Corporate uniforms come in all shapes of colours, fabrics, and textures. These variables can affect how workwear is perceived by your consumers and you want to achieve a level of coherence that’s synonymous with your brand. Your corporate clothing should match your company’s goals, values, and visions if you want to utilise it to its full advantage.

Regardless of whether you’re fresh out of the startup or in need of a redo on your organisation’s current look, it is crucial to nail the foundations of a great corporate uniform. Here are 5 important features to keep in mind when designing your company’s workwear.

1. Colour selection

The first feature that you should consider when designing workwear is the colour of the clothing. The colours should be associated with your brand’s logo to help make it instantly recognizable to your customers. Having a staff that wears the colours of your brand conveys a message of unity and professionalism, both of which are essential to increasing customer engagement.

2. Proper fitting

Some business owners underestimate the importance of workwear that actually fits. You want your employees to feel comfortable while wearing their uniforms to help enhance productivity. If the clothes don’t fit well, your employees won’t like wearing them and this can lead to decreased morale. Consider the proper fit for each of your staff to reinforce their sense of pride when wearing company clothing.

3. Fabric choices

The fabrics used for corporate uniforms are significantly different from those found in retail clothes. Corporate fabrics are purposely built to accommodate employees and perform to a much higher standard. As technical and manual work can be tough on clothes, corporate uniforms are made of hard-wearing fabrics that are robust and comfortable at the same time. These items are built to withstand everyday usage and will enjoy a longer usage life compared to store-bought clothing.

When selecting workwear fabrics, choose one that suits the work environment of your employees and the tasks that they’re performing. For example, cotton and linen blends are perfect for warm, summer environments while silk and polyester are more suited to a corporate setting.

4. Functionality

It can be easy to get carried away and focus solely on the aesthetics of the uniform when designing it. But the goal here is to make the clothing practical and functional. The design should be intended to suit the various activities that your employee will be performing. This can include bespoke features that allow your employees to achieve their daily tasks without any issues.

5. Style and fashion

Let’s face it, no one wants to wear boring, outdated clothes. While corporate uniforms are designed with professionalism in mind, that doesn’t mean its style should be compromised. You want your design to be fresh and up-to-date so that your employees will take pride in what they’re wearing. Take a look at current fashion trends and try to implement subtle design changes to make your workwear look sleek and presentable.

No matter which industry you’re in, having a corporate uniform is an integral part of your marketing strategy. One way to implement this strategy is by providing your employees with workwear and apparel that features your brand’s logo. Branded uniforms have been shown to be a cost-effective way of boosting employee morale, customer engagement, and your brand identity.

Supplying your workforce is with a corporate uniform can be a time-consuming and costly expense. But how can you be assured that it’s worth your precious resources? Today we’ll be discussing the importance of a corporate uniform and how it can benefit you in 5 ways.

1. It gives an air of professionalism.

Successful entrepreneurs know the power of a first impression. Your employees represent your brand’s image and you want them to appear professional in the eyes of your customers. Just like having a well-designed website and a good-looking business card, a uniformed staff greatly affects the perception of people outside your company.

Corporate uniforms give a signal to consumers that you mean business and you know what you’re doing. As they say, first impressions last and you want to make a statement the first time people interact with your business.

2. Enhances customer service

When a customer enters your business, they will be able to identify your staff easily. This eliminates wasted time looking for someone to help assist them with their concerns, thus enhancing customer service. Wearing corporate uniforms reinforce trust and confidence, things that consumers are always looking for in a brand. You wouldn’t trust a sales agent to do business with you if he/she was wearing casual clothing, right?

3. Walking form of advertising

Employees will have a greater sense of pride in wearing branded workwear and this can transform into a walking form of advertising. Everywhere they go, your employees will appear as brand ambassadors and people will start to notice your business. Corporate uniforms are a great way to spread brand awareness which in turn can lead to more sales and revenue.

4. Promotes staff equality

Your employees come from different backgrounds and all of them are unique in their own right. That said, not all of them understand proper work attire. Corporate uniforms prevent your employee from showing up with inappropriate/distracting clothing at work. It also promotes a sense of equality among the staff. When everyone is wearing the same uniform, it doesn’t matter what your social status is. Everyone is on the same page towards achieving the goals that your company has set out to do.

