PROTECTIVE SPORTS EYEWEAR
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to protective eyewear that can be worn in various sports activities, but it is particularly suitable for endurance activities generally practiced in warm weather conditions and that require good eye protection, such as trail and allmountain mountain biking.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
Different configurations of protective eyewear have been developed to protect wearers during different sports activities, to provide adequate protection against impact from objects, against extreme temperatures, against ingress of water or dirt - as the case may be.
Some of the most comprehensively protective forms of eyewear for sports are in the form of "goggles" which comprise frames that are held tightly against the wearers' faces by elastic straps and that extend wide around the wearers' eyes. Such a frame typically houses a large lens extending across the wearer's face in front of the eyes, allowing a wide field of vision, while providing comprehensive protection for the part of the wearer's face that is covered by the goggles - particularly the eyes. Examples of goggles of these kinds, include conventional ski goggles, motocross goggles, and the like.
Other forms of protective eyewear for sports are more suitable when participating in sports with some risk of eye injury, but in which it is not necessary to provide the comprehensive protection provided by goggles to protect it against extreme airborne elements such as rain or mud. Protective sports eyewear for these sports tends to be of configurations referred to as "glasses" and resemble spectacles, with frames that rest on the wearers’ nose bridges and are held in place by arms (referred to as "temples") extending above the wearers' ears. Sports glasses of these configurations typically include one or two lenses supported on the frame, that are much smaller than the lenses of goggles as described above.
Sports glasses are usually not as firmly held in place on the wearer’s face as goggles, because they rely on the grip of the temples behind the wearer’s ears and friction on the wearer’s nose, to hold them in position. Sports glasses are sometimes spaced farther away from the wearer’s faces, but they tend to be in direct contact with the wearer’s nose, usually close to the wearer’s brow and often close to the wearer’s cheeks. Accordingly, sports glasses are often not suitable for activities with substantial risk of eye injury, because they do not to fit securely enough, they provide inadequate eye protection, and/or they allow too little ventilation. Sports glasses are typically only intended to protect the wearers’ eyes and impacts received on sports glasses are transferred to the wearers’ noses, brows and ears (where the glasses are supported), without any mitigation of the impact, so that the wearers are often injured in these areas.
When a person participates in an activity such as trail mountain biking or all-mountain riding, in which there is a risk of eye injury and the person prefers more comprehensive protection than what sports glasses provide, it is possible to use goggles, but goggles are ill suited for activities in which participants get hot and that are associated with high rates of perspiration, because goggles tend to keep the wearer's face even warmer than it would be from exertion. As a result goggles can be uncomfortable, can fog up and tend to trap perspiration.
The present invention seeks to provide protective sports eyewear with comprehensive protection, but that is more comfortable to wear in circumstances as described above, like trail riding or all-mountain riding.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention there is provided an article of protective eyewear comprising: a frame that is configured to extend across a face of a wearer, at least between a left lateral region and a right lateral region of the wearer's face, when the article of protective eyewear is worn by the wearer, the left lateral region being in a region of a left temple of the wearer, laterally and posterior of a left eye of the wearer, and the right lateral region being in a region of a right temple of the wearer, laterally and posterior of a right eye of the wearer, the frame being configured to support at least one lens that extends anterior of the wearer's left and right eyes, when the article of protective eyewear is worn by the user; a strap that extends between a left lateral part of the frame and a right lateral part of the frame, the strap being configured to extend around the back of the wearer's head and to pull the frame in a posterior direction, onto the wearer's face; at least one pad that is configured to extend above the wearer’s eyes, between the left and right lateral regions, in contact with the wearer’s face; and a plurality of spacers that extend posteriorly from the frame, the spacers being configured to extend towards the wearer's face and to space the frame away from the wearer's face, at least some of the spacers extending between the frame and the pad; wherein at least two bottom vent passages are defined between the lens and cheeks of the wearer; wherein at least one top vent passage is defined between the spacers and between the frame and the pad; and wherein the bottom vent passages and top vent passage are completely open and free from air flow impediments to provide open, continuous air flow passages in open flow communication with a cavity formed between the lens and the wearer’s face.
The pad may comprise at least partly of compressible material and/or absorptive material and may extend along posterior surfaces of at least some of the spacers.
The article of protective eyewear may include a nose rest that extends from a bottom region of the frame and is configured to rest on a nose of the wearer, wherein the bottom vent passages are defined on either side of said nose rest.
