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When you or your team find yourselves in conditions where more visibility is necessary, it’s important to consider what class of visibility you need to comply with. The higher the class of the clothing, the more visible you’ll be, even in high traffic areas or places with low natural visibility. How do these classes of visibility clothing differ from one another, and when do you need to wear one over the others? We’ll walk you through the three classes of high-visibility clothing so that you can understand the differences. Class 1: Low-Impact Conditions The least intense of the three classes of high-visibility clothing is class 1. Class 1 safety clothing is meant for workers in areas that don’t see a lot of general traffic or hazards. Class 1 high-visibility clothing is the most flexible with its design. It allows you to only need small accents of visibly reflective materials, whether it’s on a vest, shirt, or pants. You might see class 1 hi-vis clothing on certain delivery drivers or parking attendants; it’s generally used by people who are in safe conditions for the majority of their time on the job. Class 2: Medium Traffic/Low Visibility Conditions Class 2 hi-vis clothing is for areas that see regular amounts of traffic from vehicles. If workers are around vehicles that are moving faster than 25 miles per hour, it’s likely that they will need at least class 2 hi-vis clothing. This class usually takes the form of something similar to a sleeveless safety vest. Bright colors such as yellow and orange are required, and reflective material should be on the front and back of the clothing. You might often see high-traffic toll booth operators or airport workers in class 2 safety gear. Class 3: High Traffic Conditions The most dangerous conditions for workers require class 3 hi-vis clothing to ensure that every part of them is fully visible. A signifier of class 3 hi-vis clothing is that there needs to be enough reflective material in it to allow for a full silhouette outline of the wearer’s shape. Workers need class 3 hi-vis gear when working near traffic moving faster than 50 miles per hour or if the work puts them directly next to moving traffic. Railroad workers and emergency responders are commonly seen in class 3 hi-vis clothing, as it gives them the most protection possible. If you’re looking for high visibility clothing that meets a certain class requirement but are sick of the standard choices, SafetyShirtz is your best option for stylish hi-vis clothing options. Take a look through our store to find out how much better you could look while protecting yourself.

Reflective and high-visibility apparel tends to be sturdier than most clothing so that it can withstand the conditions that people usually wear it in. However, those same harsh conditions mean that your hi-vis clothing might start to break down or fade much sooner than you might expect. Despite its sturdiness, you’ll likely need to replace your reflective apparel regularly if you work in it every day. We’ll answer the question, “How often you should replace reflective apparel?” so that you can ensure you’re still remaining safe. Average Replacement Time The average time it will take before you need replacement apparel will vary based on few factors. Generally, your reflective clothing can likely go about six months before you need to replace it. That estimation assumes that you wear these clothes every day for work. Your reflective clothing can last much longer than six months if you only wear it occasionally. Working in reflective apparel for a typical work week will wear it down much faster. Conditions That Affect Replacement Time When you need to figure out how often you should replace reflective apparel, you must consider the kinds of conditions you normally wear it in. For most workers who wear reflective clothing outside for long periods, the wear and tear will start to show much sooner. If you work in extreme temperatures on either end of the spectrum, your apparel can also take extra damage over time. Working in even more hazardous conditions means you need to be vigilant about your reflective apparel each time you inspect it before putting it on for the day. Signs It’s Time To Get a Replacement It will likely be quite obvious when you need to replace your reflective apparel. The most important thing to keep an eye out for is whether the reflective characteristic of the clothing starts to fade away. You can wear reflective apparel that’s become a bit dirty over time as long as its reflectiveness is intact. Rips and tears are bigger issues, and you don’t want to continue wearing clothes with these for much longer after you’ve spotted the damage. When it’s time for a replacement for your old reflective apparel, you can get far more fashionable hi-vis clothing by checking out our store here at SafetyShirtz. We specialize in hi-vis clothing that you’ll be happy to wear and keeps you safe on the job.

