Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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VENTILATED PORTABLE LOCKER FOR HOCKEY
OR OTHER SPORTS EQUIPMENT
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is the first application filed for the present
invention.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to bags for
sports equipment and, more particularly, to a ventilated
portable locker for carrying and drying sports equipment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
After a game or practice, particularly in sports
such as hockey or football, sweaty sports equipment is
typically packed into an equipment bag and carried home
or to a hotel or motel. As is well know, if damp
equipment is left in a sports bag, it not only dries
slowly but foul odors will accumulate due to mold, mildew
and bacteria. Although this problem is most acute in
sports such as hockey and football where bulky pads and
other equipment are packed tightly into a sports bag
after a game and practice, this problem arises in other
sports as well.
Accordingly, in order to dry equipment after a game
or practice, and in order to help dissipate foul smells,
damp sports equipment should be unpacked from the bag and
aired out. In sports such as hockey or football, where
the pads and equipment are both numerous and bulky, the
unpacking and spreading out of all the pads and equipment
can take quite a bit of time. Furthermore, sufficient
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space is needed to spread out all the equipment.
Typically, sports equipment is spread out in laundry
rooms, garages or basements, or placed on specially-
designed equipment racks. Once unpacked, the equipment
must be left for quite a long period of time to allow it
to dry from mere passive aeration. Therefore, this
traditional approach of unpacking and passive aeration
has been considered unsatisfactory as it takes too much
time and too much space and results in the undesirable
emanation of foul odors in a portion of a player's
dwelling.
Moreover, unpacking and passive aeration of
equipment is particularly inadequate when athletes travel
to tournaments and stay in cramped hotel or motel rooms,
often sharing rooms with family members or other players.
For traveling teams, where space and time are tight, the
drying out of equipment between games can be a
significant problem. Even when traveling home from a
game or practice, wet equipment will tend to emanate foul
odors which will impregnate the bag itself or even the
player's vehicle, for example, where the journey home is
long or where the player stops for a drink or food after
the game.
In order to facilitate drying and airing out of
sports equipment, some sports bags are provided with
meshed vents to passively exchange air with the
environment and thus to passively exhaust bad odors from
the bag. However, passive aeration is very slow,
particularly where wet pads are tightly packed in the
bag. Where games or practices are closely scheduled, the
equipment seldom has enough time to properly dry out, and
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thus players end up having to put on damp equipment, an
experience which is universally regarded as unpleasant.
In recent years, some sports bag designs have
attempted to address this problem by providing active
ventilation coupled with air fresheners. For example,
Canadian Patent Application 2,295,511 entitled Clothes
Dryer Garment Bag disclosed a sports bag with an air
distribution manifold in the base of the bag and an
externally connected blower fan which blows air into the
bag via a hose connected to an inlet mounted in the front
panel of the bag. Air therefore flows from the blower
through the hose, through the manifold and into the bag,
thus driving stale air out of the bag through air
filters. However, this apparatus appears to be unduly
costly to manufacture and unnecessarily complicated to
operate. The apparatus would be expensive to manufacture
due to the fairly complex structure of the air
distributor manifold in the base of the bag, not to
mention the hose connector and the stand-alone blower.
Furthermore, the separation of the blower and bag makes
the apparatus a bit unwieldy to carry around because not
only must the player carry the bag itself but he or she
must also transport the hose and blower. Also, in
operation, the apparatus occupies a large footprint since
the blower and hose extend away from the bag as shown in
the published patent application.
Another example of a forced-ventilation sports
equipment bag is found in Canadian Patent Application
2,412,700 entitled Drying Bag for Sports Equipment and
the Like. This published application discloses a sports
equipment bag with a blower fan mounted in an air flow
opening in one of the side walls of the bag for blowing
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air into the bag to drive air out the bag through a
screened outlet. Since the fan is mounted in a side wall
and since there is only a single outlet, the bag cannot
be placed arbitrarily. Rather, the bag must be placed
such that both the fan and the screened outlet are
unobstructed. Therefore, the design of the bag unduly
limits the orientation and location in which the bag can
be set up.
