Not every location on the job site calls for the same safety gear, so manufacturers have developed different types of high visibility workwear for different types of risk and work environments. A night shift crew doing traffic control work has different safety needs compared to an indoor warehouse worker who moves pallets.
Understanding the different types of high visibility workwear allows clothing brands, retailers, and private label buyers to select the right products to meet their customers’ needs. In this guide, we will cover the major types of workwear, what sets them apart, and how they should be used to create a robust hi-vis catalog.
Why Different Types of High Visibility Workwear are Needed
Safety apparel doesn’t fit one size, so the types of high visibility workwear show this differentiation directly. Manufacturers create each of the types of high visibility workwear to best combine visibility class, the environment’s weather, and the degree of mobility, since a worker on the highway is much different than a person doing traffic control in a parking lot.
Buyers can avoid selling products in a demand mismatch and ensure sellable inventory by understanding these classifications. Private label programs demand this differentiation even more to avoid competitors filling gaps in their catalog left by selling unwanted product mixes.
Safety Vests: Most Common Type
Safety vests classify the highest recognition among high visibility workwear options. They are easily worn over existing clothes and do not require a full change of clothes as a formal uniform might. Generally, a safety vest has a front, back, and shoulder mesh or solid fluorescent fabric(s) with reflective tape.
Because safety vests span almost every trade from construction to temporary event staffing, they are the primary purchases made by brands offering a private label safety line. Compared to other workwear options, safety vests are a lightweight, less expensive option to customize with a logo or other company branding.
High Visibility Jackets: Weather Protection
While safety vests may fulfill protection needs of workers in most conditions, there are situations where additional protection is needed, making a hi-vis jacket necessary. High visibility jackets combine either fluorescent fabric or reflective tape with weather resistant fabric or insulated fabric to provide protection from the elements while retaining visibility.
Retailers in cold regions or in industries such as utilities and transportation where inventory may be exposed to the elements for long periods of time, see a much greater demand for hi-vis jackets. For these types of inventory needs, it would be prudent to carry a range of jacket weights from a light shell to a heavy insulated jacket.
Rainwear Designed for Visibility and the Elements
Rainy construction sites bring different challenges from the usual, as standard fluorescent fabrics lose their impact when saturated. Using constructed rainwear combines waterproof, or water resistant, materials with certified reflective materials. These materials maintain visibility in heavy rains or even in fog.
This type of high visibility workwear sees use mainly from road crews and utility workers as well as outdoor workers regardless of the weather. Purchasing rainwear should ensure that the waterproofing does not lessen the fabric’s certified luminance rating, as some treatments can dull the fabric’s fluorescence over time.
Workwear Designed to be Durable Daily
There are also workers who need a durable everyday layer that still meets the visibility standards, and that is what workwear jacket design aims for. These jackets use heavier fabric along with reinforced stitching to hold up to everyday use in construction, warehousing, and other industrial roles.
These jackets, being weather specific gear, tend to be used every day, and are therefore a good selling point for a buyer who wants to reduce the number of SKUs they need to stock to a large extent while covering many different functions. It is also a good starting point for brands creating a private label, because it is a good blend of function with less complex manufacturing.
Safety Gloves as Adjacent Category
Although safety gloves do not as often carry the same fluorescent visibility requirement as jackets or vests, many buyers looking to create a safety line will want complementary accessories. Safety gloves then round out a catalog by protecting visibility needs for the hand.
Retailers purchase safety gear in bundles rather than pieces. Therefore, combining gloves with high visibility core garments provides retailers with a better offering. This approach increases average order value for bulk and B2B buyers, who purchase safety gear for their teams.
Safety Jackets for High-Risk Jobs
There are some jobs where safety jackets with standard visibility features are not enough. For those types of jobs, there are safety jackets with reinforced and higher class construction with added protective elements. These types of jackets usually get used by night shift road crews, emergency responders, and other jobs where needing visibility is critical and dangerous.
Since these types of jackets fall under Class 3 certification, they cost more and require more stringent composite testing, which creates a higher barrier of entry. Users of these jackets have to be aware of the certification, since this is where they can easily create a lot of liability exposure for themselves.
The Right Mix of Types for Your Catalog
The first step in choosing the right mix of types for high visibility workwear in your catalog is understanding your end buyer’s working environment. For example, a catalog serving logistics and warehousing clients should have a focus on vests and gloves. On the other hand, a catalog serving road construction and utility crews should have a focus on jackets, rainwear, and other safety jackets.
From here, buyers should consider the level of customization, and how complex it is to manufacture a product, since vests can be more rapidly produced for private label branding than other products like rainwear or insulated jackets. Review the workwear catalog and expected demand by the region and the season to avoid overstocking slow moving categories.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main categories of high visibility workwear?
They include: safety vests, high visibility jackets, rainwears, workwear jackets, specialized safety jackets, gloves, etc.
Are all the types of high visibility workwear certified the same?
Not really. There’s a specific certification for each type of garment and intended risk class. Therefore, it is important to ascertain the ANSI or EN ISO class for which a garment is meant before using it for such purpose.
Do retailers need to sell all types of high visibility workwear?
Not really. The right type will depend on the industry and location. So it may be more effective to sell the highest demand types and then add more based on actual sales.
Final Thoughts
The different types of high visibility workwear illustrate the varied conditions of a real work site, ranging from indoor warehouses to outdoor exposed locations in inclement weather. Choosing a particular garment type over others is a better way to build a catalog than to settle for a random assortment and hope that works.
Eco-Jersey helps brands and retailers create that mix from essentials like vests and jackets to specialized safety gear made with certified manufacturing across all categories. See the offerings or schedule a sourcing consultation to create a safety apparel portfolio tailored to your buyers.
