Personalized bottle and method

Abstract

A method of personalizing a beverage bottle comprises providing a bottle assembly with a side wall having an exterior surface. An array of selectable sleeve wraps are provided, each configured to fit on the side wall of the bottle assembly. Each sleeve wrap has at least one characteristic that is visibly different from the other sleeve wraps of the array. One of the sleeve wraps is selected from the array and attached on the side wall of the bottle assembly.

1 . A bottle assembly comprising: 
 a bottle having a bottom, a side wall extending upward from the bottom, a neck near a top end of the side wall, and a top opening in the neck;    a cap removably attached to the neck and covering the top opening;    a drinking spout;    a shroud covering a portion of the cap, at least part of the shroud having a transparent or semi-transparent window region, the shroud being selectively removable both from the bottle and from the cap; and    an area at the window region between the shroud and the cap that is alterable by a user to display personalized visual imagery.    
   
   
       2 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein the side wall has a tapered waist section between the bottom and the neck that is smaller in circumference than adjacent parts of the bottle above and below the tapered waist.  
   
   
       3 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 2 , further comprising: 
 a decorative sleeve wrap received over an exterior surface of the side wall, wherein the sleeve wrap has a contoured waist that snugly follows the contour of the tapered waist section of the bottle to assist in retaining the sleeve wrap on the bottle.    
   
   
       4 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 2 , further comprising: 
 a decorative sleeve wrap received over an exterior surface of the side wall, the wrap formed as a flat panel with opposed side edges that lie closely adjacent one another or overlap one another; and    a fastening mechanism near the sides edges of the sleeve wrap securing the sleeve wrap to the bottle assembly.    
   
   
       5 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 4 , wherein the fastening mechanism comprises: 
 a material loop near one of the side edges; and    an elongate tab near the other of the side edges threaded through the material loop, the tab carrying fastener parts secured to one another.    
   
   
       6 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a shoulder surface extending radially inward between and connecting the top end of the side wall and the neck; and    a decorative ring received around the neck of the bottle and resting on the shoulder, the ring captured between the shoulder and a part of the shroud.    
   
   
       7 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a plurality of decorative sleeve wraps selectable by a user, each of the plurality of sleeve wraps being attachable to an exterior surface of the side wall, and each of the plurality of sleeve wraps having a visual characteristic different from the other of the plurality of sleeve wraps.    
   
   
       8 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a hole in a top surface of the shroud, wherein the drinking spout is on the cap and extends upward and is user accessible through the hole in the shroud.    
   
   
       9 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 an upward projecting cylinder surrounding the drinking spout on the cap, the cylinder having a perimeter surface that faces outward relative to the spout and that has a non-circular contour; and    a hole in a top surface of the shroud, wherein the drinking spout extends upward and is user accessible through the hole in the shroud, the hole having a non-circular perimeter shape that nests around the contour of the perimeter surface of the cylinder and rotationally interlocks the shroud with the cylinder region of the cap.    
   
   
       10 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 male threads on an exterior circumferential surface of the neck;    female threads on an interior circumferential surface of the cap that engage the male threads to retain the cap on the neck of the bottle; and    a rotational mechanical interlock between the shroud and the cap.    
   
   
       11 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein the cap has a depending cap skirt with a circumferential annular surface and a bottom edge, wherein the shroud has a depending shroud skirt with an interior surface that faces and closely surrounds the annular surface of the cap skirt, and wherein the alterable area is between the cap skirt and shroud skirt.  
   
   
       12 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 11 , further comprising: 
 one or more annular projections extending radially inward from the interior surface of the shroud skirt, the one or more annular projections sized to interferingly fit around the annular surface of the cap skirt and to snap under the bottom edge of the cap skirt to retain the shroud on the cap.    
   
   
       13 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 12 , further comprising: 
 a strip of material captured between the cap skirt and the shroud skirt within the window region, the strip of material being vertically retained between the cap skirt and shroud skirt by the one or more annular projections, and the strip of material capable of displaying user specified visual imagery and being removable and replaceable with another strip of material.    
   
   
       14 . A bottle assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein the window region extends around an entire periphery of the cap and the shroud.  
   
   
       15 . A beverage bottle system having user alterable appearance characteristics, the bottle system comprising: 
 a bottle having a bottom, a side wall, a neck near a top end of the side wall, and a top opening in the neck;    a cap assembly attached to the neck and covering the top opening, the cap assembly having a drinking spout; and    a plurality of sleeve wraps selectable by a user to personalize the bottle, each sleeve wrap having a visible characteristic that is different from the other of the plurality of sleeve wraps, wherein each sleeve wrap is configured to be installed around and cover a portion of the side wall and to be retained on the side wall when installed.    
   
   
       16 . A bottle system according to  claim 15 , wherein the cap assembly further comprises: 
 a cap part removably attached to the neck of the bottle; and    a shroud part at least partly covering a portion of the cap part, the shroud part being selectively removable from and replaceable on the cap part.    
   
   
       17 . A bottle system according to  claim 16 , wherein the cap part and the shroud part are configured to capture a strip of material between them, the strip of material being visible through the shroud part and being personalizable with visual imagery determined by a user.  
   
   
       18 . A bottle system according to  claim 15 , wherein at least one of the plurality of sleeve wraps has a mirror.  
   
   
       19 . A bottle system according to  claim 18 , wherein the mirror is covered by a part of the sleeve wrap and can be exposed by moving the part.  
   
   
       20 . A bottle system according to  claim 15 , wherein at least one of the plurality of sleeve wraps is configured to resemble an article of clothing.  
   
   
       21 . A bottle system according to  claim 15 , further comprising: 
 an array of accessory items each selectable by a user, useable with the bottle system, and capable of further adding a desired visual characteristic or a functional characteristic to the user's bottle.    
   
   
       22 . A bottle system according to  claim 15 , wherein the bottle has a first physical feature and each of the plurality of sleeve wraps has a second physical feature, wherein the first and second physical features cooperate to mechanically retain a selected one of the sleeve wraps on the side wall of the bottle.  
   
   
       23 . A bottle system according to  claim 22 , wherein the first physical feature is a waist region that is smaller in size than upper and lower regions of the bottle above and below the waist region, and wherein the second physical feature is a smaller sized mid-region of the plurality of sleeve wraps than regions near a top and a bottom edge of the plurality of sleeve wraps.  
   
   
       24 . A bottle system according to  claim 15 , wherein the bottle side wall has a waist region that is smaller in size than adjacent upper and lower parts above and below the waist region, and wherein the side wall in the waist region can be readily squeezed to dispense liquid from the bottle and the side wall in the upper and lower parts is stiffer and can not be squeezed using the same force needed to squeeze the waist region.  
   
   
       25 . A method of personalizing a beverage bottle, the method comprising the steps of: 
 providing a bottle assembly with a side wall having an exterior surface;    providing an array of selectable sleeve wraps, each configured to fit on the side wall of the bottle assembly, each configured to resemble an article of clothing, and each having at least one characteristic that is visibly different from the other sleeve wraps of the array;    selecting one of the sleeve wraps from the array; and    attaching the selected sleeve wrap on the side wall of the bottle assembly.