The prior-art designs are therefore suboptimal for
the reasons articulated above. A simpler, easier-to-use
and more versatile equipment bag would therefore be
highly desirable.
SiJMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide
an improved ventilated equipment bag, equipment case or
portable locker for storing, carrying and drying sports
equipment. The portable locker (or bag or case) has a
container structure that defines an enclosure for
containing, storing and drying sports equipment. The
portable locker has a ventilation fan mounted in a top
portion of the container structure. The fan draws in air
and forces stale and malodorous air to exhaust through at
least one filtered outlet, which are preferably charcoal
filters located on side panels, a bottom panel and a rear
panel of the locker. The portable locker also includes a
door, closeable opening or other such access through
which equipment can be inserted into or retrieved from
the portable locker. Preferably, the door or closeable
opening is a zippered fabric panel that closes to
substantially contain any odors emanating from the sports
equipment. Preferably, the portable locker defines a
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box-like container having a substantially flat top panel
into which the fan is securely mounted. In a preferred
embodiment, the portable locker has hooks and mesh
pockets for holding various pieces of sports equipment to
facilitate drying of the equipment after use. The
portable locker therefore provides a versatile and
simple-to-use apparatus for storing, carrying and drying
hockey equipment, football equipment or any other sports
equipment that is damp and sweaty after a game or
practice.
In accordance with one aspect of the present
invention, a portable equipment locker for storing,
carrying and drying sports equipment includes a container
structure for containing the sports equipment within the
portable equipment locker; a door in the container
structure movable between an open position, in which
sports equipment can be inserted or retrieved, and a
closed position, in which the door cooperates with the
container structure to substantially fully enclose the
sports equipment within the portable equipment locker;
and a ventilation fan mounted in a top portion of the
container structure for drawing fresh air into the
portable locker and for forcing stale air from the
portable locker to exhaust through at least one filtered
air outlet.
In one embodiment, the portable equipment locker
further includes a pair of hanging straps extending
upwards from the top portion of the container structure
to enable the locker to be suspended, the hanging straps
being disposed on opposite sides of the ventilation fan.
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In another embodiment, the portable equipment locker
further includes filtered outlets in a bottom panel of
the container structure, in side panels of the container
structure and in a back panel of the container structure,
the filters being capable of purifying the air exhausting
from the container structure.
In accordance with another aspect of the present
invention, a ventilated sports bag for carrying and
storing sports equipment includes an air inlet disposed
on a top portion of the bag; at least one filtered air
outlet; and a detachable ventilation fan removably
connected to the air inlet for drawing air into the bag
and for forcing stale air to exhaust from the bag through
the at least one filtered air outlet.
In one embodiment, the bag air outlets each include
an air-purifying charcoal filter.
In another embodiment, the bag includes filtered
outlets on side panels, a back panel and a bottom panel
of the bag.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present
invention, a ventilated footwear bag for carrying,
storing and drying footwear after use includes a
ventilated compartment having at least one footwear
attachment for detachably receiving footwear; and a
mounting port on the bag for detachably connecting a fan
for drawing air into the bag and for forcing air out of
the bag through at least one filtered outlet in the bag.
The footwear could include shoes, skates, sandals, boots
or other athletic footwear.
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In one embodiment, the fan is mounted on the rear
panel of the bag.
In another embodiment, a third ventilated
compartment is provided for storing and drying an article
of clothing.
In yet another embodiment, the mounting port
comprises a VelcroTM strip for removably securing the
detachable fan to the bag.