If you are someone who regularly wears hi-vis clothing, you likely work in an industry that is vital to our society. When we consider who wears hi-vis clothing, we start to see why it’s so important that this type of clothing keeps them safe. The industries that require them are so crucial to everyday life that we can sometimes take them for granted. Here are the four most common industries that require hi-vis clothing to protect their workers. Construction Where would we be today without the hard work of construction workers across the country? Construction workers keep us safe in houses, provide places for us to work, and generally make it so we can live our lives safely. To that end, we need to make sure that construction workers are as safe as possible on worksites, which have numerous hazards that could be an issue for someone who doesn’t stand out against the surroundings. Emergency Response Perhaps one of the most important industries where they wear hi-vis clothing is the emergency response sector. Hi-vis clothing serves two purposes here. The first is so that people who need these emergency responders’ help can easily find them in chaotic or dangerous situations. The second purpose is to keep these essential workers safe in their work environments. A firefighter without hi-vis clothing, for example, could be hard to identify in a crowd and be at risk themselves. Transportation In all branches of the transportation industry, hi-vis clothing is crucial for keeping workers safe. Whether they’re working close to speeding cars, loading barges with shipping containers, or waving down airplanes, these workers need to know they’re safe. Without these transportation workers, society might as well shut down, so it’s essential they wear functional hi-vis clothing. Heavy Machinery Anyone working around heavy machinery, whether they operate it or not, needs to be immediately visible, even at a glance. Heavy construction machinery can make it difficult to see things not directly in your field of vision, and workers need to identify where their coworkers are before moving a hulking piece of dangerous machinery anywhere else. If you work in one of these industries or know somebody who does, we want to express our appreciation for the hard work. Hi-vis clothing can get boring at times, and we aim to fix that problem with fashionable hi-vis hoodies, shirts, and other clothing that you’ll feel safe and comfortable wearing.

If you’re the manager or supervisor in an industry that requires workers to comply with PPE standards, you likely have heard every excuse as to why workers won’t wear their PPE. Despite their importance, there’s a good chance you’ll have at least one worker who either doesn’t understand the need for them or believes they are above using them. How do we stop this so we can prevent disaster in the future? We’ll give you a few ways to improve PPE worker compliance so everyone works a little more safely. Don’t Neglect Employee Comfort Of course, PPE is incredibly important for safety reasons and must be worn for very long portions of the day. Plenty of accidents have happened when workers became uncomfortable in their PPE and removed them to be more comfortable. If your workers must be in PPE for all or most of their workday, it’s crucial that you consider their comfort when finding PPE that they can wear for long periods of time. When PPE is comfortable to wear, it’s more likely that workers will wear it. Increase Convenience As much as we’d like to believe that safety is at the forefront of every worker’s mind, this isn’t always the case. If PPE is exceedingly cumbersome to wear or is stored off the work site, some workers will elect to not bother with it at all. The more convenient we can make it to store, maintain, and put on PPE, the easier it is on everybody to follow the standards as they should be. Improve Consistency in Enforcing PPE Compliance One of the tougher, but more effective, ways to improve PPE compliance in your workers is to ensure you are consistent in your enforcing of PPE standards. You can’t let one worker get away with not wearing their PPE one day and then reprimand another for doing the same thing the next day. This creates a lack of respect for the rules of wearing PPE. The more consistent you are with enforcing workers to wear the right PPE and correcting workers who don’t, the easier it is for everyone to know what will and won’t be tolerated. Emphasize the Specific Purpose of PPE Sometimes the issue comes from not knowing why one needs to wear PPE in the first place. If all you ever say is that the PPE will “help everyone stay safe,” you aren’t painting a clear picture of the purpose of this equipment. Make sure everyone knows exactly why they must wear certain PPE at certain times. Describing the hazards that each piece of PPE protects against gives everyone a better understanding of what it’s actually used for. If you need logoed workwear that complies with PPE standards, SafetyShirtz makes it easy to equip your team with high-visibility clothing that they will actually want to wear.

