Article of apparel
AssigneeUnder Armour, Inc.
InventorsKyle Blakely, Randy Harward
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention is directed toward an article of apparel formed of a textile having a knit structure (e.g., a circular knit structure) including a base strand and an effect strand. The base strand is inelastic. The effect strand, while inelastic, is modified to be resilient. The base strands are inserted at selected course locations within the knit structure. With this configuration, the knit structure possesses stretch and recovery properties. The resulting knit fabric may be utilized to make underwear (e.g., socks), top-weight garments (e.g., T-shirts), etc.
Claims12
An article of apparel for a torso, the article of apparel comprising a knit structure including a plurality of strands organized in courses and wales, the knit structure including a first strand and a plurality of second strands, each second strand of the plurality of second strands being separated from an adjacent second strand by the first strand, wherein:
- the first strand is an inelastic strand,
- the second strand is configured to stretch a predetermined amount from a normal position to a stretched position,
- the second strand is a bicomponent strand comprising a first polymer segment formed integrally with a second polymer segment,
- the first and second polymer segments are arranged in side-by-side relation,
- the first polymer segment possesses a first rate of shrinkage,
- the second polymer segment possesses a second rate of shrinkage, and
- the first rate of shrinkage is greater than the second rate of shrinkage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.