The invention relates to a structure for securing an athletic shin guard to a wearer.

Shin guards are protective devices worn by athletes in a variety of sports to protect their lower legs. For example, soccer players regularly wear shin guards to protect their lower legs from injuries associated with being inadvertently kicked by another player during a game. It is important that shin guards offer suitable protection, while still being comfortable and lightweight and without restricting the mobility of the wearer.

Shin guards attempt to serve two primary functions. First, the shin guard reduces the likelihood and/or degree of tibia injury and fracture. In particular, the tibia is an elongated bone in the lower leg that has a substantially triangular cross-section. One edge of the tibia is oriented relatively close to the front, outer surface of the lower leg. No muscles cover this portion of the tibia or a large portion of its medial side, thereby defining a substantially unprotected and vulnerable anterior leading edge. Accordingly, inadvertent impacts to the leg near the anterior leading edge of the tibia, and especially impacts directed substantially perpendicular to the tibia, can easily injure or even facture the tibia. Such impacts are quite common in soccer, where opposing players frequently compete to kick the same ball at or near the same time. Shin guards attempt to lessen the potential for injuries resulting from low to moderate impacts to the tibia that may otherwise cause injuries of a more sever nature if a shin guard were not worn.

Second, shin guards also protect less vulnerable areas of the lower leg by serving as a barrier against incidental glancing impact of soft tissues and skin abrasions from sliding and the like.

Known shin guard designs include basic strapped structures that allow a wearer to strap foam or another resilient material to their lower legs. Such padding is lightweight and does not unduly restrict the mobility of the wearer. However, it offers little protection to the tibia from inadvertent impacts to the anterior leading edge of the tibia.

More recently, several attempts have been made to improve the impact resistance of shin guards to better protect the tibia. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,484,360 to Leighton et al., 5,384,913 to Hendry, 5,784,715 to Buchanan, and 6,134,720 to Foreman all position a substantially rigid member, such as an elongate plastic plate, to the shin guard near the anterior leading edge of the tibia. The rigid planar members prevent an inadvertent impact force applied substantially perpendicular to the tibia from deflecting the shin-guard, thereby protecting the tibia from fracture.

Accordingly, most modern shin guards have both a padded, resilient shin conforming portion that engages and conforms around the wearer's shin and an elongate, substantially rigid outer shell operably secured to the padded, resilient shin conforming portion.

Known structures for securing these modern shin guards to a wearer include: (1) resilient straps secured to the shin guards themselves that essentially encircle both the padding and shell of the shin guard such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,370 to Henson; (2) fixed, non-adjustable split loop material attached to the longitudinal surface of the shin guard with attaches to the inside surface of a soccer sock as found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,364 to Edelson; (3) customized socks for holding the shin guard therein as found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,817 to Hicks, U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,126 to Jones and U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,315 to Castiglia; and (4) strapless shin guards held in place by the tension created by a knit soccer sock.

Despite these known shin guard securing structures, they still have several drawbacks. For example, when a shin guard is secured to a wearer with straps extending from the substantially rigid shell, the straps tend to compress the wearer's leg toward the non-conforming, substantially rigid shell. This compromises wearer comfort and often times allows undesirable slippage between the shin guard and the wearer's shin during use, even when padding is positioned between the wearer's leg and the rigid shell.

Similarly, wearers are often forced to address this improper movement issue by wrapping athletic tape or securing additional auxiliary detached straps as found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,844 to Bear to better hold the shin guard in place. Such tape and removable straps have their own drawbacks. For example, tape is time consuming to attach and remove and is not reusable. Similarly, auxiliary detached straps can become lost during nonuse, and since they are positioned around the sock usually above and below the padding of the shin guard, undesirable shin guard movement can still result.

US 6,393,610 B1 describes an articulated device for protecting the knee as well as above-the-knee and below-the-knee leg portions. US 5,943,695 A describes a limb guard serving to protect a part of a limb from an external impact force. EP 0564246 A1 describes a protective pad with a fabric impregnated with a moisture-curable resin which hardens upon curing. In this document the shin guard includes a hard shell fastened to an inner pad, an upper strap above the shell and a lower strap which fits under the foot.

Accordingly, despite the known improvements to shin guards and their attachment structures, there remains a need for a comfortable shin guard that is lightweight and durable, that provides tibia protection of a substantially rigid frame, but that also provides a comfortable fit that remains properly positioned on a wearer during use. In addition to other benefits that will become apparent in the following disclosure, the present invention fulfills these needs.

