Doubly elastic cushioned carrying strap

Claim 1

A cushioned carrying strap having a user-contacting, load bearing portion intermediate the ends thereof which is cushioned and elastic primarily in a longitudinal direction, said load-bearing portion comprising: a plurality of individual elastic blocks of elastic cushioning material linearly disposed in a closely-adjacent, nearly abutting relationship; a tube of non-stretchable, flexible material snugly enclosing said blocks; said tube being disposed intermediate the ends of the hand and subject to tension applied at opposite ends of the band and to transverse loads when tensioned about a user's shoulder; said tube having laterally extending accordion-like pleats between adjacent blocks, the tube normally having a bulge extending laterally outward of the tube in opposite directions at each location of a pleat, the bulges each containing a continuation of the pleat; and connecting means drawing opposite sides of said tube together at each end of each elastic block to maintain the accordion-like pleats between adjacent blocks and hold the blocks in discrete, closely adjacent positions lengthwise of the tube thereby enabling two-way elasticity resulting from substantial elastic stretch of the tube by unfolding said pleats concurrently with elastic deformation transverse to the tube in response to tension applied to the ends of the tube.