Garment assembly and release apparatus and method

A vest comprising:

• an elongate first strip attached to a first location on the vest and an elongate second strip attached to a second location on the vest, the first and second elongate strips each having opposite longitudinal end portions and a middle portion therebetween, the longitudinal end portions of the first and second clips being releasably connected together by pinned connections, respectively, to hold the clips in parallel side by side relation and the first location on the vest and the second location on the vest together, each of the pinned connections comprising a longitudinally extending pin attached along a side of one of the strips received in a longitudinally extending channel through a C-shaped clip attached along a side of the other of the strips, the side of the one of the strips extending through a slot of the C-shaped clip facing in a side direction toward the one of the strips to attach to the pin, and the C-shaped clip having edge portions bounding the slot disposed to prevent movement of the pin in the side direction, the pin being removable from the channel by a predetermined relative longitudinal movement of the first and second strips;
• and
• a detent element comprising a tab extending sidewardly in cantilever relation from the middle portion of the first strip separated by gaps from the C-shaped clips, the tab having an engaged state overlaying and cooperatively received in a receptacle in the middle portion of the second strip to prevent the predetermined relative longitudinal movement of the first and second strips, and the tab being deformable from the engaged state to a release state by being pulled away from the strips to allow the predetermined relative longitudinal movements of the strips.

A vest, comprising:

• a C-shaped clip defining a channel and an open slot extending along the channel, open at opposite ends of the C-shaped clip, and including at least one element attaching the C-shaped clip to a first location on the vest;
• a pin slidably received in the channel of the C-shaped clip through one of the open ends assembling the C-shaped clip and the pin together, the pin having a tab or strip extending through the slot and attach the pin to a second location on the garment, the slot being bound by edges of the C-shaped clip that prevent passage of the pin therethrough, the C-shaped clip and the pin having mating surfaces bounding the channel adjacent to at least one side of the slot, including a mating surface on the C-shaped clip adjacent to one side of the slot that faces toward the channel and a mating surface on the pin that faces the slot, the mating surfaces being tapered at less than a 90 degree angle to the slot such that when a force is exerted against the tab or strip in a direction to pull the pin toward the slot, the mating surface of the clip adjacent to the one side of the slot will be drawn toward the slot to prevent passage of the pin therethrough;
• and
• at least one detent element comprising a tab extending sidewardly from the C-shaped clip centrally between the opposite ends thereof and bounding the slot, cooperatively received in a receptacle in the pin to retain the pin in the channel, and releasable in a predetermined manner by moving the detent element away from the pin to allow slidably removing the pin from the channel through one of the open ends.