If you hear the terms enhanced-visibility and high-visibility workwear, it’s understandable that you might think they’re the same thing. However, very important differences between these kinds of clothes that you need to be aware of exist. If you work in a field that requires high-visibility work clothes, then enhanced-visibility workwear won’t make the cut. Look at enhanced-visibility vs. high-visibility workwear so that you always know the differences. What Is Enhanced-Visibility Clothing? The key to understanding this kind of workwear is to know what “enhanced” really means. Enhanced-visibility workwear is a category of clothing that includes normal garments improved through the addition of more visible elements, such as retroreflective tape. There are no official standards for enhanced-visibility clothing. Therefore, they can be almost any color or style. People who wear enhanced-visibility clothing usually place reflective tape around the sleeves and through the center of the clothes. Who Wears Enhanced-Visibility Clothing? Because there’s no standardized look for enhanced-visibility workwear, anyone who might want to be easy to make out while on the job can wear it as long as they don’t already need to wear high-visibility clothing. Workers in the oil and gas industry often wear enhanced-visibility clothing because it provides a clearer view of them even though their jobs don’t require high-visibility clothing. You can usually find enhanced-visibility clothing in places where the risk of bodily harm is minimal but not necessarily nonexistent. How Does High-Visibility Clothing Differ? If we look at enhanced-visibility vs. high-visibility workwear, we see an immediate difference. There are very clear standards that ANSI sets for what constitutes high-visibility workwear. Additionally, this workwear comes in specific classes of high visibility that workers in certain industries must wear for safety purposes. High-visibility workwear must come in specific fluorescent colors (yellow-green, orange-red, or red). It must also have a certain amount of retroreflective striping based on the class and cover a certain amount of your body based on the class. The goal of high-visibility clothing is to make you stand out as much as possible in dangerous situations. Although standards for hi-vis clothing are rigorous, you don’t have to settle for something you can’t stand wearing if you need to be in it all day for work. SafetyShirtz specializes in providing stylish high-visibility clothing to all the workers out there who face the toughest conditions.

The purpose of high visibility clothing is to ensure employees and others are safe while working. However, that doesn't mean you can't customize these garments for the betterment of your business. Here are three reasons to add your logo to your hi-vis workwear. It Looks More Professional Appearing professional is essential for any business, and adding logos to workwear absolutely helps boost professionalism. It provides a polished look that current and prospective clients will appreciate. In some regards, uniform clothing raises your company's reputation without requiring much effort! People are more likely to purchase your services if you carry a solid reputation of professionalism. It Helps With Brand Awareness Along with raising your business's reputation, adding logos to workwear helps boost brand awareness. The best way to sell a brand nowadays is through constant exposure. You want to ensure your business is always in consideration among prospective clients. Most work that requires hi-vis gear occurs in public, giving you the perfect opportunity to market your services to many people. This form of advertising is called "mere exposure," and it's a highly effective way to transmit subconscious marketing. It Separates Employees From Contractors You and your employees may work with contractors often, many of whom wear hi-vis clothing of their own. Using logos is the best way to separate your business from others involved in the project. This is beneficial for both marketing and safety. As stated before, branding your workers helps expose the public to your brand – you also want to ensure prospective clients don't confuse contractors for your business! Safety-wise, having clear markings of who works for you can help with communication and workflow. Ultimately, these reasons to add your logo to your hi-vis workwear benefit your business. They also improve the well-being of you and your employees. Modifying workwear doesn't cost much, and the returns are worth the investment. We at SafetyShirtz carry excellent custom hi-vis hoodie products for all of your company's needs!