The shin guard according to the invention comprises the features of claim 1. The invention also relates to a method of mounting a shin guard on a wearer's leg, comprising the features of claim 11.

• FIG. 1 is a front, right isometric view of a leg shin guard with a soft mounted strap operably secured thereto in accordance with an embodiment which is not part of the present invention showing a possible mounting to a wearer's leg.
• FIG. 2 is a back, right isometric view of the shin guard of FIG. 1 showing a possible detached configuration.
• FIG. 3 is a right side view of the shin guard of FIG. 1 showing a possible installation mounting to a wearer's leg.
• FIG. 4 is a front, left isometric view of a shin guard in accordance with a first alternative embodiment of the present invention showing a possible mounting to a wearer's leg.
• FIG. 5 is a right, side isometric view of a shin guard in accordance with a second alternative embodiment which is not part of the present invention showing a possible detached configuration.
• FIG. 6 is a right, side isometric view of a shin guard in accordance with a third alternative embodiment which is not part of the present invention showing a possible detached configuration.

A lightweight and comfortable shin guard 10 (FIGS. 1-3), 10' (FIG. 4), 10" (FIG. 5), and 10"' (FIG. 6) having an adjustable, resilient leg conforming mount 12 (FIGS. 1-6), 12' (FIG. 4), detachably or rigidly secured thereto is shown in FIGS. 1-6.

Referring to FIGS. 1-3, the shin guard 10 has an elongate substantially rigid shell 14 secured to a resilient shin conforming pad 16. A portion of the pad extends from the rigid shell 14 to define a soft, shin conforming, strap mount 18. A securing strap 20 is operably secured to the strap mount 18 thereby allowing the strap and mount to completely conform around, or "cuff," a wearer's leg 30 when the strap 20 is secured around the wearer's leg 30 as best shown in FIG. 3. More preferably, this strap 20 is mounted with respect to the substantially rigid shell 14 so that a substantially horizontal plane 100 extending through the strap 20 along the longitudinal centerline of the strap 20 does not intersect the substantially rigid shell 14 as shown in FIG. 3. More preferably, the strap 20 is rigidly secured to the strap mount 18 and includes an adjusting structure 24, such as hook and loop material 32 or the like, to allow the strap to be adjusted for fit and comfort for a particular wearer. Each of these components is discussed in greater detail below.

As shown in FIG. 1, the resilient shin conforming pad 16 is preferably an elongate, planar structure defining an upper edge 40, lower edge 42, medial edge 44, lateral edge 46, outer surface 48 (FIG. 1) and inner surface 50 (FIG. 2). More preferably, the planar structure is formed into an arcuate shape so as to conform to the front outer surface of a wearer's leg 30 and encircle the front and a large portion of the medial and lateral sides of the wearer's lower leg 30.

The resilient shin conforming pad 16 also serves the padded portion of the shin guard 10 and is formed with conventional materials such as a sheet of resilient foam or the like. If desired, additional padding (not shown) can also be operably secured to the resilient shin conforming pad 16. Preferably, the elongate planar structure of the shin conforming pad 16 is formed of a material commonly referred to in the industry as "EVA" foam or the like. Closed cell foam is preferred over open cell foam because it is not hydroscopic and therefore will not absorb moisture and the like.

If desired, the inner surface 50 (FIG. 2), which may come in contact with the wearer's skin, is covered with a comfortable material (not shown), such as woven fabric or the like. Also, strip of finishing material (not shown), such as fabric, is preferably secured around the edges 40, 42, 44, 46 of the resilient protective portion, such as by sewing or the like, to provide a more aesthetically pleasing shin guard 10 and better secure the additional padding (if any) therein.

The elongate substantially rigid shell 14 is preferably formed with a lightweight, impact resistant, abrasion resistant, semi-rigid, material such as polypropylene, polypropylene thermoformable composite or the like. Other materials having these desirable characteristics include molded thermoplastic polyurethane ("TPU"), Nylon ABS, other reinforced injection molded materials, and the like.

Preferably, the elongate substantially rigid shell 14 is shaped to conform to the substantially arcuate shape of the resilient shin conforming pad 16. The elongate substantially rigid shell is preferably rigidly secured to the outer surface 48 of the resilient shin conforming pad 16 with conventional attachment structures such as single or double stitching 60a, adhesives, or the like.

