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  Self-tucking shirt mechanismUSPTO Application #: 20060010559Title: Self-tucking shirt mechanism Abstract: A system for keeping a shirt tucked-in to a pair of pants involving a special nap which when mounted in place between the shirt and pants dynamically urges the shirt into the pants as a result of some of the same movements that ordinarily causes a shirt to become untucked. (end of abstract) Agent: Charles A. Wilkinson, Esq. - Bethlehem, PA, US Inventor: Richard A. Hamlet USPTO Applicaton #: 20060010559 - Class: 002117000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Apparel, Body Garments, Vests, Men's Outer Garments, With Garment Supporters The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060010559. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application takes priority from U.S. Provisional Application 60/580,344 filed Jun. 16, 2004 in the name of Richard A. Hamlet. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates to improvements in clothes and more particularly to maintaining several items of clothing arranged properly with respect to each other during wearing of such items and more particularly still to maintaining shirts and blouses and the like "tucked in" or otherwise correctly or conventionally arranged with respect to trousers, slacks, skirts or the like. [0004] 2. Preliminary Discussion [0005] When shirts, shirtwaists and the like are worn with their bottom or lower portions extending under, or tucked under, or inside a pair of trousers, slacks or a skirt, such shirt or the like will frequently as the wearer moves tend to work out of its tucked position until there is more than enough of the material of the shirt or shirtwaist above the top of the trousers or the like to allow full movement of the persons body without placing any tension on the lower end of the shirt. By the time this equilibrium is reached, however, the lower portion of the upper garment, or shirt, will be loose above the lower garment, or trousers, almost in the form of a ruffle around the top or in the form of a bulge or half deflated balloon around the top or even in a loose downward fold. While ruffles around the middle have been stylish at certain periods in history and are still worn sometimes in formal wear or about the waist of character actors and clowns, having one's shirt protruding loosely from one's trousers or pants is today considered to look unkept, particularly in the dress of professional or managerial personnel. The aversion to such a look is so extreme among many persons that seeing a protruding shirt almost makes such persons imagine they smell perspiration on the person having an untucked shirt while some other persons may even affect the look in an attempt to look busier than they are. The average man, however, spends a significant time trying to surreptitiously tuck his shirt back into his trousers, particularly if he is a little overweight, as men frequently feel that having their shirt pulled out of their trousers tends to make them appear heavier, an opinion which is probably correct, as the extra extension around the middle increases the perception of bulk. Women have similar concerns with respect to blouses that pull out of slacks or skirts and generally dislike seeing men's shirts pulled out of their pants or trousers. One of the constant refrains many men become more or less oblivious to, or else annoyed or even enraged by, is constant reminders of "push your shirt in" or "tuck your shirt in!" Not only does the public spend considerable aggregate energy trying to keep their "shirt in," but because of widespread recognition of the problem, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted to attempts to solve such problem by inventors. Prior art solutions have ranged from placing weights in the lower hem of shirts to hold them down, attaching removable weights to shirts by fastenings of various types, using hold down straps and other arrangements between the wearers legs or attached to the wearer's body somewhat like garter holdups for socks and attaching the lower portion of a shirt to the inside of trousers by various conventional fasteners and hold fast means such as buttons and snaps and the like, the latest examples of which are the application of the more modern hook and loop fasteners commonly identified as to source by the trademark "Velcro" to attach any upper garment to a lower garment. In general, any sort of permanent attachment to a special harness or the like about the body is uncomfortable for the wearer, weighting the lower end of a garment is not only extra weight to carry, but may not be sufficient to hold down the shirt, particularly for a portly person, any sort of hooking together or attachment of upper and lower clothes items is inconvenient to effect and to uncouple in undressing, although frequently used in the case of young children, and the use of the modern hook and loop attachment means, although fairly easily detached, is usually difficult in this particular use environment to secure. All these means for holding shirt ends down except the use of extra and variable weight and consequently reliance thereby upon gravity, suffer from the disadvantage of not allowing for adjustment for differing conditions. [0006] The present inventor, on the other hand, has developed a completely new and improved method and means to maintain clothes items tucked together which method and means is dynamic in nature, completely effective in most instances as well as easy to implement and which effectively counteracts the dynamic forces engendered in clothes by constant movement of the body and resulting normally in shirttails gradually riding up and over the top of a pair of trousers. The invention introduces a countervailing dynamic mechanism acting in the opposite direction to draw the two items of clothing into a continuously tucked condition. The operating principle and mechanism of the invention counteracts the normal dynamics of a clothed human body tending to extract tucked in clothing and as a result of dependence upon the same dynamic movement of the wearer, which usually results in clothing becoming untucked, by the countervailing mechanism of the invention tends to pull the two garments more closely together. Such countervailing mechanism, moreover provides such a gentle but continuous operating mechanism that the wearer of the clothing is unaware of such countervailing force, feels nothing and will notice nothing except that his or her upper garments are not pulling out of lower garments into which they have been tucked, or, in the case of sudden movements in which such garments are pulled somewhat apart will gradually, with the usual movements which most persons are continuously making, be pulled gently together again into a neatly tucked condition. [0007] The present inventor has discovered that the untucking of shirts, blouses, shirtwaists and