As tough as most humans want to appear to others, the truth is that we’re actually rather fragile, especially when we consider the kinds of hazards that many of us deal with on a daily basis. We’ve always known the world is full of dangers and we’ve done everything we can to come up with ways to protect ourselves from the things in the world that we have no control over. Personal protective equipment dates back much further than many people realize. Even primitive humans knew their limits of what they could take and used their intelligence to create equipment that would make up for the lack of protection we have naturally. Certainly, things have changed a lot since those days. We’ve been able to make some things much safer, and yet also exposed ourselves to new dangers that our ancestors never even considered dealing with in the past. Technological and mechanical innovations have fixed some problems and created others, and we’ve attempted to keep up with these changes through new advancements in personal protective gear as well. In this article, we’ll take a deeper look into how personal protective equipment has evolved. Not only is it good to remember where everything started, but it also gives us a look into how new personal protective equipment might be developed in the future based on how we adapted to new technologies in the past. Personal Protection Beginnings: Ancient Times As we already mentioned, personal protective equipment can be traced back thousands of years, but most of it served very different purposes than the modern gear we’re now used to. Personal protective equipment went more commonly by a different name, but not one we’re unfamiliar with. Ancient armor was the predecessor of modern personal protective equipment. Helmets, body armor, face gear—pretty much all these things were created for the purpose of protecting the wearer from harm, usually in warfare. Early examples of armor were made almost exclusively for protection, and often made other things, such as mobility and visuals, worse as a tradeoff. Production in the Middle Ages Although many speculate that the use of personal protective equipment for purposes besides warfare traces back much further than this, there is concrete evidence that during the Middle Ages, blacksmiths would often wear personal protective equipment. This came in the form of headgear, thick aprons, and gloves in order to protect themselves from the scalding heat of their forges. Similarly, mining operations also had workers wear headgear to protect themselves. The biggest difference between then and now is that personal protective gear was likely far less regulated, and even optional in many cases. In fact, requiring workers to personal protective equipment is a rather new concept when we look at the grand history of humanity’s progress. The Evolution of Protective Clothing Protective clothing, such as equipment specifically designed to protect your body and limbs, has been around for a very long time. If we look at how personal protective equipment has evolved, we can see evidence for clothing and other gear as far back as thousands of years ago. One of the earliest signs is actually from Homer’s Odyssey, which includes a description of someone using gloves to protect their hands while working in their garden. So, the concept is not particularly new, but the materials are. Leather was a common material for a lot of personal protective equipment, and even things like sheepskin or animal intestines were used to make gloves for people who worked around materials they knew to be dangerous. With the invention of rubber, plastic, and other materials, personal protective clothing has become sturdier than ever before. The Evolution of Headgear Again, we find the origin of protective headgear in warfare before anywhere else. Even before we fully understood our anatomy, we knew that damage to our heads could cause serious issues. Ancient soldiers from as far back as 900 BCE wore headgear to keep themselves safe in battle. Strangely, protective headgear didn’t really catch on with laborers until much later. Records show that protective headgear started to become more common among workers sometime during the 1800’s, possibly due to industrialization or more readily available resources to create them from. The Evolution of Respiratory Protection Respiratory protection is one of the newer forms of personal protective equipment. Obviously, the dangers of pathogens and small particulates were never really a concern way back in the day because no one even knew they existed. As science advanced and it became clearer how dangerous these things could be, respiratory protection became vital. In more modern times, respiratory protection was regularly used during WWI, as the war saw every side employing gases and other inhalable toxins as weapons of war. This eventually translated to domestic use as well, preventing people from inhaling dangerous substances such as plastic or metal particulates, viral pathogens, and other toxic chemicals. The Evolution of High Visibility Clothing The importance of high visibility clothing is also a relatively new concept, and the technology used in them is also quite new. Fluorescent paint, for example, originates from the 1930’s. Again, we see warfare come into play as the catalyst for expanding this form of personal protective equipment. The U.S. government realized the potential for fluorescent paint as a way to prevent friendly fire during WWII, as well as to create signals and paint important areas with it that the military needed to focus on. Eventually, hi-vis clothing became a standard at hazardous workplaces as a way to make it easier to see workers on the job. Hi-vis clothing is crucial for reducing on-the-job accidents that can be easily avoided as long as everyone can see their fellow workers at a glance. Seeing how personal protective equipment has evolved over time can give you an appreciation for the equipment we use every day to keep ourselves safe. Modern materials have given us a lot of peace of mind, and hi-vis, reflective work clothes make it so accidents aren’t nearly as common as they used to be. If you work in an industry where high visibility and safety are paramount to your job, SafetyShirtz wants you to be as safe as possible while still looking your best. Check out our store for the most stylish hi-vis gear you’ll find online.

