This invention relates to sports garments and more exactly to football- or soccer socks. It comprises an ornamented transparent or colored overlay on the fabric, that allows some adhesion to the ball and therefore enhances ball control.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

When kicking a ball straightforward without exact positioning on the instep, exact direction control might be lost, since the lower shin is too slender to provide good horizontal control.

A similar problem occurs in American football, where the hitting area on the lower leg is wider due to the use of shin pads , but ball control is even more difficult due to oval and often jittering balls .

Trapping a fast rolling and partly springing ball on the green with the inner ankle might be as problematic in soccer, since the spin of the ball may provoke its springing over the instep.

PRIOR ART

There are quite a few propositions for to enhance soccer socks: The Belgian patent BE1015685A6 of 2003/0497 refers to soccer socks with cushions at critical points for to prevent injuries, with features for quick putting it on and off and particular ventilation holes for better comfort.

There is as well the idea of better ball control , but this is aspired only by cushioning the shin and ankle, which seems to be less targeting.

Quite similar to it is Taiwan utility patent TWM41830U, where a protector-type inlay with cushioning bars is mounted within the socks (as with the compulsory protectors for American football), the bars running along to the shin, so that the drawing shows some similarity to the here disclosed invention, without meeting its point.

Similar protecting ideas are disclosed in DE 19631121C2 and DE 7021442U, as well as US 4.692.946, which are meant for American Football and look rather like pieces of a medieval armor.

None of these aforegoing property rights or known solutions inherit the idea of a sticky surface for to enhance ball control SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The inventive step for these cases is to create some adhesion of the ball to the socks, thus to provide better ball control. This can be brought about by "rubberizing" some outside parts of the socks, particularly around the inner ankles and upon the instep.

This can most easily be done by disposing bands of latex rubber as natural rubber emulsion on the fabric and having it cured there, or to apply comparably adhesive polymeric dispersions, as silicon adhesives or single or two-component polyurethanes in softened formulations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION ON THE INVENTION ALONG TO THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 shows in a side view a springing football 1 , that would possibly not be controlled by the opti- mum instep point 2, but be hit with the lower leg 3 with its shin 4.

Fig. 2 demonstrates in a top view cut, how a soccer ball 1 , not perfectly hitting the shin 4 in its middle, would normally uncontrollably be deflected sidewards 5 as far as the hitting point 6 is away from the center 7 of the shin 4 and the latter not evenly formed.

Fig. 3 demonstrates the same situation with rubberized segments 8 on the socks: the forward movement of the lower leg 3 would transfer its momentum 9 more effectively to the ball 1 in case of a non- centric hit. Fig. refers to rubberized socks 8 worn over shin pads 10, which are compulsory in American football: Due to wider surface ball control with the lower leg 3 would be easier, however the hardly predictable movement of the oval ball gives little chance to hit it at a point, that would ensure straightforward movement. Therefore the rubberized elements 8 by their better adhesion could reduce jitter 11 and thus enhance ball control .

Fig 5 shows the typical situation in soccer, when a fast rolling and occasional springing ball 1 needs to be stopped with inside foot trapping. In this case the rubberized part, particularly around the foot ankle 12 stops further rotation and prevents he ball from being lifted over the instep.