5. Builds team spirit

In the spirit of team building, cohesion is a crucial element. And what better way to form a tightly-knit group by having them wear company workwear. It establishes a team culture and every member of the workforce feels valued by the company. Let’s face it, we all want to be a part of a successful team and this can be achieved by embracing the feeling of inclusion in a group.

Take a look at your polo shirt. You’ll notice that their fabrics are a little bit different compared to your favourite t-shirt or button up. But why is that exactly? Turns out there’s a reason behind the materials used for this iconic garment. From sporting attire to leisurewear, the polo shirt has come a long way since it was first introduced. Today we’ll be discussing the significance of the fabrics that make up the polo shirt and find out why the choice of materials is very important.

The history of the polo shirt

Before we get started, let’s talk about the brief history of the polo shirt. In today’s world where athleisure is an ongoing trend, the polo shirt was actually conceived by a French tennis champion who wanted to design a garment that’s made specifically for sports. That man was none other than Jean René Lacoste himself, founder of the famous clothing company Lacoste.  Nicknamed “The Crocodile” for his demeanour on the court, Jean René Lacoste embraced it and began his journey on creating tennis shirts with the crocodile logo embroidered on the garment.

The new tennis shirt had shorter sleeves to allow better movement during tennis games and a performance-oriented fabric was used (more on that later.) The simplified collar provided a look of formality while still feeling comfortable enough whilst playing. From there the classic tennis shirt transitioned into the polo shirt that we all love and wear today.

From tennis shirt to polo shirt

Renowned American designer Ralph Lauren burst onto the fashion scene and started producing leisurewear for rich individuals where the clothes would feel comfortable enough but still resemble their wealthy status. Lauren’s clothing line was called Polo because according to him, the garment looked the most elegant out of any sportswear at the time. By the late 70’s and early 80’s, the battle between Lacoste and Polo ensued when Lauren introduced his own version of the tennis shirt called “Polo”.

While most people associated Lacoste with higher quality, the name “polo shirt” ultimately surpassed the words “tennis shirt”.

How the fabrics are made

Because of the polo shirt’s sporty heritage, the fabrics used are mostly piqué or jersey. But before explaining the difference between the two fabrics, it’s important to know how these fabrics are made. For centuries, humans have used two methods for producing fabrics and those are weaving and knitting.

• Weaving is the process of interlacing long threads with each other to produce a fabric. The threads are placed in a horizontal and vertical manner (similar to a checkerboard) which holds them together. Some examples are denim and cotton which are woven to create the fabric. Weaving can either be simple or complex depending on the pattern of choice.
  

• Knitting, on the other hand, is a process where long needles are used to produce a fabric by creating stitches of a single yarn. The easiest way to identify if a garment is knitted is by looking at the material very closely. If you see a braided pattern right next to each other, chances are that garment is knitted.

What does this mean for polo shirts?

Polo shirts are usually made of knitted fabrics, but nowadays the garment can be made out of different fabrics such as silk and linen, with piqué and jersey being the most popular. The pique knit became the fabric of choice for Lacoste because of its breathability, flexibility, and durability (which helped greatly when playing sports). Upon close inspection, you’ll see a honeycomb or waffle-like pattern. Some polo shirts are double piquéd where two types of threads are combined. This is done to strengthen the fabric or to reduce costs by fusing together a lower quality material with a higher quality one.

Double piquéd polo shirts are also sometimes a design choice as combining textiles of varying colours can create a singular effect, enhancing its aesthetic appeal. Meanwhile, jersey polo shirts tend to be more performance-oriented and have a much softer texture than its piqué counterpart. Coco Chanel popularized the jersey fabric with their t-shirts and today the fabric has been used not just on polos, but other garments that are geared towards comfortability.

Which one is better? Jersey or piqué 

At the end of the day, it’s all about personal preference. Go with what you think works best for you. For some people, polo shirts made of piqué look more high-end because of the stronger fabric and the sturdier collar. For others, jersey polos are a perfect choice because it’s more comfortable to wear. You can tell what material a polo is made just by touching it. For reference:

Jersey

• Feel soft and smooth to the touch
• Much cheaper than piqué
• Similar to a t-shirt

Piqué

• Feels thicker and heavier
• Texturised
• More breathable than jersey
• Honeycomb-like pattern upon close inspection

The polo shirt is a wardrobe staple and it’s crucial to select the right fabric to make the garment work for you. If you want to rock the athleisure trend, go with a polo shirt that provides increased comfort. If you want a polo shirt that looks sleek and elegant, go with one that has a strong collar and thicker fabric. 

