Reinforced glove

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Prior gloves have included a front body panel to which a thumb case is sewn creating weakening holes. During pulling gloves on the hand and taking them off, the attachment of glove body to the thumb has weakened and sometimes failed. While prior gloves have included thumb-to-body reinforcement, none have properly addressed weaknesses at the thumb and in adjacent areas.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Broadly, the present invention comprises a configured reinforced piece of material which strengthens part of the attachment between a glove body portion and glove thumb case and at the interior elastic band and at the cuff border. The reinforcement piece in particular increases the strength of stitching at these locations making tearing of glove material from such stitching less likely.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a front view of a glove of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a back view of the glove with flap open;

FIG. 3 is a partial enlarged back view of the glove including the lower portion of the thumb case;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view along line 4--4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a front view of a glove of a second embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a back view of the glove with the flap open;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged partial back view of the inner construction of the second embodiment including the lower portion of the thumb case; and

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line 8--8 of FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In FIGS. 1-4, a leather skin golf glove 10 has finger casings 11, body 12 with inside body surface 12a and outside body surface 12b, and thumb casing 13. Thumb casing 13 is stitched to body 12 by two (2) rows of stitching 28, 29. Stitching rows 28, 29 consist of a plurality of individual thread stitches 17 passing through stitch holes 17h. Elastic strip 23 is stitched to body 12 using stitch rows 24a, 24b which stitch rows create holes 24h. FIG. 2 shows glove 10 with back opened revealing stitches 17 and reinforcing piece 19 further described below. Glove cuff edge 10e includes stitch row 10r.

Turning in particular to FIGS. 3 and 4, the stitching of body 12 to thumb case 13 is reinforced by reinforcing piece 19 which may be made of nylon, satin, fabric blend or other materials. The joinder of body 12, thumb casing 13 and reinforcing piece 19 creates an edge area having a lower curved edge portion 20 along the lower portion of thumb casing 13. Area 20 is defined by points A-D (see FIG. 3). Weakness is principally located in and around stitch holes 17h. Reinforcement piece 19 therefore serves to strengthen the area where stitch rows 28, 29 and stitch holes 17h are located. Piece 19 also reinforces areas E-H and I-L and particularly stitching rows therein (see FIG. 3). Since glove 10 is made of leather, reinforcement piece 19 assists in preventing leather fibers from separating and breaking down. Leather has the ability to stretch in varying degrees at different parts of the leather skin. For example, leather skin stretches more from the backbone to the belly when compared with stretch from head to tail. By controlling the stretch, the stress on stitch holes 17h is minimized. Reinforcement piece 19 minimizes the stretching, breakdown around holes 17h and increases the longevity of glove 10. Reinforcement piece 19 may be made of any material which has little or no break down or stretch even after being stitched by a needle which creates a row of holes in it and subjected to the forces of pulling the glove on and off the hands.

Turning back to FIG. 3, reinforcement piece 19 tapers to narrow neck 19n and terminates at the glove cuff edge 10e. Piece 19 is positioned under interior wrist elastic strip 23 which strip 23 along with neck 19n are sewn to body 12 employing dual stitch rows 24a, 24b and row 10r. Piece neck 19n is also positioned under and attached to wrist cuff border strip 26 along glove cuff edge 10e.

Turning to FIGS. 5-8, the second embodiment of the invention is shown in which glove 10' has thumb case 13' sewn to body 12' in overlapping manner by a single row of stitching 30 which is not visible on the outside of glove 10' (FIG. 5). FIG. 8 shows the layered relationship of piece 19', thumb piece 13' and glove body 12' as held together by stitch 30 prior to folding which makes stitch 30 invisible from the glove exterior (FIG. 5) and visible from the glove interior (FIG. 6). Reinforcing piece 19' is positioned under elastic wrist strip 23' and under border strip 26'. Strip 23' is sewn with stitch rows 24a' and 24b'. Piece 19' is also secured by stitch row 10r' (FIG. 7).