Other features and advantages of the present
invention will be better understood with reference to the
preferred embodiment described hereinafter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Having thus generally described the nature of the
present invention, reference will now be made to the
accompanying drawings by way of illustration showing a
preferred embodiment, in which:
FIG. 1 is an isometric perspective view of a
ventilated portable locker in accordance with an
embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the ventilated
portable locker shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the ventilated portable
locker shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is an isometric perspective view of the
preferred embodiment of the ventilated portable locker
shown with hanging straps disposed on a top panel of the
portable locker;
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FIG. 5 is a an isometric perspective view of the
ventilated portable locker of FIG. 4 after it has been
folded up for carrying sports equipment in a compact
travel mode;
FIG. 6 is an isometric perspective view of a
ventilated sport bag with a detachable fan in accordance
with another embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a front elevation view of a method of
detachably connecting the detachable fan to a front panel
of the bag of FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 is a side cutaway view of a ventilated
footwear bag in accordance with another embodiment of the
present invention;
FIG. 9 is a front cutaway view of the ventilated
footwear bag of FIG. 8, showing a pair of shoes retained
within the bag by upper and lower harnesses;
FIG. 10 is a rear elevation view of the ventilated
footwear bag of FIG. 8, showing the upper and lower
harnesses in stippled lines; and
FIG. 11 is a side elevation view of the ventilated
footwear bag of FIG. 8, showing the bag in an open,
unzipped position.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
FIGS. 1 to 3 illustrate a ventilated portable locker
in accordance with an embodiment of the present
invention. For the purposes of this specification, the
portable locker shall also be referred to synonymously as
a sports bag, equipment bag or as a forced-ventilation
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carrying case. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the portable
locker, which is generally designated by reference
numeral 10, has a container structure 12 that is
preferably box-shaped. In other words, the portable
locker preferably includes a pair of opposed side walls
or side panels 14, a back panel 16, and a zippered door
18 having a zipper 20 that zips closed to define a front
panel. The portable locker 10 also preferably includes a
bottom panel 22 and a top panel 24. The side panels,
back panel, door, bottom panel and top panel cooperate to
define a generally rectangular container structure 12
which in turn defines an enclosure 26 which is a
generally rectangular volume as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3.
After a game or practice, damp sports equipment can be
stored, carried and dried within the enclosure 26 as will
be described below. While the illustrated shape of the
container structure of the portable locker represents the
best mode known to the Applicant, the container structure
could have a variety of different shapes, for example
that of a typical hockey bag in which case the "panels"
referred to above would refer to front, back, side, top
and bottom "portions" of the bag.
As further illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, the top
panel 24 includes an air inlet 28 and a ventilation fan
30 mounted in fluid communication with the air inlet to
draw air into the container structure of the portable
locker. The ventilation fan 30 is electrically powered
and includes a standard power cord (not shown) for
plugging the fan into a an electric wall outlet.
The panels of the portable locker are preferably
made of a nylon fabric which will tend to inflate
slightly, ("puff up") under a positive pressure from the
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fan, which will consequently force stale and malodorous
air to exhaust through at least one filtered air outlet
32.
Preferably, as best shown in FIG. 1, the portable
locker 10 also includes a plurality of filtered air
outlets 32. In the preferred embodiment, the air outlets
are equipped with charcoal filters for purifying the air
as it exhausts from the portable locker.
FIG. 4 is an isometric perspective view of the
preferred embodiment of the ventilated portable locker
shown with hanging straps 40 disposed on a top panel 34
of the portable locker 10. The hanging straps 40 enable
the portable locker to be suspended from a hook in a
locker, for example. The hanging straps 40 can be made
of nylon with adjustable lengths. As will be appreciated
by those of ordinary skill in the art, the position of
the straps on the top panel can be varied.
Alternatively, the straps can be connected to the sides
of the portable locker rather than to the top panel.
FIG. 5 is a an isometric perspective view of the
ventilated portable locker of FIG. 4 after it has been
folded up for carrying sports equipment in a compact
travel mode. The hanging straps 40 wrap around the
folded locker to form a traveling case that is compact
and easy to carry. Additional handles can be provided on
the case to facilitate carrying.