The pad may extend lower than the wearer’s eyes, said pad being configured be clear of each bottom vent passage.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show how it may be carried into effect, the invention will now be described by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a front three-dimensional view of part of a first embodiment of an article of protective eyewear according to the present invention;
Figure 2 shows a top three-dimensional view of a second embodiment of an article of protective eyewear according to the present invention;
Figure 3 shows a top, rear, three-dimensional view of a frame and padding of the article of protective eyewear of Figure 2;
Figure 4 shows a bottom, rear, three-dimensional view of the frame and padding of the article of protective eyewear of Figure 2; and
Figure 5 shows a front three-dimensional view of the padding of the article of protective eyewear of Figure 2.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Referring to Figure 1 , part of an article of protective eyewear in the form of goggles according to the present invention, is shown and it includes a frame 10 that is generally shaped and dimensioned similarly to a frame for sports goggles. Like in the case of conventional sports goggles, the frame 10 is shaped to extend across a wearer's face and cover at least the area between a left lateral region and a right lateral region of the wearer's face, and the frame is dimensioned to extend widely around the wearer's eyes to minimise obstructing the wearer's field of vision. The frame 10 defines a large aperture or window 12 into which a lens (not shown in Figure 1 ) can be fitted, to extend in front of the wearer's eyes, i.e. anterior of the wearer's eyes. The goggles includes parts that are attached to the frame 10 and that typically moulded with the frame to form a unitary body, but for the sake of clarity, the word “frame” is used herein to refer to the part of the goggles that extends at least partly, but preferably completely around the periphery of the window 12 and the lens.
At a left lateral part of the frame 10, a left strap loop 14 is provided and similarly, a right strap loop 16 is provided at a right lateral part of the frame. A strap (not shown in Figure 1 ) is attachable to each of the left and right strap loops 14,16 and can stretch and/or be adjusted to extend around the back of the wearer's head with sufficient tension to pull the frame in a posterior direction (rearwards) onto the wearer's face.
Two spacers are provided that each extend rearwards or posteriorly from the frame 10 and these spacers include a left spacer 18 that is disposed inwardly of the left strap loop 14, thus on a part of the frame that is adjacent to the left lateral region, and a right spacer 20 that is spaced inwardly of the right strap loop 16, thus on a part of the frame that is adjacent to the right lateral region. Each of the spacers 18,20 is configured to extend between the frame 10 and the wearer's face and to space the frame forward or anteriorly away from the wearer's face.
In other embodiments of the invention, spacers could have other configurations with differently shaped elements that extend from the rear of the frame 10, but the spacers 18,20 in the illustrated embodiment each include light web formations 22 that extend rearward (posteriorly) from the frame and flange formations 24 that define rest surfaces that can rest comfortably against the wearer's face in the left and right lateral regions.
A pad 26 is provided at the back (posterior) of the goggles, to extend above the wearer's eyes, between the left and right lateral regions - i.e. typically along the wearer's forehead just above the brow. The pad 26 is configured to rest lightly in contact with the wearer's skin and is preferably made of softy compressible material that is preferably also absorptive. The pad 26 preferably also extends along posterior (rear) surfaces of the spacers 18,20 so that the spacers hold the pad in place with sufficient tension between the spacers, but also so that the pad can provide comfort where the flanges 24 rest against the wearer's face.
The pad 26 is preferably crescent-shaped, with a horizontal part extending above the wearer's eyes and with lateral parts that extend downwards, but the pad terminates at these lateral parts, at the lower end of each spacer 18,20, and the pad 26 terminates at locations that are lower than the wearer’s eyes, but does not extend underneath the wearer’s eyes - i.e. the pad does not extend across the wearer’s cheekbones.
A nose rest 28 is provided on the frame 10 and is centrally disposed at the bottom of the frame so that it can rest on the wearer’s nose, in similar fashion to conventional sports goggles. The nose rest 28 could include padding at its rear (posterior) surfaces and the padding could be of similar material as the pad 26, to improve comfort.
The spacing of the top part of the frame 10 away from the wearer's face, provides a top vent passage 30 between the spacers 18,20 and between the frame and the wearer's forehead and the pad 26 extends rearwards (posterior) of the top vent passage. The top vent passage 30 is thus between the spacers 18,20 and between the frame 10 and the pad 16 and is preferably completely open and free from obstructions or air flow impediments.
Similarly, two bottom vent passages 32 are defined between the frame 10 and the wearer's face, on either side of the nose rest 28, below each eye of the wearer, with the frame spaced from the wearer's cheeks in the region of the wearer’s cheekbones to form each bottom vent passage. The pad 26 is configured to be clear of each of the bottom vent passages 32, i.e. the pad does not extend across or protrude into the bottom vent passages. Like the top vent passage 30, each of the bottom vent passages 32 are preferably completely open and are free from obstructions or air flow impediments.
