Various zipper slider pulling devices are known to engage a zipper slider, or loop secured to the slider, to displace the slider to disengage the zipper attachment. A few of these are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,249,832, 8,079,625 and 9,289,084. Most of these require a hand-held device which a user person manipulates to engage the slider and then pulls to the device to disengage the zipper. These devices are not useful to engage the slider. Further, if these assist devices are lost or become damaged, then the user person cannot disengage the zipper. Still further, zipper sliders are not all fabricated with the same design structure and may not be engageable with the assist device when a different article of apparel is worn by the user person.
There is also a need to provide a closure facilitator for articles of footwear using zippers laces as closures and which are difficult to reach and which require finger dexterity to manipulate or engage and disengage the fastener. There is also a need to overcome the above mentioned disadvantages relating to certain type of closures for articles of footwear.
There is therefore a need to overcome the above mentioned disadvantages of the prior art slider assist devices. It would be of great advantage to permit engagement of a slider in a hard to reach area of an article of apparel without having to resort to a slider pulling device.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds