A variety of activities are safer and more enjoyable when they are performed with some form of eye protection. Eye protection is used routinely for activities such as swimming, snow skiing, welding and the like. Swimmers, for instance, often find it beneficial to their performance if they swim with the aid of swim goggles. Not only do these swim goggles help keep the chlorine and salt out of a swimmers' eyes, they also help swimmers to see the proper course they wish to traverse. Likewise snow skiers frequently use ski goggles to keep the cold wind, snow, drizzle, and ice out of the their eyes while skiing down the slopes.
These protective goggles typically are secured onto the head of the wearer by an elastic strap. This strap is attached to either side of the goggles and then placed around the wearer's head. The strap usually includes some form of adjustment which allows the goggles to be conveniently fitted to wearers having different sized heads.
Generally the strap used on a pair of swim goggles is made from an elastic material, such as rubber or silicone, much like a general purpose rubber band. The elastic band is laced through holes located on either side of the goggles, forming a single semicircular loop suitable for slipping over the user's head. Simple frictional slide adjusters are employed to facilitate size adjustments for the band.
The known elastic band designs, however, have several disadvantages. Swimmers need to adjust the length of the band to assure proper fit and securement of the goggles to their heads. Known frictional slide adjusters are difficult to manipulate, leading to the inability to quickly and efficiently adjust the size of the strap to properly fit the swimmer's head. Because of this, proper fit is often not achieved. As a result, the goggles are often either too tight or too loose, leading to either discomfort or loss of the goggles altogether. Additionally, because the known elastic bands are typically not exceptionally strong, over-tightening the band often results, causing it to break while being put on or during use. Also, the integrity of the typical rubber or silicone band diminishes with prolonged exposure to sunlight, salt, chlorine and the like. Such exposure weakens the bands and ultimately causes failure. The deterioration is so aggressive that frequent competitive swimmers, such as high school and college swim team members, often must replace the band as many as two to three times a year.