The present invention relates to a torso-covering garment having a front, a back, two sides with arm holes and at least one upwardly open pocket. The garment may be a shirt, an overall or any other garment which covers the torso and has an upwardly open pocket.

An upwardly open pocket without a closure element such as a button, or Velcro strip provides easy and immediate access to an item kept in the pocket. There is no need to open the pocket first. The disadvantage is of course that if an item of any weight is kept in an upwardly open shirt pocket, it has a tendency to slide out if the wearer bends forward.

Known solutions to this problem have always involved a closure element such as a button, a tight overflap, Velcro strips etc. which require unbuttoning, opening etc.

Many shirts, jackets and overalls now feature"cell phone pockets". In general these known pockets have closure buttons or strips or are completely open at the top, with the risk that if the wearer bends forward his or her mobile phone will slip out and fall to the floor. The problem addressed by the present invention is to provide the easy and immediate access of an upwardly open pocket without closure elements, at the same time as one prevents the contents of the pocket from sliding out when the wearer bends forward.

This and other problems are solved in a torso-covering garment of the type de- scribed by way of introduction which has the features defined in the characterizing clause of the accompanying Claim 1. Placement of the pocket on the torso side panel of the shirt, overall or jacket enables a minimal abutment element at one end of the upward pocket opening to halt the outward sliding movement of the object held in the pocket and keep it from sliding out when the wearer bends forward. The placement of the pocket below the arm hole of the shirt, jacket or overall has the added advantage that it shields any fragile object, such as a cell phone, kept in the pocket because it is placed under the arm. This is of particular advantage in work clothes, and in sports clothes, where a cell phone for example can be easily damaged if kept in a breast pocket or in a pants pocket. A vibratory cell phone ring signal, often necessary in a noisy environment, or when wearing earphones, is easier to 10 sense if the cell phone is held against a very sensitive part of the body, such as the side of the torso.

The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the ac- companying drawings, where Fig. 1 shows a front view of a torso-covering gar- ment, in this case a T-shirt, made in accordance with the invention and Fig. 2 shows an enlarged side view of a portion of the left-torso side panel of the T-shirt shown in Fig. 1.

As can best be seen in Fig. 1, a T-shirt 1 according to the present invention has front 20 and back panels 1A and 1B, respectively, as well as right and left side panels, 2A and 2B, respectively. At the top of each side panel there is an arm hole 8 with a short sleeve. Each side panel 2 is bounded at the front by a front seam 4 and at the back by a rear seam 5 (see Fig. 2). The front and rear seams 4,5 also define a pocket created by a pocket patch 3 being sewn into the front and rear seams 4 and 5 as well as being attached to the side panel via a bottom seam 7. The upper edge 6 of the pocket has a stitched border to prevent fraying but is almost completely open, thereby providing easy and immediate access to an object kept in the pocket, in this example a cell phone or mobile phone 10.

The forward end of the edge 6 of the upward opening is in this example of the in- vention is stitched to the underlying side panel 2 over a small portion of the distance between the two side seams 4 and 5, thereby creating an abutment element 9.

As the wearer of the T-shirt, with the cell phone in the pocket as indicated in Fig. 2, bends over to pick something up from the ground for example, the cell phone will tend to slide by the force of gravity first in the direction of the front side seam 4 and, then, as the upper body swings past horizontal to a more downwardly folded posi- tion, the cell phone will slide along the front side seam 4 until it is halted by the 10 abutment element 9. Without the abutment element 9, the cell phone would continue sliding along the front side seam 4 until it fell completely out of the pocket. The sliding movement of the cell phone in the side-panel pocket, as the wearer bends his upper body first forward and then down, positions the cell phone to be stopped by the very small abutment element 9.

When the wearer of the T-shirt stands upright again the cell-phone will automati- cally return to a position closer to the bottom seam 7 and will be easily and immedi- ately accessible for removal through the upper opening.

20 The person skilled in the art will realize that the pocket patch can be sewn under the arm with its own side seams separate from side seams (4,5) of the shirt or other garment.

The person skilled in the art will also realize that the present invention can be applied to many different types of garments such as shirts, jackets, overalls and even dresses, which cover the torso and can be provided with a pocket of the type described above. The person skilled in the art can also create the abutment element in a number of different ways within the scope of the present invention. For example the stitching sealing the pocket patch 3 to the 30 side panel along a minor portion of the edge 6 need not be continuous from the front

edge seam 4. It may be preferable to replace it with stitching only at the rearward end of the abutment 9 shown in Fig. 2, thereby leaving an opening at the front edge seam 4. The pocket will still have the same retaining function. (This may facilitate cleaning the garment or give the pocket alternative uses, e. g. as a pencil holder.) The abutment element may even be realized without permanent stitching, for exam- ple by means of a simple snap which can be opened during laundering or to provide multiple use for the pocket.

Although the illustrative example here shows a pocket suitable for a cell phone, the invention can be realized with pockets dimensioned, designed and shaped for a wide variety of objects.