Tetsuo Okubo, Kanonji, Japan; and Tatsuya Hashimoto, Kanonji, Japan.
Assigned to Unicharm Corporation, Ehime, Japan.

Filed: 2/19/14
Issued: 4/23/19

A wearing article having a longitudinal direction, and a transverse direction, a skin-facing surface and a non-skin-facing surface, said wearing article comprising: a front waist region, a rear waist region and a crotch region extending between the front and rear waist regions, wherein the front and rear waist regions are joined to each other to form an annular elastic waist panel, a crotch panel located in the crotch region and extending between the front and rear waist regions, an absorbent structure located in a central area on the skin-facing surface of the crotch panel, wherein the crotch panel includes a base layer, and a pair of elasticized leg sheets extending in the longitudinal direction and joined to respective side edge portions of the base layer, the elasticized leg sheets each respectively include a side sheet, a first leg elastic element, and a second leg elastic element, in each of the elasticized leg sheets, the side sheet has a proximal side edge joined to the base layer and extending in the longitudinal direction, and a distal side edge facing the proximal side edge and extending in the longitudinal direction and being divided into a joint region extending along the proximal side edge, an elasticized region extending along the distal side edge, and a non-elasticized region extending between the joint region and the elasticized region and provided with no elastic elements, the second leg elastic element is contractibly arranged under tension in the longitudinal direction along the joint region, the first leg elastic element is contractibly arranged under tension in the longitudinal direction in the elasticized region, the first leg elastic elements are disposed at the distal side edges of the side sheets defining lateral side edges of the crotch panel opposite to each other in the transverse direction, each of the elasticized leg sheets is joined to the base layer in such a state that the side sheet is shrunk together with the first leg elastic element and the second leg elastic element but a stretch ratio of the first and second leg elastic elements is maintained at a value larger than 1 and a number of gathers extending in parallel in the transverse direction are formed in the joint region, and the first leg elastic elements are secured to the side sheets at a stretch ratio higher than that of the second leg elastic elements.