WHY YOU SHOULDN'T BUY CHEAP UNIFORMS

Why You Shouldn’t buy cheap uniforms

If your business has a large team, it can be a daunting mission to invest a lot of money into kitting your employees out with new uniforms.

There are many options out there including some very cheap alternatives, but you should not be fooled by these fictitious fees.

Cheap clothing comes at a price and is often higher than the real thing. Here are four reasons you should not buy the cheapest uniform you find.

Cheap clothing does not last long!

Everyone knows cheap clothing does not last long; there’s a reason that the price tag is so low. Manufacturers who make cheap clothing must cut corners wherever possible to offer you that low price.

One way they do this is by using inexpensive fabric tantamount to poor quality. This often leads to your garments aging a lot faster than they should. We’ve had new clients come to us many times asking why their previous uniforms are simply falling apart. The answer is very straightforward; they’re made of awful fabric.

The manufacturing process also plays a large role in the lifespan of a clothing item. Factories whose goal is to churn out as many units as possible within a given timeframe often miss small details on the stitching and cutting processes. This means your garments will begin to look tired faster.

We in the uniform business would get crucified if our garments only lasted 10-12 weeks, or wears, or even only 10-12 months. When people buy uniforms from us, they are expected to last for several years of day-to-day wear, and we would lose customers if they didn’t last that long. The reason is that uniforms are made to a much higher technical standard than the typical fashion items from the main street. True the fabrics are not as delicate or as brightly colored, but their?actual construction (how they are made) differs too. They are manufactured for durability with attention given to how they fit, to allow for?movement on the job and they have things like bar-tacks at stress points and twin-needle stitching to ensure durability.

Wastage

They say that every year around 100 Billion garments are manufactured globally. That’s about 10-12 items per person if my maths is correct. In addition, they say that globally around this many garments are disposed of annually as well. In New Zealand alone, they say that around 5% of our landfill is made up of textiles.

Uniforms that don’t last long mean you have to throw them out more often. It may not seem like a lot of waste when you’re throwing out just one item but collectively it adds up.

Did you know that in the US, 10 million tons of clothing are thrown into landfill each year? That’s equivalent to the 1.7 Great Pyramid of Giza! Buying quality clothes = clothes that last longer = decrease in textile waste.

Unsustainable

The clothing industry is responsible for 10% of global emissions; that’s more than all flights and shipping worldwide. Buying cheap uniforms is not a sustainable option because the resources used to produce them are wasted within a year. A quality garment that uses a similar amount of resources will last up to ten or more years if cared for properly.

Case Study

We often hear of some of our Uniwears customer's garments lasting 3 to 5 years, but recently we came across an Uniwears customer whose uniform had lasted between 12-15 years and was still going strong despite being washed commercially several times a week!

While this is not good for sales as such, it is, however, a great testament to longevity.

When you think about it, if all the garments manufactured globally lasted this long imagine how much less the textile wastage would be. So, this important approach – longevity and wearing your clothes for longer - is probably a greater contributor to sustainability and reducing wastage than the issues associated with repurposing and recycling clothing (as altruistic as that is).

So do the right thing and purchase your garments with an eye to longevity not because it is the latest fashion shade.

thursday, Aug 11, 2022