Strength at the seams

Blackwood’s industrial workwear brand, Workhorse, has updated its Australian tailored range with new clothing for night and day wear. While adhering to Australian standards, the team explains how the range holds safety and comfort at its core.

More than any year in the past few decades, 2020 has brought to light the importance of personal protective gear. In much of the world masks have become a staple feature of both work uniforms and even fashion.

The Australian Government received 160 million masks between the middle of April and May this year and the term PPE has become common language.

While we hope that masks and additional PPE will not be a long-term requirement, the importance of protective clothing for workers in challenging environments such as construction will continue to be essential.

Major industrial supplier Blackwoods has 142 years’ experience supplying tools and equipment to businesses right across Australia.

Nine years ago, the company decided to apply its experience and create its own exclusive workwear range tailored to Australian industrial businesses called Workhorse.

While the original range was released in 2014, this year the Blackwoods team saw an opportunity to update the range, bring in new and improved features to the clothing and take it to the next level of comfort and safety.

The new range

Roads & Infrastructure sat down with Leigh Eam, National Category and Sourcing Manager of Apparel and Footwear, and Cahal Callanan, Workwear Program Manager, at Blackwoods to discuss the importance of industrial uniforms.

“When we set up Workhorse, we wanted to give a real value proposition to our customers and cater to large industrial businesses that needed workwear to protect their employees on site,” Callanan says.

As part of the new range the team is developing the new range with a stretch element for construction and infrastructure companies.

“One of the main factors in the new range was to add in more stretch fabric, so it fits to workers bodies and allows more movement for people on site doing these active jobs. They are working eight to ten hours each day of really solid works so if their uniform can fit and move with them it makes them more comfortable and efficient,” he says.

Workhorse has also recently launched a new nightworks range which has been popular in Melbourne where significant road and tunnelling projects are underway.

Instead of using day-time high-visibility colours, such as yellow or orange, the range is made from white fabrics. This was implemented as white is the most naturally luminescent colour and contrasts well in dark environments.

“White really does stand out in a night-time environment and in addition with our biometric tape applied to the garments a person is really visible,” Eam says.

Biomotion retro-reflective tape is another element of design for the nightwear range that is crucial to improving safety.

“Usually you may only get one band of tape around the leg and arm for visibility. But to increase this, with our new range we added two bands on either side of the joint on the leg and arm and this makes it easier to identify which direction the person is moving in,” Eam says.

She says there is also an ‘X’ configuration across the back of the uniform so machine operators or the general public can easily identify which way a person is facing.

“With two bands featured on the arms and legs of the clothing, each band moves when a person is walking and people can clearly see the motion of that person. I think this range that Cahal has created really focuses on the fit-for-purpose needs for night works.”

Tailored for Australia

The entire Workhorse range uses Blackwoods’ expertise by listening to its customer support staff to identify what unique needs Australian industries have.

“Getting direct information from workers about what they need helps us to develop the right product for them and that has been reflected in this range,” Callanan says.

One aspect that is central to Workhorse’s range is the use of 100 per cent cotton fabric.

“Australians love wearing 100 per cent cotton and we know that the Australian high-visibility standard has been modified to allow workwear ranges to use the natural cotton that Australians want,” he says.

“There are also a range of other factors like clothing vents to combat heat and collars that can be pulled up around the neck to protect from the sun. We created clothing with these elements, and they are intrinsic to our workwear range.”

Aside from comfort, Callanan points out how critical the correct workwear is in industrial environments but especially for civil works.

“For anyone working anywhere near a moving vehicle it is critical to have the right workwear, ensuring the colours meet the requirement and are looked after to maintain visibility,” he says.

“Even simple things like wearing a day shirt in bright sunlight will be okay but when the sun comes down, as it does early in some parts of the country, if you don’t have a reflective tape on your shirt you are at high risk.”

Eam points out the Australian standard for high visibility clothing must be met and everything Workhorse produces is tested to ensure the clothing provides the ultimate protection for workers.

“With the launch of this new range Workhorse is also debuting its new branding. We wanted to choose a logo that was bold and progressive, to reflect the brand,” she says.

“The night whites’ collection is available now and the new stretch collection will be released early in 2021 to coincide with the ‘back to work’ season.”