the like can be dynamically counteracted by the use of a special nap or fibrous construction in which all or at least most of the fibers of the nap extend in the same direction at an angle with the base of the nap which base is positioned such that the fibers extend at an angle oblique to but generally toward the direction it is desired for the lower end of the shirt, blouse or the like to move if the nap base is connected to the lower garment, or, if such nap or fiber base is attached to or mounted upon the upper garment or shirt obliquely in the opposite direction to impinge upon the inside of the lower garment or pants. In other words, the angled fibers of the nap are arranged so as to tend to move the shirt end downwardly counter to the movement which causes untucking of the bottom of such shirt. If the nap is attached to the lower portion of the shirt, the individual fibers will be angled from the base of the nap upwardly against the adjacent trousers. On the other hand, if the nap is attached to the inside of trousers the nap will be attached to the trousers with the free ends of the nap fibers angling down against the lower portion of the shirt. In either case, movement of the wearer of the clothing, which movement would normally over a period tend to move the lower ends of the shirt upwardly, will be opposed by the stiff fibers angled in the opposite direction, but movement downwardly of the shirt or blouse end will not be hindered and in fact will tend to be facilitated by the angle and smoothness of the ends o the plastic fiber nap. It is not inappropriate to refer to the fiber nap as a tuck maintenance "facilitator," since it in fact serves to facilitate movement of an adjacent section of cloth in only one direction and is arranged to exert such facilitation in a direction opposite to the normal slippage of shirts and the like from trousers into which they have been tucked. [0008] 3. Discussion of the Prior Art [0009] An embarrassing problem is faced when a shirt rides up out of one's trousers or slacks or becomes un-tucked. This situation leaves the wearer looking unkempt and messy. Such situation can arise with men, women and children. Most people desire to have their shirts maintained with a pressed, tucked-in look. However, the longer a person engages in activity, such as physical activity or even merely fidgeting in ones seat or getting up and down, the more such persons shirt or the like tend to become un-tucked. [0010] A number of patents have issued directed to keeping clothing and particularly shirts down and tucked in ones pants or slacks. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,993 issued to A. S. Gilman et al. on Jan. 23, 2001, entitled "Shirt-Locking Device," provides a pin type means for fastening a sliding weight upon the lower portions of a shirt or the side of an undergarment to retain the shirt from becoming un-tucked by a double or two part fastening means. [0011] U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,923 issued to A. Cohen on Jan. 11, 1994, entitled "Shirt Hold-Down Device," discloses a central elastomeric web or harness arrangement, having concave sides to accommodate an individual's groin area, with a plurality of tethers extending longitudinally and laterally upwardly from the central web, with each tether including a clip-type fastener for securing to a perimeter portion of an individual's shirt to prevent it from riding upwardly. [0012] U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,669 issued to M. Rasdell et al. on May 24, 1994, entitled "Clothing Anchor Apparatus," discloses a clothing anchor apparatus, especially useful for anchoring the front and back tails of shirts, in the form of a garter type apparatus for securing in the crotch area and attached to the lower edge of a shirt to retain the shirt in position. [0013] U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,393 issued to F. Alger on Jun. 4, 2002, entitled "Clothing Combination Comprising A Self-Releasing Bonding Means," discloses an arrangement for maintaining a shirts and pants or as shown a shorts and shirt combination together by means of hook and loop material which is said to provide a self releasing arrangement. [0014] U.S. published application 2004/0154069 published to D. B. Johnson et al. on Aug. 12, 2004, entitled "Adjustable Shirt-Tapering System," discloses the use of hook and loop fastenings for forming custom fitted as it were shirttails to prevent the shirt from becoming untucked and presenting a messy and untidy appearance. The application contains an excellent discussion of the prior art respecting keeping shirts and the like in place, such prior art being divided in such discussion into seven (7) categories. [0015] While there have been previous developments or technologies, therefore, for keeping shirts tucked and neat, most of the prior art technologies have required mechanical modifications or adjuncts which have interfered in one way or another with the normal use and comfort of the clothing. The present invention, however, requires only a simple addition which counteracts the forces normally causing untucking of shirts and is driven by the same movements that normally cause shirts and the like to become untucked to prevent such untucking or to pull shirts down again. OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION [0016] It is the object of the present invention to provide a system which keeps a shirt tucked-in without the need for mechanical connectors, straps or other prior systems and which is a single component system rather than a multiple component system. [0017] It is a further object of the present invention to provide a shirt tucking system which makes use of the interplay of fabric fibers to keep the shirt tucked-in. [0018] It is a still further object of the invention to provide an addition to the lower portion of a shirt or else adjacent to the shirt which counteracts the usual working of the bottom of the shirt out of lower body garments which are worn over the shirt. [0019] It is a still further object of the invention to provide a method of keeping shirts and the like from pulling out of, or becoming "untucked," from trousers or slacks or the like. [0020] It is a still further object of the invention to provide a method of preventing shirts from becoming untucked comprising attaching between a fabric section that is desired to be maintained substantially in position with respect to another fabric section when the two are pressed together a collection of angled fibers between the two sections. [0021] Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description which follows together with the appended drawings. Continue reading... Full patent description for Self-tucking shirt mechanism Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Self-tucking shirt mechanism patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. 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