may be conventionally waterproofed. Each boot 20 comprises a conventional heel 28.

Preferably, whether worn as an outer garment or as a lining system under an outer shell, the protective garment 10 has an outer layer 12, which is made from a material providing a moisture barrier, and an inner layer 14, which is made from a material providing a thermal liner, and which is sewn to the outer layer 12 in a conventional manner so that the outer layer 12 and the inner layer 14 can be simultaneously put on and taken off by the wearer W. Suitable materials providing a moisture barrier and a thermal liner have been employed heretofore to make protective garments for firefighters, as available commercially from Morning Pride Manufacturing, L.L.C. of Dayton, Ohio.

The protective garment 10 comprises a part of leg portions 30 to be respectively worn over the right and left legs of the wear W. As shown, the protective garment 10 is embodied as a pair of pants. The protective garment 10 may be alternatively embodied as a pair of overalls or as a suit of coveralls.

The protective garment 10 further comprises a pair of cuffs 50, which are made from the material used to make the outer layer 12, namely the material providing the moisture barrier. Each cuff 50 is attached by sewing, which is preferred, or by gluing to and around an associated one of the leg portions 30 so as to extend downwardly, over and around an upper area 26 on the leg-encasing portion 22 of the associated one of the boots 20. A seam-waterproofing material (not shown) of a type used conventionally in protective garments for firefighters may be advantageously employed where each cuff 50 is sewn thereto and therearound. Each cuff 50 has an inner portion 52, which is attached, and an outer portion 54, which is folded so as to extend downwardly. The cuffs 50 cuffs divert water or other liquids sprayed or splashed onto the leg portions 30, so as to prevent the diverted liquids from entering the leg-encasing portions 22 of the boots 20.

This invention provides that sock 60 having an outer layer 62, which provides a moisture barrier, and having an inner layer 64, which provides a thermal barrier, is attached detachably to each leg portion 30.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, each sock 60 is attached detachably to an associated one of the leg portions 40 via a hook-and-loop fastener 70 comprising a hook-faced tape 70a and a loop-faced tape 70b. One such tape is sewn to and around an inner surface of each such 60 the other tape. Thus, a hook-faced tape 70a is affixed to and around an inside surface of one such sock 60, while a loop-faced tape 70b is affixed to and around an outside surface of the associated one of the leg portions 40.

This invention provides that a sock 60 having an outer layer 62, which provides a moisture barrier, and having an inner layer 64, which provides a thermal barrier, is attached detachably to each leg portion 30.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, each sock 60 is attached detachably to an associated one of the leg portions 40 via a hook-and-loop fastener 70 comprising a hook-faced tape 70a and a loop-faced tape 70b. One such tape is sewn to and around an inner surface of each sock 60, the other tape. Thus, a hook-faced tape 70a is affixed to and around an inside surface of one such sock 60, while a loop-faced tape 70b is affixed to and around an outside surface of the associated one of the leg portions 40.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3, each sock 60 is attached detachably to a respective one of the leg portions 40 via a series of snap fasteners 80, one being illustrated, each having a female part 80a affixed to an inside surface of one such sock 60 and a male part 80b affixed to an outside surface of an associated one of the leg portions 40.

Because the socks 60 and the protective garment 10, apart from the socks 60, are made separately, the socks 60 and the protective garment 10, apart from the socks 60, can be separately sized to fit a wearer. Because the socks 60 are attached detachably to the leg portions 40, the socks 60 can be replaced without having to replace the protective garment 10, apart from the socks 60, and vice-versa.

This invention allows a wearer who wears such a protective garment 10, apart from the separately made socks 60, of one given size to wear such detachably attachable socks 60 of a different size. This invention enables a garment issuer, such as a garment issuer at a fire service, to stock such protective garments 10 in a first array of sizes and to stock such detachably attachable socks 60 in a second array of sizes, which may not coincide with the first array of sizes. This invention allows a fire service to launder such protective garments 10 and such detachably attachable socks 60 separately and, possibly, at different intervals.

Optionally, each detachably detachable sock 60 may be loosely fitted into the associated boot 20 or may be detachably or permanently attached to the associated boot 20, into which such detachably detachable sock 60 is fitted.