Whether you're just starting out a brand new company or have had a large team for a while, it can be a bit daunting to create a company uniform - especially if you don't know where to start. I think one of the most important things to realise and remember is that your company uniform is your branding in a 3D form. You're taking all of the best parts of your logo and colour scheme and making it wearable!

You have the perfect chance to be creative and showcase what your company is about! This can be smart and sophisticated, or bold and colourful - whatever you choose it's your perfect chance to experiment when branding your workwear for you and your team that will withstand years of wear with your business.

Where Do I Begin?

In this blog we'll be covering all of the bases of what you should consider when choosing your uniform essentials, and what is worth noting for when you're branding your workwear. The last thing you want to happen is to not consider something such as working environments, and end up having to fork out more money to re-do the uniform.

So, What Is A Practical Company Uniform?

The very first thing you must think about when you start considering purchasing a company uniform is the practicality.

"What do you mean by a practical uniform?" I hear you ask, well, I'll use our warehouse and office as an example:

Due to where Thread A Pixel is based, the nature of the office and warehouse is on the colder side, especially during the winter. The warehouse and office have differing temperatures, this means that what our warehouse staff wear compared to our office staff is drastically different! Some of the practical elements we had to consider was ensuring there were more layers available for the warehouse staff that still allowed movement with as much warmth as possible.

Taking this back to your company, there are a few ways that you can discover what your workwear requirements are such as asking yourself;

• What is the nature of where you work? Do you have to prioritise protecting certain areas of your workforce that work in areas of concern for safety?
• Is where you work on the warmer or colder side? Take into consideration of if you need to layer, or if you need thinner lightweight garments.
• Do you or your team members feel the cold/warmth more than others? If you or your team feel the cold or warmth more than others, this also plays into what is mentioned above - a colder employee would benefit from thermals, whereas a warmer employee would benefit from thinner, moisture wicking t-shirts.
• Do you work outside or inside? Working outside would mean that you would need access to different garments such as coats, possibly hi-vis, whereas you could get away with jumpers and polo shirts inside.

All of these are questions that are important to ask yourself before you start bulk buying your workwear, because realistically everyone is so different and it's so important to protect your workers with the appropriate uniform essentials.

Choosing The Right Size

One of the main advantages of wearing a company uniform is that it unites your workforce, and ensures everyone feels equal when working together. But, one of the biggest disadvantages that many employers face is their staff members complaining about uncomfortable and ill-fitting workwear. Something which is so simple and easy to fix can easily affect your companies brand image, but wouldn't be a problem if the correct time was taken to assess the practical and size needs for every staff member.

Choosing clothing sizes is complicated, but within recent years our stocked brands have become more aware of the difficulties of finding certain sizes and are finally becoming more size inclusive. One of our most popular clothing brands, Russell, has a range that is extending their sizes constantly growing as well as ladies fit! This size and sex inclusivity is so refreshing to see sit along side our slim-fit ranges that perfectly suit more petite or smaller frames.

That being said, each brand has a different sizing chart and way that their clothes fit your body. The biggest piece of advice our team can give is to try on multiple sizes and brands to find what is most comfortable for yourself and your team. Here at Thread A Pixel we can help with this issue through trying on clothes in our showroom, and offering samples for your team to try on in person to correctly assess what size they will need.

You are meant to fit your clothes, your clothes are not meant to fit you. So, if you have any concerns on smaller or larger sizing options our team are more than happy to help assist you without judgement.

Quantities and Stock Management

Regardless of if you have a larger or a smaller company, knowing how much to purchase for your team is a hard one to judge. Running a company regardless of size can mean that it can be difficult to assess how many items are required for each staff member, and how much extra stock you should hold back.

Once you have assessed what your uniform essentials are, and what is needed for each team member, you can assess how much you need to purchase. The easiest and most obvious way to do this is by ensuring that every staff member has your chosen number of garments, and ordering that amount. But, if you're a larger growing company which is constantly hiring new staff members, it can be easier to take that number and purchase a few extras of each size to ensure that you're covered for a short while before making another large scale purchase.

Thread A Pixel has no minimum order, meaning that if you did need to purchase extra one off pieces or extra uniform essentials you may have missed there is no issue working to produce more for you!

Logos and Your Company Uniform

Phew, now we've gone past some of the important information, now we can go into the fun stuff! Your logo is your brands identity, so why should your uniform be any different? As mentioned above your company uniform is your living and breathing brand in 3D form. Or, a slightly less scary example; your workers are representing your brand, so why should they not look their best when doing it?

One of the challenges when creating workwear is deciding where you want your logo to sit. There are so many options when it comes to embroidering or printing your logo, but the most popular are:

Left chest, right chest, left arm, right arm, nape of neck and full-back of garment

Ensuring that your logo works with all of these placements makes your life so much easier. For instance, if your logo is large, and only works on the back of your garment, you're losing prime advertising space on the front left chest just because your logo doesn't fit/work for that space. A popular choice many customers make when branding their workwear is to have the logo on the front left chest embroidered, and your larger information and graphics printed to the back of the garment.

The complexity of your logo is also vital to note. If you have a lot of small detail it may change or affect the finished design you're after. For example: if you are wanting an embroidered garment, but your logo is detailed and complex, you might find that vinyl printing could be the better option when branding your workwear.

If you're still unsure about whether your logo meets the needs for printing and embroidery, check out our blog post on vector logos, or contact our experienced team for more information!

Product Colour

At Thread A Pixel, our branding colours are yellow and grey, and lucky for us a lot of companies sure love their grey!

When it comes to choosing your product colour, long gone are the days of being limited to black and white as base colours, in fact, we embroider more colourful garments than black and white these days. It's so exciting to see more brands jumping down different avenues that they didn't expect to go down, and truly embracing that workwear can be such an exciting thing to brand!

There are a few things that are worth remembering when choosing your workwear base colour, and perhaps the most important one to think about is: Does this base colour work with my logo colour?

For instance; our lovely octopus logo is yellow. If we chose a bright red garment for that logo to sit on, it just wouldn't work. Would it be striking? Yes. But would it remind people of a very specific fast food restaurant? Also yes.

Taking the time to brainstorm how you want your company to come across to your customers is vital. Monochromatic colours such as black, white, grey, can be striking in their own way, but also provide an air of professionalism and seriousness. A company that chooses to use bright colours that are different for each staff member can showcase that you are a fun brand. Your workwear is an extension of your business, so deciding how you want to come across is so important!

When noting product colour, it's also important to think of the practical aspect again. If you're working with a lot of dirt and oil for example, a darker colour is more suited. But, if you're working in a busy warehouse, perhaps a bright purple or turquoise polo shirt would be more fitting? These are your uniform essentials - they have to work for you and your needs!

Final Note

Whatever way you choose to customise your garments when branding your workwear, our team are always on hand to assist you.

We offer so many ways to customise your garments and uniform essentials, but if you need any extra assistance such as creating or changing your logo, or if you have any additional queries get in touch! We're more than happy to help out!