All-weather jackets ordinarily have an outer shell and an inner liner to insulate the jacket and keep out water and wind. Jackets are also generally tailored to fit a standing human. Thus, a typical jacket includes a torso portion and sleeves that are designed to fit smoothly on a wearer when he or she is standing, but which may bunch up at undesirable locations when the posture of the wearer is other than upright.
When the wearer plays golf, for example, the wearer experiences a number of shortcomings with traditional jackets. A proper golf stance requires the wearer to bend forward at the waist and abdominal sections of the body. As the distance across the front of the wearer from the shoulders to the waist decreases, the liner and shell of a common jacket bunch up at the front of the jacket, producing a full belly shape. This fullness interferes with a golf swing as fabric of the jacket protrudes into the arcuate path through which the arms of the wearer must travel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,720 discloses a jacket with a yieldable material sewn into a back panel of an otherwise unyielding liner to contact the back of a wearer. Horizontal straps with snaps are sewn to the back panel and front panels of the liner. The liner may be adjusted by attaching snaps to receptacles on the same strap. As a result, the insert is pressed against the back of the wearer, without producing bunching of the shell of the jacket. This teaching however, does not diminish any bunching of the shell itself produced when the wearer bends. The front of the jacket would still bunch up and interfere with a golf swing when the wearer leans forward. Also, as the snaps are located inside the jacket, the wearer must first remove the jacket to make an adjustment, then try on the jacket again for fit, and iterate these steps until a comfortable adjustment is achieved.
Other patents teach different adjustable jacket liners. For instance U.S. Pat. No. 2,391,352 teaches a coat with a band disposed between a shell and a liner. Ends of the band protrude into the inside of the jacket and attach to each other to pull the liner about the wearer.
Also, traditional sleeves are made from a single fabric panel sewn to itself along a single, straight seam. The panel is generally cut to taper towards the wrist. Often, fabric gussets with convex sides are sewn to the sleeves at the back of the elbow to provide additional room. Pleats leading to the elbow have also been employed to increase elbow room to enable a wearer to bend his or her arm. Lack of material at the elbow can causes the sleeve cuff to be pulled back from the wearer's wrist during certain arm motions.
As a solution to this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,717 teaches a piston and cylinder cuff that includes a wristlet mounted inside a false cuff by conical gussets. Thus the wristlet, engaged against a wearer's wrist, can telescope within the false cuff to prevent the wristlet from riding up on the arm of the wearer during an arm swinging motion.
The prior art sleeves designed to allow increased motion of the wearer's arm are either excessively baggy, and bunch up during certain motions, or require a large number of pieces of fabric and stitching. A small number of fairly simple seams is desirable to minimize production complexity and cost.