As a further variant, the portable locker could
further include a timer to automatically shut off the
ventilation fan after a given period of time in order to
save energy. The timer could allow a user to select a
one of number of predetermined drying cycles.
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As a further variant, the portable locker could
further include a heater to accelerate drying of the
sports equipment, as hot dry air is better able to absorb
moisture. However, as will be appreciated by those of
ordinary skill in the art, some sports equipment will
degrade over time if exposed to excessive heating and
cooling cycles so the heater should not overheat the
equipment.
In yet a further variant, the portable locker could
also include a small control panel integrally mounted on
the locker for allowing a user to easily control the
optional timer and the optional heater.
In a further refinement, the portable locker can
include one or more air fresheners for scenting the air
within the locker. Alternatively, specially dimensioned
mesh pockets can be provided to receive replaceable air
fresheners which can be replaced periodically when their
scent is depleted.
FIG. 6 is an isometric perspective view of a
traveling bag with a detachable fan unit in accordance
with another embodiment of the present invention. As
shown in FIG. 6, the traveling bag is a ventilated sports
equipment bag 50 having opposed top and bottom panels 52,
opposed front and rear panels 54, and opposed side panels
56. A zipper 58 is disposed along the length of the top
panel 52 to open and close the bag. A pair of handles 60
are disposed on the bag to facilitate carrying of the
bag. At least one filtered air outlet 62 is provided in
one or more of the panels of the bag. In FIG. 6, for
simplicity of illustration, only a single filtered outlet
62 is shown in side panel 56, but it should be expressly
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understood that any number of such outlets can be
provided in various panels of the bag. Preferably, a
plurality of filtered outlets 62 are provided in various
panels of the bag to provide optimal ventilation.
As further illustrated in FIG. 6, the ventilated
sports bag 50 also includes a mounting port 64 formed in
a panel of the bag, in this example the front panel 54.
The mounting port 64 preferably includes a filter 66.
The mounting port is designed to receive a detachable fan
70 which can be removably (i.e. temporarily) connected to
the bag in order to perform a forced ventilation of the
bag. The detachable fan 70 has an electrical cable and
plug 72 that can be plugged into a standard electrical
wall outlet.
FIG. 7 shows a preferable method of connecting the
detachable fan to the sports bag. FIG. 7 is a front view
of the front panel 54 of the sports bag 50. The
detachable fan 50 can be connected to the sports bag 50
via a VelcroTM strip 68 which wraps and unwraps around the
top of the fan 70. The VelcroTM strip attached to a
cradle portion 65 of the mounting port 64. The cradle
portion supports the fan against the front panel 54. In
this figure, a fan with a square body is shown rather
than a fan with a cylindrical body (as was shown in FIG.
6) to underscore that any number of differently sized and
shaped fans can be used with the present invention.
FIGS. 8 to 11 illustrate a ventilated footwear bag
in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present
invention. The ventilated footwear bag, generally
designated by reference numeral 80, is designed for
carrying, storing and drying footwear after use,
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particularly after athletic use or other non-athletic
physical exertion. In different variants, the ventilated
footwear bag 80 can be sized and shaped to store and dry
any pair of footwear for either an adult or a child, such
as but not limited to: running shoes (including jogging
shoes, basketball shoes, cross-trainers, etc.); cleated
shoes such as soccer cleats, golf shoes, baseball and
software cleats; ice skates including hockey skates for
players and goalies, figure skates as well as in-line
skates or roller skates; downhill or cross-country ski
boots and snowboard boots; hiking boots, construction
boots, work boots, etc. For greater certainty, it should
be expressly understood that the ventilated footwear bag
of the present invention can be dimensionally adapted to
be used with any other type of footwear not explicitly
mentioned in the preceding sentence.