Bladon WA provides quality embroidered polo shirts in Perth, with a range of different styles available.

Whether it be in chemistry labs or operating rooms, you’ll come across people wearing white lab coats. The same thing goes for physicists and med-school students. The white lab coat is a classic garment that represents most medical and scientific settings. People associate a white lab coat with medicine and science in one form or another. But the question is, why do they use a white lab coat? Won’t chemical spills and bodily fluids easily stain it’s rather immaculate appearance?

Apparently, there is a reason behind the colour scheme. Today we’ll be discussing why lab coats are white and why it’s important for people in the medical and scientific field to wear this colour-specific garment.

It’s much easier to practice proper hygiene

The medical and scientific field requires flawless equipment and attire for a good reason. White is the colour of choice because it’s relatively easy to spot harmful bacteria, chemicals, and other pathogens that come in contact with the fabric. Lab coats act as an armor that shields the wearer from all kinds of harmful microorganisms. A white lab coat shows kinks in the armor quite easily and it’s much easier to practice proper hygiene for the wearer’s health and safety.

Nurses and scientists can tell when a white lab coat needs to be cleaned as opposed to a dark-coloured one that makes stains quite difficult to spot. This helps reduce the risk of infections and diseases that could otherwise be passed on when not cleaned appropriately. A white lab coat is also much easier to maintain. Should a white lab coat require chemical cleaning or bleaching, the fibers won’t be damaged or discoloured.

The costs are much lower

To this day, the origin of the white lab coat is still unknown. But before it became a mainstream garment, beige was the colour of choice. The shift to a white lab coat can be attributed to costs since dying fabric can be quite expensive. The need to keep dyed lab coats properly cleaned made it expensive to maintain and keeping it in good shape can be difficult as well.

The white lab coat has earned its status as a practical workhorse garment. Its low-cost and low-maintenance qualities have made it the colour of choice for lab coats used in medical and scientific fields.

It serves a powerful symbolic significance

A white lab coat is universally recognised as a symbol of rigor across the medical and scientific professions around the world. Donning a white lab coat carries a symbolic significance in which the wearer is proud to display. This rings true especially in medicine where the colour white promotes academic maturity and scientific rigor. Before doctors started wearing white lab coats, they wore the trademark black suits. The attempt to switch to the white lab coat was done to move past the stigma of snake-oil vendors and bring forth an image of a respectable scientist associated with modern medicine. Today, many medical students receive their white lab coat as a rite of passage; transitioning from learning medicine to actual application.

Even chemistry students wear their white lab coats with pride. It represents their dedication and training to learn science in the highest standard possible. Ask a chemistry student about wearing a white lab coat and they’ll say it’s a symbol of competency in any scientific field. In an academic field, the white lab coat helps distinguish students of different majors and it can also differentiate specializations from one student to another.

It gives a sense of comfort and assurance

White lab coats don’t just apply to students and professionals. For the patients, it can serve as a sign of comfort and relief. Seeing a person wearing a white lab coat means that their medical needs will be attended to and that in itself has made the garment withstand the test of time. Patients can feel uneasy or nervous in any hospital environment but when they see a person wearing a white lab coat, their anxiety and fear are relieved. This is because the colour white can be associated with professionalism and cleanliness that the doctors exude when wearing such a garment. 

You can see the significance of the white lab coat when you step inside a hospital. In a medical setting, patients can easily tell doctors and physicians apart from other staff. From professionalism to practicality, a white lab coat gives a sense of assurance to the wearer and the patient. A white lab coat communicates the doctor’s medical intent to cure the illness of the patient and the colour itself represents purity and compassion.

Practical science played an important role

As one of the founding fathers of physics, Albert Einstein once said, “It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.” Since then, there have been many renditions of this quote that equates to one simple meaning; practical science.