Fluorescent, reflective personal protective garments are essential for any industry professional working in a hazardous environment. Since these jobs are more rugged than an office gig, the protective clothing you rely on can get dirty quickly. A dirty work shirt or vest can actually put the wearer in more danger! Here are some tips and tricks for washing high-visibility clothing to ensure your gear is always in tip-top shape. Importance of Clean Hi-Vis Clothing Unwashed hi-vis gear is dangerous and puts you in increased danger while working on-site, whether near roadways or in remote locations. Most obviously, dirt can cover up important reflective strips, reducing your clothing’s visibility. Over time, wear and tear can dull the fluorescent color too. However, there are a few other problems that happen when you don’t clean your PPE. There’s a high probability that your exposure to various chemicals and hazardous materials can leave residue on your clothing. If you don’t remove this filth, these materials could harm you in the future. Additionally, dirty high-visibility clothing degrades faster and requires replacement more often. Standard Protocol: Reverse & Cold Wash Since high-visibility garments are tough, they’re perfectly suitable for machine washing (unless the tag specifies otherwise). As with any clothing item that’s not a simple cotton shirt or pair of jeans, follow standard protocol: reverse your item and use a cold or delicate wash setting. Flipping your shirt or vest inside out prevents reflective strips from being damaged. The cold wash prevents the fluorescent fabric from dulling and the entire item from shrinking. Additionally, you should always use a tumble-dry setting or air-dry method to dry your clothing. Hi-Vis Specific Protocol: Separate Hi-vis clothing is made with unique fabrics and materials and, as such, requires separation while washing. This prevents features such as reflective strips and markings, Velcro components, and fluorescent fabrics from interacting with your other clothes and vice versa. Plus, the dirt and filth on your work gear, combined with a large load, can cause issues for your machine. We highly recommend that you separate out all other clothing types, even other kinds of PPE, when cleaning hi-vis items. Follow these tips and tricks for washing high-visibility clothing to ensure your essential work gear is functional and 100 percent protective. If you’re in the market for new work garments, check out the custom hi-vis clothing we offer here at SafetyShirtz.

If you work in an industrial field, chances are you don’t think twice about how your personal protective equipment functions. These items prevent injuries to thousands of workers annually, so it’s essential to understand why they’re so effective. Specifically, how does reflective high-visibility clothing work? Retroreflective Material The most notable aspect of hi-vis clothing that makes it “glow” is the inclusion of retroreflective material. Commonly known as reflective stripes, retroreflective fabrics bounce light back to its source. It does this thanks to tiny glass beads and sometimes aluminum – it’s like having a mirror on your shirt! This is highly effective for roadside construction, as drivers will get a direct view of the wearer. Plus, retroreflective fabrics still shine in overcast weather conditions because the glass beads are incredibly light-sensitive. Fluorescent Complements Reflective high-visibility clothing isn’t just made with retroreflective fabrics. Most of the material used in safety garments is fluorescent! But how exactly does fluorescent differ from reflective? That orange/yellow/green fabric contains special pigments that can absorb ultraviolet lights that are invisible to the human eye. Then, those same pigments release the UV rays but with greater visibility. Unlike retroreflection, fluorescent fabrics are bright during the day and stick out from the surrounding scenery. That’s why both materials are used in tandem to create an always-visible garment. Safety Markings Being visible isn’t just about being bright – safety markings help others know which direction you are facing. The front of most hi-vis clothing features two vertical lines from the shoulders to the waist. The back almost always depicts an “X” shape, from shoulders to waist. That way, everyone at the site can know where people are and which direction they are facing. This aspect is most important for any industrial worker operating in public spaces where cars or trains are present. Some safety garments, like Class 3 apparel, have encircling stripes across the arms and legs for added visibility. Understanding how reflective high-visibility clothing works is essential for anyone who dons Hi-Vis workwear daily. If you need high-quality safety garments, browse our collection here at SafetyShirtz!