The open top and bottom vent passages 30,32 provide an open, continuous air flow passage from below the goggles, along the bottom vent passages 32 and along the top vent passage 30, to above the goggles and as shown by the arrow 34 air can easily flow upwards along the bottom vent passages 32, generally in front of the wearer’s cheeks, into the cavity inside the goggles, i.e. into the space between the goggles’ lens and the wearer’s face. The air can also flow continuously, as shown by the arrow 34, towards the upper vent passage 30 and exit the cavity. Accordingly, the cavity inside the goggles of the present invention is allowed to ventilate, unlike conventional sports goggles, by virtue of the spacers 18,20, which spaces the frame 10 anteriorly from the wearer’s face.
The pad 26 resting against the wearer’s forehead or brow serves to absorb, obstruct and/or redirect perspiration running down the wearer’s head, and reduces the likelihood that the perspiration would flow into the wearer’s eyes. However, perspiration generated in the cavity behind the goggles (i.e. in the cavity between the lens and the wearer’s face) or which may have entered the cavity behind the goggles, is allowed to drain freely via the bottom vent passages 32.
The padding 26 absorbs light impacts that the frame 10 may receive in use, e.g. impact from small branches or stones hitting the goggles, to reduce the likelihood that these impacts would be transferred to the wearer’s face and cause injury - as sports glasses would be prone to do.
The goggles according to the present invention provide comprehensive protection to injury - similar to the protection offered by conventional sports goggles and better than the protection provided by sports glasses. At the same time, goggles according to the present invention remain in place more securely than sports glasses and provides better comfort to the wearer, allowing the wearer's face to remain cool and ventilated, preventing perspiration from running into the wearer's eyes, and allowing perspiration to escape from the cavity between the lens and the wearer's face.
Referring to Figures 2 to 5, a second embodiment of goggles according to the invention is shown and it shares several similarities with the goggles shown in Figure 1 , so the same reference signs are used to identify features that are common between the two embodiments.
The second embodiment of goggles shown in Figures 2 to 5 includes a frame 10 that defines a window, but the lens that fits in the window is shown in Figure 2 and is identified by reference sign 13. Similarly, the frame 10 includes strap loops, but the strap is shown in Figure 2 and is identified by reference sign 15.
The main difference between the goggles shown in Figures 1 and in Figures 2 to 5 lies in the configuration of the spacers and flange 24, because the web formations 22 in the second embodiment are smaller and are supplemented by narrow spacers 21 that are disposed between the left and right spacers 18,20. Further, the flanges 24 of the left and right spacers are joined at the top of the goggles and extends along the pad 26 and in Figures 2 to 5 reference sign 24 is used to identify a continuous flange that extends from the left spacer 18 to the right spacer 20 along the front (anterior) of the pad 26. However even though the flanges 24 and spacers 18,20,21 are configured differently, the goggles shown in Figure 2 still provides a top vent passage 30 that extends between the spacers and that is completely open and free from obstructions or air flow impediments. The pad 26 of the second embodiment is shaped similarly to the pad of the first embodiment, shown in Figure 1 , and is shown more clearly in Figures 3 to 5 - including gaps 36 between the pad 26 and a nose pad 38 of similar material, that is attached to the posterior of the nose rest 28 to provide comfort where the goggles rests on the wearer’s nose. The gaps 36 between the pad 26 and nose pad 38 coincides with the bottom vent passages 32, that allow ventilation and cooling, inhibit perspiration and allow drainage of excess perspiration, as described in more detail above with reference to Figure 1 .
The narrow spacers 21 between the upper part of the frame, that is typically positioned on the wearer’s forehead, just above the brows, provides support between the flange 24 and the frame 10. The frame 10 is pulled rearward (posterior) by the strap 15 and can occasionally experience impact loads. These loads are transferred from the goggles to the wearer’s face via the flange 24 and pads 26,28. The large pad 26 that is not only provided in the lateral, temple regions, but extends across the wearer’s forehead and that can receive loads from the frame 10 via the spacers 21 , allows the posterior loads from the frame to be distributed over a larger area between the pad 26 and the wearer’s face. The large area for transferring these loads via the large pad 26 improves comfort while wearing the goggles during normal use and when the frame receives impacts.
In the illustrated embodiments of the invention (in Figures 1 to 5), the strap loops 14, 16, spacers 18,20, web formations 22, flange 24 and nose rest 28 are integrally moulded with the frame 10 in a unitary body, but in other embodiments of the invention, a similar body can be formed by attaching some of these features together