Case or Cover for Sports Equipment

The field of invention relates to a cover or case for goods, in particular for use as a cover or case for hobby or sports equipment. The cover or case may be for transportation or storage of goods. In some examples, the cover or case may be especially suitable for use as a cover or case for specialised sports equipment such as a board used in sports such as a surfboard, windsurfing board, paddleboard, skis, a snowboard, and bicycles such as road cycling bicycles and mountain bicycles. However, some examples of the case may be suitable for containing other hobby equipment, such as types of sports equipment, musical equipment, or photography equipment.

Commonly items are transported either in bags that lack rigidity or in rigid packing cases or boxes. For instance, soft shell or non-rigid bags can be made from various materials – commonly polyester, PVC, cotton, cardboard or nylon materials. Alternatively, hard or rigid cases or boxes may be manufactured from plastics materials such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, ABS. The inside of either the soft or rigid versions of a carry case are often padded with commonly available types of foams such as ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) or expanded polyethylene (EPE). Thus the fragile item is carried in some form of padded bag or box. Nevertheless, these commonly used materials may only offer relatively limited protection and may also degrade after a low number of impacts.

Straps and Buckles

The field of invention relates to a cover or case for goods for hobby or sports equipment. The cover or case may be used for transportation or storage of goods, including medical, military, emergency services, aeronautical and construction equipment. This invention also relates to reinforcement members that may be used in various applications, including covers or cases for goods – e.g. for hobby, utility, military, emergency service or sports equipment. Other items within this invention include straps and buckles formed from Paua PP, or protective equipment for horses, dogs, military or emergency services headwear, hats or helmets.

Moulded Cases

A case for transportation and storage of an item. The case comprises an inner layer of microcellular PP Paua foam and an outer layer of PP Paua compound woven fabric. Cases, covers and boxes of various types are commonplace for use in the transportation and storage of items. Cases may be used for containment, or for protection. Various types of case, cover or box are available. One option is cardboard boxes, with internal foam or bubble wrap layers. Such cases may be low cost, but tend to be single-use and so wasteful. Plastic or metal boxes may be used, optionally with inner layers of foam. However, they can also be heavy, which increases transportation costs and reduces energy efficiency of transportation.