Upper body garment with increased movement

Abstract

An upper body garment accommodates increased mobility by a wearer, particularly in upper back and shoulder areas. The upper body garment uses excess or oversized fabric on at least an upper back panel and preferably shoulder panels as well to allow the increased movement by the wearer. For example, the amount of fabric traditionally used to construct an extra-large garment can be used to construct a large garment of the present invention. One or more darts, preferably symmetrically arranged, are provided on the shoulder panels on an edge adjacent the collar and on the upper back panel on an edge adjacent the collar. This provides increased mobility, due to the enlarged chest and upper sleeve area, while retaining a proper fit around the neck and shoulder area due to the darts removing excess fabric. The upper body garment is particularly suited as an exercise jacket.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . An upper body garment providing increased mobility, comprising: 
 a right shoulder panel, a left shoulder panel, a back panel, and a front panel, each abutting against a neck collar, at least the back panel being oversized to provide an upper body garment with an enlarged chest size to increase mobility of a wearer of the upper body garment;    at least one dart formed in each of the upper back panel, left shoulder panel and right shoulder panel adjacent and substantially perpendicular to the neck collar to form radially aligned darts that take up excess fabric around the neck collar and conform the back panel, left shoulder panel and right shoulder panel to the neck collar.    
     
     
         2 . The upper body garment of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one dart in the upper back panel is symmetrically arranged about a vertical center line of the back panel.  
     
     
         3 . The upper body garment of  claim 1 , wherein at least two spaced darts are provided in the back panel.  
     
     
         4 . The upper body garment of  claim 3 , wherein the combination of the right shoulder panel, the left shoulder panel, the back panel and the front panel form a chest size of the garment that is about 8 to 12 inches larger than the commercial standard.  
     
     
         5 . The upper body garment of  claim 4 , wherein the chest size is about 62 inches.  
     
     
         6 . The upper body garment of  claim 4 , wherein the chest size is about 64 inches.  
     
     
         7 . The upper body garment of  claim 6 , wherein the neck collar is about 21.5 inches.  
     
     
         8 . The upper body garment of  claim 4 , wherein the chest size is about 66 inches.  
     
     
         9 . The upper body garment of  claim 4 , wherein the chest size is about 68 inches.  
     
     
         10 . The upper body garment of  claim 8 , wherein the collar size is about 22 inches.  
     
     
         11 . The upper body garment of  claim 1 , wherein the darts collectively take out from between 4.5 and 5.5 total inches of fabric from said back and shoulder panels adjacent the neck collar.  
     
     
         12 . The upper body garment of  claim 1 , wherein the back panel contains three spaced darts adjacent and substantially perpendicular to the collar.  
     
     
         13 . The upper body garment of  claim 12 , wherein the three darts are symmetrically arranged about a vertical center line of the back panel.  
     
     
         14 . The upper body garment of  claim 12 , wherein the three darts are equidistantly spaced from each other and with respect to side edges of the back panel.  
     
     
         15 . The upper body garment of  claim 1 , wherein each said dart has a length of about 2.5 inches.  
     
     
         16 . An upper body garment providing increased mobility comprising: 
 a right shoulder panel, a left shoulder panel, a back panel, and a front panel, each abutting against a neck collar, the back panel and left and right shoulder panels each being oversized relative to the neck collar to provide an oversized chest size that allows increased upper body mobility;    at least one dart formed in each of the left and right shoulder panels adjacent and substantially perpendicular to the neck collar; and    at least one dart formed in the back panel adjacent and substantially perpendicular to the neck collar, wherein the at least one dart in each of the left and right shoulder panels and back panel are radially aligned with each other and take up excess fabric around the neck collar and conform the back panel, left shoulder panel and right shoulder panel to the neck collar.    
     
     
         17 . A method of fabricating an upper body garment providing increased mobility, comprising: 
 providing a front panel, a left shoulder panel, a right shoulder panel, a back panel, and a neck collar, with at least the back panel being formed oversized relative to the neck collar to create an enlarged chest size for the upper body garment that allows increased mobility;    forming at least one dart in each of the back panel, the left shoulder panel and the right shoulder panel on an edge of each said panel adjacent and substantially perpendicular to where said panels will mate with the neck collar; and    joining the front panel, back panel, left and right shoulder panels to the neck collar to form an upper garment that has radially aligned darts that remove excess fabric to allow a reduction in neck size relative to the chest size.    
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the right and left shoulder panels, the back panel, the front panel, and the neck collar are joined by stitching.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein said at least one dart in the back panel is formed symmetrically about a vertical line of the back panel.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein three darts are formed in the back panel.  
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein said at least one dart has a length of about 2.5″.