The white lab coat serves as a reminder that science isn’t intended to be a complex collection of technical jargon, but a collective exploration of how our world and our universe works. This approach has made its way into modern science and it’s one of the reasons why lab coats are donned by many professionals today. It’s practical and it embodies science in the simplest way possible.

Few items can make an immediate statement than a sharp corporate uniform. It makes your employees stand out and it gives off an air of professionalism around them. Corporate uniforms are more than just an article of clothing — it represents your brand image and it influences how your company is viewed by your clients. There are plenty of styles, colors, and textures to choose from and it can be quite challenging to get the right mix. To make the process much easier, today we’ll be discussing some important tips when designing the uniforms.

Pay attention to comfort

Good looks are vital to an impressive corporate image, but that doesn’t mean that comfort should be compromised in favor of aesthetics. Your employees should feel comfortable wearing your work uniforms so they can rock it with confidence. When designing work wear, consider the tasks of your employees while they wear the uniforms. They should be able to comfortably perform their duties without hindering their physical dexterity. The type of fabrics and cuts will play a huge role in the uniform’s overall comfortability.

You should also take into account the working environment of your employees. If they work in relatively humid conditions, breathable fabrics like silk and nylon are recommended. For colder climates, cotton and wool work best to keep your employees insulated from the low temperatures. When your employees feel comfortable wearing their uniforms, they can focus more on their tasks instead of stressing over how they look.

Use high quality materials

Another important aspect of workplace uniform design is the overall quality of the materials used. You want to select fabrics and accessories that are of high quality to not only provide comfort, but durability as well. Although the costs are going to be high, the amount of comfort it’ll provide to your employees will definitely be worth the price. Some companies cheap out on corporate clothing by using poor quality materials that deteriorate quickly.

No one wants to wear poorly made clothing, especially your employees. Not to mention that it’ll only add up to more costs after it starts breaking down after a few washes. It’s better to invest in high-quality clothing that’ll last for years to come instead of using cheap clothing only to replace them every few months. Supplying your workforce with well-designed uniforms will provide them with a  huge confidence boost. This can help increase their productivity and make them feel valued by the company which is essential to employee loyalty.

You don’t want to go too overboard by choosing only premium materials. You can find good quality fabrics at a reasonable price so make sure to acquire them from a reputable supplier. They usually give discounts to people who buy in bulk for uniform design so keep that in mind in order to save costs.

Choose the correct fabric

There are a dozen fabrics to choose from when designing your uniforms. You want to choose the correct fabric that’s appropriate for the work conditions of your employees. For example, cotton blended filaments help make uniforms more lighter and gentler to wear. This adds a unique feel to it when worn and can make it more comfortable for employees to wear no matter what task they’re performing. This can ultimately affect worker productivity based on how they feel when wearing the uniforms.

It might be tempting to select cheap fabrics like a high blend of polyester to save money, but it’ll make the uniform uncomfortable to wear and it might even hinder your employee’s productivity. For the perfect blend of aesthetics and comfortability, a combination of chambray and fila-fill fabric will work best for designing your uniforms.

Pick your colour palettes wisely

Aside from the design and the materials used, the choice of colours will have a huge impact on how the uniforms look. Textures and patterns make your uniforms more interesting, but adding too much detail will result in a rather messy look. The best way to pick your colour palettes are to refer to your company’s logo. Choose subtle colours that best represent your company and you want to keep the bright colours toned down. You don’t want your employees to look like walking neon lights while wearing their uniforms.

Lighter shades of clothing with good contrast are perfect for employees who work in the retail sector because it makes them easier to identify. Conversely, darker shades of clothing are particularly useful for jobs such as mechanics or assembly line workers to prevent stains from becoming visible.

Keep your brand image in mind

When you think about it, branded uniforms are essentially a free form of marketing tool. You have your company’s logo embroidered on it as well as the colours associated with your business. This can make a huge difference in terms of how your employees are perceived by the general public. Pick subtle colour choices and design themes when designing uniforms. The small details matter such as the name tag, logo options, and accessories. These can make or break an outfit and either improve your brand image or affect it negatively.

Conclusion

Designing uniforms can be a challenging task, but with the help of these tips, you’ll be able to create company workwear that will not only increase the productivity of your workers, but will also benefit your brand image in more ways than one. Follow these tips carefully so you can design the perfect corporate workwear for your employees.