At least some aspects of the present disclosure feature a combination, comprising: a garment, a configurable convective device, and an attachment device configured to attach the configurable convective device to the garment. The configurable convective device comprises a pneumatic structure having a first portion, a second portion, and an inflatable channel connecting the first portion and the second portion and at least one opening into the pneumatic structure. In some cases, the relative positions of the first portion and the second portion of the pneumatic structure can be rearranged.

Hand-receiving devices, such as gloves (e.g., sports gloves including baseball gloves, softball gloves, batting gloves, cricket gloves, golf gloves, America football gloves, weightlifting gloves, exercise gloves, goalkeeper gloves (e.g., for soccer, hockey, field hockey, lacrosse, etc.), and the like) include an inflatable component, such as a fluid-filled bladder component. The fluid-filled bladder component may be structured and arranged within a glove base member to engage two or more digits of a wearer's hand (e.g., two or more of the thumb and/or fingers on one hand). Inflation of the bladder component may displace one or more layers of the glove base member (e.g., fabric layers) to adjust fit, help properly position the wearer's fingers and/or hand within the glove, help maintain the position of the wearer's fingers and/or hand within the glove and/or provide cushioning. Features of this technology also may be used to control stiffness and/or rigidity of the glove.

An inflatable cold-weather upper-body garment. The garment includes first and second pluralities of interconnected gas flow chambers, each plurality enclosed by gas-impermeable material; a fluid-flow channel connecting the first and second pluralities of gas flow chambers; and a hand-operable air pump in fluid communication with one of the gas flow chambers.

An inflatable cold-weather upper-body garment. The garment includes first and second pluralities of interconnected gas flow chambers, each plurality enclosed by gas-impermeable material; a fluid-flow channel connecting the first and second pluralities of gas flow chambers; and a hand-operable air pump in fluid communication with one of the gas flow chambers.

In one aspect, there is provided a fabric containing gas therein, the fabric comprising a weave between warps and wefts, wherein each warp includes an elongate array of a plurality of individual gas cells, wherein neighboring gas cells are physically coupled to each other via a connection, wherein the connection is monolithic with the gas cells, and each cell contains the gas therein.

At least some aspects of the present disclosure feature a combination, comprising: a garment, a configurable convective device, and an attachment device configured to attach the configurable convective device to the garment. The configurable convective device comprises a pneumatic structure having a first portion, a second portion, and an inflatable channel connecting the first portion and the second portion and at least one opening into the pneumatic structure. In some cases, the relative positions of the first portion and the second portion of the pneumatic structure can be rearranged.

An apparatus, a system, and a method for thermally comforting a patient include pneumatic, convective device providing thermal treatment for persons or animals, which is adapted for use in combination with a clinical garment such as a hospital gown, robe, bib, and other equivalents. The pneumatic convective device provides convective warming focused or directed primarily on the thorax or body core. The pneumatic convective device includes at least one inlet for being accessed through a clinical garment, a region in distribution with the inlet for distributing a stream of pressurized, thermally treated air, and a permeable member for emitting pressurized, thermally treated air from the distribution region.

An article is provided which includes a flexible body configured to cover part of a user's body, at least one humidity sensor coupled to the flexible body and configured to measure a humidity of the user's skin or an internal microclimate; at least one temperature sensor coupled to the flexible body and configured to measure a temperature of the user's skin or an internal microclimate; at least one microclimate control element coupled to the flexible body; a controller functionally coupled to the at least one humidity sensor and the at least one temperature sensor to receive measured humidity and temperature signals as an input and functionally coupled to the at least one microclimate control element, the controller being preprogrammed to maintain the internal microclimate under a discomfort threshold value; a user interface functionally coupled to the controller; a power supply; and a switch.

A dual functioning head protection device for a fall prone user including a c-shaped neck collar that is configured to compress the jugular veins of the user during application to the user's neck and an expandable airbag helmet that is removably affixed to the collar. The airbag helmet includes an inflatable inner bag surrounded by an outer bag, such that the structure of the outer bag defines a shape of the airbag helmet when the inner bag is inflated. The inner bag includes a number of chambers which inflate to protect the user's skull during a fall. A trigger device in the collar detects if the user is falling and inflates the airbag helmet in such instances. This dual functioning device also protects the user's brain from brain slosh because of the collar's compression of the user's jugular veins. Compression of the vein sends blood into the skull with each fall impact, which reduces the brain's freedom to jostle around in the skull in a fall.

Prior art protective equipment addresses primarily the upper body whilst in several sports, recreational activities the lower body is subjected to the most traumatic impacts which occur to the buttocks, coccyx, hips, shins, knees etc. Accordingly, there is a need for protective garments for the lower body tailored to the requirements of these sports. Embodiments of the present garment address this whilst also providing garments which include integrated protective elements targeting specific body regions where subset of these protective elements are either configurable to the user by virtue of being inflatable or provide additional functionality such as heating. Further, the integration of sensors and electronics allows data acquisition, alarms, closed-loop feedback of the heating/inflation etc.