There are currently a number of gloves on the market employing waterproof liners or inserts 10 in an outer glove shell 15 such as shown in FIG. 5. Glove inserts of this type are supplied by W.L. Gore & Associates, Feldkirchen, Germany under the trade name DIRECT GRIP.RTM.. Their manufacture is described in German Patent DE-C-38 19 362 (Kleis) assigned to W.L. Gore & Associates. The glove insert taught in this patent is made of a microporous polymer which is both waterproof and water vapour permeable ("breathable"), i.e. it allows the passage of water vapour in the form of sweat. Preferably the glove insert in the prior art patent is made of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene. The glove pattern used in this construction is known as the Flat Pattern and incorporates a palm and a dorsal panel of the same size. Whilst such constructions are easy and therefore less costly to manufacture, they do not take into account that the fingers of a wearer's hand and the thumb move in different planes. As is pointed out in U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,044 (Masely) assigned to W.L. Gore & Associates, the excess liner material in a Flat Pattern liner gathers in horizontal folds in the palm and dorsal region of the wearer's hand which can result in discomfort and frustration to the user. U.S. '044 solved this problem by providing a tape on an exterior surface of the insert to "gather up" the excess material by forming a fold in the glove insert.
Another approach to solving this problem is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,656 (Kim) in which a separate thumb portion is attached to the palm panel of a glove insert. The thumb portion is attached to the glove insert first of all by stitching and then taping the stitch holes.
A further method for making a glove insert is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,791 (Jurrius et al.) in which a pair of thermoplastic sheets are joined together at their peripheral edges and at a seam running from the crotch between the finger and the thumb down diagonally across the palm of the hand to the hand entry. In this manner a glove insert is formed in which the thumb is formed in a different plane than the fingers.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds