FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to high-visibility clothing suitable for use as personal protective equipment. More particularly but not exclusively the present invention relates to a high visibility garment comprising material adapted to provide compressive force.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

High-visibility clothing is often used to enhance personal safety in many activities and situations. In many jurisdictions use of high-visibility clothing of various types and standards is required by laws and/or regulations for particular occupational activities. Commonly, these occupational activities include working with or near heavy machinery or near vehicle traffic, such as construction or road work.

High-visibility clothing generally incorporates bright, high-contrast colours such as orange or yellow, and retroreflective strips. The clothing is usually loose fitting vests, shirts or overalls and made from synthetic fabrics such as polyester.

While the prior art garments increase the visibility of the wearer, they are often uncomfortable, and provide the wearer with little support, or other assistance in performing occupational tasks.

The high-visibility garment of the present invention aims to overcome at least some of the short-comings of the prior art. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide a high-visibility garment suitable for use as personal protection equipment that can provide a compressive force to at least one muscle of the wearer and/or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The high-visibility garment of the present invention is an improvement to prior art high-visibility clothing, and provides the benefits of compressive sportswear to personal protective equipment.

The high-visibility clothing generally comprises a high-visibility garment suitable for use as personal protective equipment, comprising material adapted to provide compressive force from the garment when in use to one or more muscles of a user wearing said garment.

Preferably the garment is substantially coloured with fluorescent pigment.

More preferably, the high-visibility garment further comprises one or more reflective areas.

Preferably the reflective areas are retroreflective areas.

More preferably a first portion of said garment comprises material adapted to provide compressive force from the garment when in use to one or more muscles of a user wearing said garment, and a second portion of said garment provides substantially no compressive force from the garment when in use. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Preferred forms of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures in which:

Figure 1 shows a high-visibility garment of the invention in the form of a top;

Figure 2 shows a high-visibility garment of the invention in the form of trousers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In reference to the figures, the preferred embodiments of the invention will be illustrated by way of non-limiting example.

Although it is anticipated that the general invention as described has other uses, the preferred use of the invention is a high-visibility garment.

When used herein, high-visibility clothing refers to personal protective equipment that includes colours or reflective means that increase the visibility of the wearer for safety purposes. A high-visibility garment is an article of high- visibility clothing.

The high-visibility garment of the present invention comprises material adapted to provide compressive force from the garment to be applied to one or more muscles of the garment wearer's, body. This allows the high-visibility garment to provide the same benefits as compression sportswear, while also providing enhanced visibility of the wearer. Many occupational activities that require safety equipment, such as high-visibility clothing, are also physically demanding in many ways similar to the demands of physical exercise and sports.

Occupational activities may include constant movement, repetitive movement, physical strain or exertion, and exposure to elements such as varying temperature and humidity, sunlight and rain. Compression garments have been designed to ameliorate the effects of many of these activities. The benefits include:

Thermoregulation ^' - by removing moisture from the surface of the skin using moisture wicking fabrics in conjunction with a tight fitting garment, the body temperature control can be improved. In hot conditions this can allow the body's cooling mechanism to work more effectively, and in cold conditions that prevent excessive cooling resulting from wearing wet clothing.

Reduced muscle oscillation - the prevention of micro damage to muscle tissue caused by shaking on impact. The compression garment, by supporting muscles of the body, can help prevent tears occurring in the muscles, which cause pain during activity and afterwards.

Increased circulation - the tight-fitting compressive nature of the garment can aid in blood flow around the body. Similarly to the benefits of flight socks, the compression on the muscles provides extra force to the blood supply in recirculating blood through the body. This can allow the muscles to have faster access to nutrients and energy supply, and removes waste products from the muscles faster. This can allow for better performance during activity and faster recovery time after activity.

Increased proprioception - the tight-fitting nature of the garment can aid in relaying to the brain the relative positions of parts of the body. This can aid in performance and reduce chances of injury. Risk of accidental injury from working around machinery may be reduced if the wearer is more aware of the position of parts of the body.

Increased muscle power output — the elastic nature of the garments can provide extra force to certain movements, resulting in extra power output, or slightly lessening the required exertion of the muscles.

Protection - the potential of the garment to cover large areas of the body can help prevent damage to the skin, such as from exposure to UV from sunlight, or cuts or abrasions to skin that would otherwise be exposed. The tight-fitting nature of the garment may also help prevent accidental injury that may result from loose fitting clothes being caught in machinery. The high-visibility garment of the present invention may be suitable for any user that may benefit from compression garments and/or may require high-visibility. Such users include but are not limited to construction workers, builders, delivery workers, couriers, road workers, maintenance workers, cleaners, traffic wardens, parking wardens, security guards, airport workers, police, ambulance staff, gardeners, coast guard and military personnel.

The various designs and configurations of compression clothing known to those skilled in the art are applicable to the high-visibility clothing of the present invention. The areas of compression and directions of forces applied can be varied for different muscles, in relation to different activities and needs. It is envisaged that a range of different styles and designs would be provided depending on the characteristics desired by the wearer. This may be in regard to the occupational activities performed by the wearer, or simply personal preference.

Most common forms of high-visibility clothing use bright colours such as orange yellow or green, which provide good contrast against most backgrounds, such as a blue sky. The particular colour or shade in a jurisdiction may be defined by safety laws or regulations. The high-visibility clothing may also include fluorescent pigments that are activated by ultraviolet and short wave-length visible light, which provides enhanced contrast.

A fluorescent material is most useful during twilight or overcast conditions, and may not be effective enough at night time under artificial lights such as vehicle lights. Accordingly, for high-visibility clothing to be suitable for both day-time and night-time use, it generally requires the inclusion of reflective materials.

The high-visibility garment of the present invention includes the use materials suitable for applying compression, such as elastomer, polyester, nylon blends, which are appropriately coloured to provide high-visibility. Preferably the garments are coloured in accordance with the requirements of the activity performed by the wearer. Such requirements include practical requirements, and legal requirements depending on the jurisdiction of the wearer. More preferably the high-visibility garments include fluorescent pigments to aid in enhanced visibility. A retroreflective material is a material that is able to reflect light directly back to the light source, over a wide range of entry angles to the material. These materials can be utilised in high-visibility clothing to provide enhanced visibility, particularly at night-time. For example, light from a vehicles headlights may be reflected directly back to the vehicle operator from retroreflective material incorporated with high-visibility clothing worn by a road worker.

Reflective materials are available in many different forms, such as iron-on films, pressure-sensitive films and sheeting, sew on fabrics, inks and coatings. Retroreflective materials generally use one of two forms of retroreflectors: prismatic and spherical lens. Prismatic retroreflectors use arrays of cube-corner reflective elements that each has three perpendicular planar surfaces. Spherical lens retroreflectors use mirrored, spherical lens reflectors, commonly made of glass beads. An example of retroreflective material is Scotchlite™ made by 3M, which is available in different fabric forms, as well as yarn. When used herein, the term reflective includes retroreflective.

Preferably the high-visibility garment of the present invention comprises reflective materials. If the reflective materials are to be applied to non-elastic areas of the garment, then the reflective materials are also not required to be elastic. The reflective materials may be fastened to the garment in the form of panels or strips fastened as an outer layer on the garment. If the reflective materials are applied to elastic areas of the garment, then the panels or strips of reflective material may be sufficiently loose to allow the elastic layer underneath to stretch without the panels or strips stretching.

Alternatively reflective material has sufficient elastic properties to be further incorporated with the elastic compression materials. A preferred material for the reflective portions is a retroreflective material combined with an elastomer such as spandex (or elastane) and other durable polymers such as polyester, in a similar composition to the compression materials used elsewhere in the garment.

The reflective portions may be separate fabric portions that are combined with the non-reflective portions to form the garment. Alternatively the reflective portions may be reflective material, preferably retroreflective material, integrated into the compression materials used in the garment. Examples of integrating reflective material include weaving reflective thread into the fabric of the garment, and stitching reflective threads into the fabric.

Preferably the garment includes an antimicrobial layer that prevents the growth of microbial organisms. Such antimicrobial fabric layers are known to those skilled in the art.

The high-visibility garment of the present invention may also include tight-fitting compression areas, and loose fitting non-compression areas. For example, the tight-fitting areas may be across the shoulders and down the arms, while the remainder of the torso covering is loose fitting. This may be more comfortable to some wearers who don't desire a tight fit over the whole torso, but still provides support and compression benefits to the arms and shoulders.

Apart from the bright colour and any reflective portions of the high-visibility garments, symbols words or logos may be added to the garments for branding purposes. These branding additions may also be formed from reflective materials themselves. The addition of branding may be desired by a workplace as a way of offsetting any higher costs in providing the high-visibility garments of the present invention to their workers.

Referring to the figures, figure 1 shows a high-visibility garment of the invention in the form of a top 101. The top 101 is made of a bright, high contrast material, including fluorescent dye. The top also includes substantially vertical reflective areas 102, and substantially horizontal reflective areas 103. The shape, size and number of reflective areas may depend on safety standards and legal requirements.

Figure 2 shows a high-visibility garment of the invention in the form of trousers 104. The trousers 104 are also made of a bright, high contrast material that includes fluorescent dye. The trousers also include substantially horizontal reflective areas 105.