Upper body garment with woven tubular shoulder straps
AssigneeSpanx, Inc.
InventorsWendy Hanson Allen, Mayur Vansia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The upper body garments disclosed herein include shoulder straps formed of a woven tubular material flattened into a double-ply fabric. The woven tubular shoulder straps have advantageously high recovery. The upper body garments also include a torso-encircling main body portion with a breast supporting region coupled to a body strap. The body strap is formed of a circular knit, tubular material flattened into double-ply fabric. The woven tubular shoulder straps are coupled to the circular knit, tubular body strap. In some embodiments, the weft yarn of the woven tubular shoulder straps can have different material properties than the warp yarn of the woven tubular shoulder straps. Methods of making the upper body garments are also disclosed herein.
Claims19
An upper body garment comprising:
- a torso-encircling main body portion comprising a breast supporting region coupled to a body strap, the body strap including side sections coupled to the breast supporting region and a back section extending from the side sections;
- and
- shoulder straps coupled to the main body portion;
- wherein the body strap is formed of a circular knit, tubular material flattened into double-ply fabric;
- wherein each shoulder strap is formed of a woven tubular material flattened into double-ply fabric, the woven tubular material comprising a warp yarn extending along a length of the shoulder strap and a weft yarn extending across the length of the shoulder strap;
- and
- wherein the recovery of the shoulder straps is between 91% to 98%.
An upper body garment comprising:
- a torso-encircling main body portion comprising a breast supporting region coupled to a body strap;
- and
- shoulder straps coupled to the main body portion;
- wherein the body strap is formed of a circular knit, tubular material flattened into double-ply fabric;
- and
- wherein each shoulder strap is formed of a woven tubular material flattened into double-ply fabric, the woven tubular material comprising a warp yarn extending along a length of the shoulder strap and a weft yarn extending across the length of the shoulder strap;
- and
- wherein the warp yarn has different material properties than the weft yarn.
A method of making an upper body garment, the method comprising:
- forming a breast supporting region;
- forming left and right shoulder straps by weaving a tubular material for each shoulder strap and flattening the tubular material into a double-ply fabric, such that a warp yarn of the tubular material extends along a length of the shoulder strap and a weft yarn of the tubular material extends across the length of the shoulder strap;
- wherein the recovery of the shoulder straps is between 91% and 98%;
- forming a body strap by knitting a tubular material via circular knitting and flattening the knit tubular material into a double-ply fabric;
- attaching a first side of the body strap to the breast supporting region and a second side of the body strap to the breast supporting region;
- attaching a front side of the left shoulder strap to the breast supporting region and a back side of the left shoulder strap to the body strap;
- and
- attaching a front side of the right shoulder strap to the breast supporting region and a back side of the right shoulder strap to the body strap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.