Nowadays, workwear reflects a company’s professionalism at the workplace, particularly in the manufacturing and corporate sectors. In addition, it is expected to remain a concern, as the increasing occurrence of accidents at the workplace is expected to promote wearing appropriate apparel. The International Labor Organization (ILO) reports that around 2.3 million people worldwide die annually from work-related accidents.
Noticing a growing demand for innovative workwear worldwide, prominent market players have been innovating their technologies over the years. The main request is to achieve comfortable, lightweight, and durable apparel, as many fields are confronting the scenario where they have to often change the clothes of their workers, even more than three times per year.
Let’s take as an example the workwear for food companies. It has to provide safety, but also hygiene and comfort. The requirements for the wearer, which has to support his activities, are correlated with risk levels in food production. Performance and efficiency in doing simple tasks are also a priority.
Moreover, during the pandemic, the increase in workflow in the medical field has resulted in large requests for surgical and biological workwear, and major Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) manufacturers intensified production capacity to try to meet the market demand.
Managing and assigning the correct size to hundreds of employees to produce their uniforms is very complicated. Customized clothes are expensive, the production is prone to take more time than in the usual fashion sector, and the waste resulting in unusable items would be unprecedented.
Fitting wearers take time. There are many working fields where you don’t need just a medical gown; you may require up to 5 items. It is not just a minor inconvenience, as it is not just a minor inconvenience. Imagine the impact of having staff out of uniforms while waiting for the correct measurements to be taken. So we are spent taking measures, making adjustments, and trying things.
We are used to the e-commerce market, where consumers expect free returns or cheap ones, as we have previously discussed in another blog post. This is typically not the case with corporate uniforms, as it is the responsibility of the individual ordering the uniform to ensure the correct sizes for each garment. Indeed, uniform suppliers tend to have lower return rates but face lower differences between dimensions, which can quickly transform into mistakes. Take also into consideration the fact that the majority of workwear items are branded, so the returns cannot be resold.
The environmental issue is also to be taken into discussion. You may be sustainable across the supply chain, from materials to logistics. Even if the fiber is recyclable and your goods might be shipped sustainably, it is equal to zero if the items are all unusable and thrown away because the wrong sizes have been ordered. There is a constant discussion about the textiles industry and its impact on the environment. Still, we believe that not so many people are aware of this issue’s dimension. Fabrics are the fourth highest-pressure category in raw materials and water quantity usage. The global impact is severe, contributing to about 1.2 billion tons of CO2. With the current trajectory, the sector is expected to represent a quarter of the total carbon budget by 2050.
How can the workwear industry benefit from Esenca Solutions?
The best thing about sizing solutions is that they will automatically reduce operational costs, improve the processes of obtaining the right size for each employee, and give the best results.
You can have the measurements of 60 people in only one hour (or even less), from head to toe, accurate and ready to be used in producing any item that you might need for the equipment. The wearer is not stressed or frustrated by the process and can be confident that the clothes will fit the best they can. It is a known fact that an employee who feels good in their attire will perform better at his tasks.
And, as the saying goes, a poor workman blames his tools, but you can’t blame the workman for his skimpy outfit!