As shown in FIGS. 8 to 11, the ventilated footwear
bag 80 includes a bag enclosure defining a ventilated
compartment 82 for receiving footwear 84, e.g. a single
adult-sized (or child-sized) pair of shoes, skates or
boots. In the preferred embodiment of the ventilated
footwear bag, the bag is dimensioned to accommodate a
single pair of either adult-sized or child-sized
footwear. In a variant, the bag can be sized to receive
two or more pairs of footwear. For example, the bag
could be designed to house two pairs of shoes (or skates)
for a couple or for a parent and child.
As shown in FIGS. 8 to 11, the ventilated footwear
bag 80 includes a mounting port 86 disposed on the bag
for detachably connecting a fan 88 for drawing air into
the bag and for forcing air out of the bag through at
least one vent or filtered outlet 90 in the bag. The fan
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is preferably electrically powered and includes a power
cord 92 that connects into a standard electrical outlet.
In another variant, the device can include a rechargeable
battery to provide a temporary energy source while the
bag is being transported home. The fan can include an
optional heater and/or a timer to optimize drying and/or
energy savings.
As shown in FIGS. 8 to 11, the ventilated footwear
bag 80 includes at least one footwear attachment for
detachably receiving the footwear within the bag. In the
preferred embodiment of the ventilated footwear bag,
there are two footwear attachments, namely an upper
harness 94 and a lower harness 96 which can be used to
detachably secure the footwear to interior surfaces of
the bag. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the harnesses are
preferably affixed to interior surfaces of the side
panels of the bag. The footwear is preferably secured in
an inclined position as shown in FIG. 8 in order to
optimize drying of the footwear, i.e. to optimize the
orientation and location of the footwear relative to the
fan. The upper and lower harnesses can include VelcoTM
straps, belts, buckles or any other known means for
flexibly restraining shoes, skates or boots without
unduly deforming them. The harnesses can be made of
nylon, leather or other known materials that flexibly
conform to the shape of the footwear when attached.
Preferably, the upper and lower harnesses each include a
length adjustment mechanism for adjusting the length of
the straps to accommodate footwear of varying sizes and
shapes.
As shown in FIGS. 8 and 11, the ventilated footwear
bag includes a zipper 98 that unzips to provide access to
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the interior of the bag and then zips to provide a
substantially airtight or hermetic enclosure for the
footwear to be dried. FIG. 8 shows the bag in the
closed, or "zipped", position while FIG. 11 shows the bag
in the open, or "unzipped" position. As will be
appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, while
the zipper position shown in the figures represents the
preferred position in order to optimize access and
minimize interference, the zipper can also be relocated
to another position. Similarly, the zipper could be
replaced with other closure means such as VelcroTM
The ventilated footwear bag can also be constructed
either as a true bag with floppy panels or it can be
constructed with rigid panels in the form of a portable
locker, such as described above with reference to the
first embodiment. In other words, the ventilated
footwear bag can be designed and constructed as a
portable shoe locker" or "portable skate locker". In
any of the embodiments, the ventilated footwear bag
preferably includes at least handle 100. As shown in
FIGS. 8-11, the handle 100 is preferably extends upwardly
from the top surface of the top panel. More preferably,
the handle is centrally disposed on the top panel such
that it straddles the filtered outlet on the top panel.
The handle can, of course, be located elsewhere.
Alternatively, two or more handles or carrying straps can
be symmetrically affixed to sides of the bag. In another
variant, the bag/portable locker 80 can also have a
telescopically retractable handle and two or more wheels,
rollers or casters on an underside thereof, as are found
on some suitcases in order to facilitate transport of the
bag. As will be readily appreciated by those of ordinary
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skill in the art, any number, type and configuration of
externally mounted pouches or clip-on accessories, e.g. a
clip-on water bottle, can be readily added to the bag as
accessories or add-ons. For example, a glove holder 102
having a VelcroTM strap or other holding means can be
connected to an upper front face of the bag.
Modifications and improvements to the
above-described embodiments of the present invention may
become apparent to those skilled in the art. The
foregoing description is intended to be exemplary rather
than limiting. The scope of the present invention is
therefore intended to be limited solely by the scope of
the appended claims.
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