As best shown in FIG. 2, a portion of the shin conforming pad 16 extends vertically from the attached substantially rigid shell to define the soft, shin conforming, strap mount 18. This strap mount 18 can extend below the substantially rigid shell 14 as shown in FIGS. 1-6, above the substantially rigid shell 14 as shown in FIG. 4, or two strap mounts 18, 18' can be provided one positioned below and one above the substantially rigid shell as shown in FIG. 4.

As best shown in FIGS. 2 & 3, at least one securing strap 20 is operably secured to the soft, shin-conforming, strap mount 18. The securing strap 20 can be detachably or rigidly secured to the strap mount 18, but it is preferably rigidly secured toward at least one end 70a as best shown in FIG 2. Known structures for rigidly securing the strap to the mount include single or double stitching 60b, adhesives, or the like.

The strap is preferably formed with conventional durable, resilient shin strap materials, such as Nylon or the like, and has an adjustment structure 24 for allowing the strap to grasp and be detachably secured around a wearer's leg.

Several exemplar adjustment structures 24 are shown in figures 1-3, 5 and 6. In FIGS. 1-3, the strap 20 has a first end 70a and an opposite second end 70b. First end 70a is preferably rigidly secured to the shin-conforming strap mount 18 and a first sheet of hook and loop material 32 is positioned on the outer surface of the strap 20 toward the first end 70a as shown. A mating sheet of hook and loop material 32 is operably secured to the inside surface of the strap 20 toward the second end 70b. Accordingly, the strap may be wrapped around the wearer's leg 30 as shown in FIGS. 1 & 3 so that the two sheets of mating hook and loop material engage each other, thereby snuggly securing the strap in place.

Referring to FIG. 5, a conventional "D-Hook" strap arrangement can also be used as the adjustment structure 24. The strap 20 is rigidly secured to the strap mounting portion 18 toward its first end 70a. An opening 71 or D-Hook (non-shown) are secured to the strap mounting portion 18 as shown. Alternating mating sheets of hook and loop material 32 are positioned toward the second end 70b of the strap as shown. A wearer inserts the second end of the strap through the opening 71 or D-Hook (not shown) and folds the strap over itself so that the mating sheets of hook and loop material 32 operably engage each other, thereby snugly securing the strap around a wearer.

Referring to FIG. 6, a conventional dual overlapping strap arrangement can also be used as the adjustment structure 24. A left strap 20a and a right strap 20b are secured to the strap mount 18 toward their respective first ends 70a with known structures such as conventional single or double stitching 60b, or the like. The opposite second ends 70b each include mating sheets of hook and loop material 32 that operably engage each other when the straps 20a, 20b overlap each other around a wearer's leg.

Preferably, at least one mounting strap 22 is also operably secured toward the upper edge 40 of the shin guard 10, defining an upper strap 22. More preferably, this upper strap 22 is conventionally mounted with respect to the substantially rigid shell 14 so that a substantially horizontal plane 102 extending through the strap 22 along the longitudinal centerline of the strap 22 intersects the substantially rigid shell as shown in FIG. 3. In other to reduce undue repetition several alternative upper strap 22 structures are shown in FIGS. 1-3, and 5-6, with like elements being like numbered.

Alternatively, according to the invention and as best shown in FIG. 4, a strap mount 18' can extend from the resilient shin conform pad 16 above the substantially rigid shell 14 to thereby allow the substantially horizontal plane 108 to avoid intersecting the substantially rigid shell 14. Accordingly, the upper strap 22 cuffs the wearer's shin in substantially the same manner as with the lower mounted strap 20.

A wearer mounts the shin guard 10 by first positing the shin guard over their shins at the desired locations on their legs. He or she then wraps the straps 20, 22 around their legs and secures them using the adjustment structure 24 provided on each strap. It can be appreciated that since the strap mounting portion 18 is resilient and spaced away from the substantially rigid shell, the strap 20 can cuff completely around the wearer's leg, thereby improving comfort and fit while still holding the shin guard securely in place during use.

The wearer removes the shin guards 10 by reversing the installation process.

In view of the wide variety of embodiments to which the principles of the invention can be applied, it should be apparent that the detailed description of a preferred embodiment is illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. For example, the specific materials described and related property ranges for these materials are for illustrative purposes only. Similarly, the disclosed strap adjustment structures 24 are for illustrative purposes only. Accordingly, the claimed invention includes all such modifications as may come within the scope of the following claims.