Your PPE guide: Protective workwear
Protective workwear and personal protective equipment (PPE) comprise a basic safety feature in every workplace. Protective workwear is required wherever workers may be exposed to workplace risks and hazards. Depending on the risks involved, employers are obliged to provide their workers with appropriate protective clothing.
What is protective workwear?
Did you know that workwear was born as early as during the Industrial Revolution? When there was a mass transfer of workers from fields to factories, railway tracks and mines, special clothing was needed that was both durable and protective. At that time, the most frequently used fabrics included corduroy, denim and heavy cotton.
Compared to the original work clothes, modern protective workwear is more durable, functional and comfortable. It is the duty of every employer to equip its workers with protective workwear.
Protective workwear is determined by the workplace safety risks
Protective clothing includes any clothes designed, modified and manufactured to minimize the risks to the worker’s health and safety at work. Work environment risks vary from industry to industry, therefore protective workwear is not universal and suitable for all work environments.
When deciding what work clothes do your workers need to perform their job safely, the following should be considered first:
- What are the risks of the given job?
- What are the working conditions and environment?
- How often does protective workwear need to be changed?
Depending on the risk, work clothes may be made of specific materials that are, for example, non-flammable, antistatic, cut-resistant, chemically impermeable, highly visible, disposable, and the like.
Some types of work clothes contain functional accessories. Functional accessories can be found in exposed and stressed places, such as the knees, elbows or crotch. Manufacturers usually reinforce these places by triple stitching, the use of additional stronger materials or elastic seams.
Special workwear includes:
- work clothes for welders
- acid-resistant work clothes
- antistatic work clothes
- anti-corrosion work clothes
- fire-resistant work clothes
- multinorm work clothes
How to choose the best workwear material?
Work clothes are usually made of materials that are durable, long lasting, affordable and easy to maintain and clean.
The most frequently used materials include natural cotton or a blend of cotton and polyester in various proportions.
Blending polyester and natural cotton gives the work clothes higher strength, dimensional stability and resistance to dirt and grease. On the other hand, high proportion of polyester in workwear causes lower breathability of the clothing.
The weight of the workwear material is given in g/m2
It is true that the higher the weight, the higher the resistance of the material to abrasion.
Level of workwear resistance by weight:
- Basic resistance - 160 to 180 g/m2 - e.g. long/short sleeve work t-shirts
- Quality resistance - 200 to 240 g/m2 - e.g. work t-shirts and work sweatshirts
- Top resistance - 240 to 290 g/m2 - e.g. work trousers, work blouses and vests
- Extreme resistance - 300+ g/m2 - e.g. work jackets and work fleeces
In general, work clothes should have some degree of cut and size stability as well as longer functional colour fastness. It is important that work clothes are cold-resistant in winter and cool and breathable in summer.
Comfort and compatibility
Protective workwear must be of a suitable size and cut. It must be reasonably comfortable to wear and must be compatible with any other PPE that workers must wear or use during their work.
When choosing your work clothes, pay attention to the following:
- Clothing should be easy to put on and take off.
- It should not obstruct normal movement required to perform the work.
- Clothing should not be too loose. Loose work clothes could catch on objects or cause tripping.
- Pants and sleeves should not hang over your arms or legs. Rolled up sleeves and pants could catch on machines.
- Protective clothing should cover the entire area and should not leave exposed body parts when moving.
- Clothing should not be too tight.
- Protective clothing should be made of breathable materials to prevent overheating or excessive sweating (if the nature of the workplace allows it). Work clothes must be comfortable.
- Based on the nature of the work, it is important to properly arrange any multifunctional pockets.
- Depending on the work environment, consider using work clothes with reflective elements.
- If you need to differentiate employees within individual workplaces, choose comprehensive colour collections.
Protective work clothes do not have to be boring
There are many styles, materials, colours and brands available on the market.
Look through our range of protective workwear and choose your own style!
If your employees work outdoors, always take into account the seasonality of clothing, i.e. whether it is spring, summer, autumn or winter, and choose from the summer or winter collections.
Quality work clothes = satisfied worker
The most frequent customer question is: Is a higher price of work clothes also a guarantee of quality? We clearly reply with YES!
The price level reflects not only the density and quality of the fabric, but also its elasticity and the strength of the seams. Modern workwear meets even the most demanding protection requirements and at the same time is comfortable and reflects trends in current cuts and colours. The lower price also comes with lower quality, less durability, all at the expense of workers’ comfort.
The satisfaction and comfort of workers using work clothes according to current trends and made of modern and functional materials can also reflect in their better work performance.
Do you wish to have a logo or corporate print embroidered on your protective workwear?
Our colleagues will be happy to help you with your choice.
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