Travel bag for garments

March 18, 1969

3,433,335

B. SPITZ

TRAVEL· BAG FOR GARMENTS

Filed Feb. 5, 1968

<img file="US3433335A_D0001.tif" />

United States Patent Office

3,433,335

Patented Mar. 18, 1969

433 335

TRAVEL BAG FOR GARMENTS

Bernard Spitz, New Rochelle, N.Y., assignor to The Henry Hanger &amp; Display Fixture Corporation of California, Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of California

Filed Feb. 5, 1968, Ser. No. 703,114

U.S. Cl. 190—43 11 Claims

Int. Cl. A45c 7/00,13/00; B65d 85/18

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A generally flat bag, with or without gussets, for hanger-supported garments foldable transversely to dispose the hanger end in an external pocket of the bag with the hanger hook extending through an opening in the base of the pocket to act as a handle.

Longitudinally zippered garment bags for carrying garments on a hanger are known. To facilitate carying, some of these bags are foldable transversely to dispose the bottom of the bag near the top. In some of these bags the entire hanger is supported within the bag on an internal bar with the bag having a separate carrying handle. Such a construction is expensive and often unsatisfactory, largely because the hanger tends to become unlocked from the bar during carrying. In addition, such a construction requires straps or other fastening means to hold the bottom and top ends of the bag in folded position. In other types of garment bags it has been proposed to extend the hook of the hanger through an opening at the top of the bag to act as a handle but again if the bag is folded transversely it has been necessary to use external fastening means such as straps to hold together the top and the bottom ends of the transversely folded bag.

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the need for separate external fastening means and to hold the top and bottom ends of a transversely folded travel bag together in a unique way. In this respect the invention provides a pocket on one face of the bag near the bottom with a receptive opening in the bottom of the pocket adapted to receive the hook or other protruding the support member of the hanger to act as a carrying handle. In this way the hanger, the shoulder portions of the garments supported thereby and the top portion of the bag itself are pushed into the open mouth of the pocket with the protruding support member of the hanger, hereinafter termed merely a hook for simplicity, extending through the receptive opening of the pocket as a handle for the folded bag.

A further object of the invention is to provide an external pocket on a travel bag, useful for the aforesaid purpose or optionally useful as a storage pocket for accessories or small items of clothing. It is often desirable to provide a zipper for such a pocket, making it useful for both purposes and insuring that the mouth of the pocket will be neatly closed when the pocket is not being used or when it contains such accessories or small items of clothing.

Another object is to form the pocket in such way as to assist in holding the bottoms of the garments against slipping in the bottom portion of the bag when the bag is folded and this bottom portion is tucked into the pocket.

Still further objects of the invention reside in the gusset means that are preferably used both at the base of the pocket and the top of the bag.

In the drawing, which illustrates preferred embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the unfolded bag with phantom lines showing the manner of folding;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the bottom of the bag taken along the line 2—2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the top of the unfolded bag; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the bag when folded; FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of the folded bag, taken along the line 5—5 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an alternative pocket construction.

The invention includes a generally flat garment bag 10 that is made of flexible sheet material such as waterproofed cloth or plastic. The bag includes front and rear panel members 11 and 12 with their edges affixed together throughout a major portion of the length of the bag, e.g., by a stitched binding tape 13 on each side of the bag. The bag has a closeable opening extending in a direction from top to bottom of the bag substantially throughout the height thereof, exemplified as an opening along the front panel 11 closed by a zipper 15. The opening may be otherwise closed and may be otherwise positioned with respect to the bag, e.g., along an edge thereof, so long as it gives access to the interior of the bag throughout a major portion of its length.

The top of the bag may be similarly closed by a stitched binding tape holding the top edges of the front and rear panel members together. However it is preferable to join the top edges of these panel members .11 and 12 by a gusset means that may be formed of a single conventional gusset member with an opening 18 at the top of the bag for reception of a hook 19 of a hanger 20 that is to support the garments within the bag. Preferably however the gusset means includes two gusset members 22 and 22a with bound edges 23 and 23α near the center of the bag that overlap slightly and that may be separated to form the opening 18. The gusset members 22, 22α have ends tapering to points at the sides of the bag. The binding tape 13 may be used to attach the gusset members to the rear panel member 12 and a similar binding tape 24 can connect these gussets to the front panel member 11.

No significant novelty is claimed per se for the bag as thus described. The garments are disposed on the hanger 20 in the usual way and the hanger-garment combination is then inserted into the bag before zippering the longitudinal opening. The garments are suggested generally by the numeral 25 of FIG. 5 and will normally hang to a position near the lower end of the bag.

The invention includes an external pocket 28 (FIG. 2) at the bottom of the bag exterior to one face thereof. This pocket should be of a size to receive the garment-supporting hanger and the surrounding top portion of the bag when the bag is folded. The pocket 28 is preferably formed by a flap 30 stitched to the rear panel member 12 at the sides and bottom of the flap. The flap has an upper lip 32, preferably reinforced by a binding tape 33, forming a mouth 34 for the pocket 28. The flap 30 should extend across one face of the bag, e.g., the rear panel member 12, from side to side thereof and should extend from the bottom of the bag to a position between such bottom and a transverse line short of the midsection of the bag so that the height of the pocket, measured longitudinally of the bag, is sufficient to receive the hanger 2» and the shoulder portions of the garments mounted thereon. Preferably the pocket is of a height of about the longitudinal length of the bag, measured when the bag is flat.

It is within the scope of the invention to sew the sides and the bottom of the flap 30 directly to the sides and bottom of the front and rear panel members 11 and 12, in which event the bottom of the pocket 28 will be of minimum thickness, measured perpendicularly to the rear panel 12. It is distinctly preferred however to provide a gusset means at the bottom of the flap 30 so that the pocket 28 will be of significant thickness at the bottom.

3,433,335

It is an important feature of the invention that the bottom of the pocket 28, however constructed, should include a receptive opening 36 (FIGS. 1 and 4) through which the hook 19 may be extended when the bag is folded.

In the preferred construction the pocket gusset is made of two gusset members 38 and 38α, preferably with -bound edges slightly overlapping near the bottom center of the bag with these edges being separable to form the receptive opening 36. Each gusset member is preferably of substantially uniform width throughout a major portion thereof near the center of the bag but provides ends 39 and 39α tapering to points at the sides of the -bag. In the preferred construction the sides and bottom of the front and rear panel members 11 and 12 are sewed together and to one side of the gusset members 38, 38α. In this connection the binding tape 13 can be continued from the sides of the bag across the bottom thereof, being used to join the panel members 11 and 12 to the gusset members 38, 38α in a manner suggested in FIG. 2. Another length of binding tape 40 will then -be used to join the gusset members to the bottom and sides of the flap 30.

The bottom edges of the panel members 11, 12 and the lower edge of the flap 30 are preferably rounded at the bottom corners of the bag with the gusset following the curve thereof. In addition, the thus-rounded shape of the lower end of the bag should correspond generally to the similarly-rounded shape of the bag at the top. A bag constructed as above will provide an internal garment space tapering to a minimum thickness in its bottom portion 42 (FIG. 2). At the same time the bottom portion of the pocket 28, indicated at 43 in FIG. 2, can expand to maximum thickness as there suggested.

The upper lip 32 of the flap 30, reinforced by its binding tape 33, extends tautly across the bag when the side panels are flat. The mouth 34 of the pocket 28 will thus be closed when the bag is flat or when garments are therein to separate the front and rear panels 11 and 12 as suggested in FIG. 2.

The mouth 34, formed between the upper lip 32 and the rear panel member 12, may be left open, as suggested in FIGS. 1-5. However in many instances it is desirable to use a zipper to close the pocket 28 at the mouth 34 thereof as suggested in FIG. 6. A zipper 46 may be used for this purpose, a preferably made in two sections 46α and 466 that open outwardly as suggested in FIG. 6. The pocket 28 may then be used for carrying accessories or small items of clothing when the pocket is not used for receiving a portion of the folded bag.

In use, the garment-filled bag is folded near its midsection and the hanger hook 19, now protruding through the top opening 18 of the bag, is forced into the pocket and through the receptive opening 36 at the bag bottom. At the same time the hanger 20 with the shoulder portions of the garments and the surrounding top portion of the bag is tucked into the pocket 28. The thus-folded bag is best shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The hook 19 will act as a handle for carrying the folded bag. The zipper 15 will be on the exterior of the folded bag with the embodiment of the invention shown.

With the bag folded as in FIG. 5, the lower portion of the garments will be in the bottom portion 42 of the garment space and will be laterally compressed therein by the tapered shape of the space suggested in FIGS. 2 and 5. The lowermost ends of the garments will then normally be above the lip 32 when the bag is folded as in FIG. 5. In a normal folded bag the lower portions of the garments will tend to slough in the bottom portion of the garment space when the bag is folded. Such sloughing is minimized by the invention because, first, the bottom portion of the garment space 42 is preferably tapered to compact the lower portions of the garments between the front and rear panel members 11 and 12 and, second, because the taut upper lip 32 of the flap tends to compress the upper portions of the garments in the upper portion of the garment space laterally against the lower portion of the garment in the space 42. When the top of the bag is tucked into the pocket 28 the upper lip 32 of the flap bows outward to a sufficient distance to accommodate the top of the bag. At the same time the lip 32 tends to compact the garments, both in the upper and lower portions of the garment space. Due to these actions, garments carried in the bag of the invention have less tendency to slough in the garment space than in conventional folded bags.

It will be apparent that the hook 19 has been exemplified merely as one form of protruding support member of a hanger. This support member may take other forms without departing from the spirit of the invention, in which event the opening 18 at the top of the bag and the receptive opening 36 at the bottom of the bag will be correspondingly shaped and sized to receive the support member. It will be apparent also that the invention has been described in its preferred embodiments and that various changes and modifications, apparent to those skilled in the art, can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.