In the early nineties, much of the fire retardant clothing used by the refineries and electric utilities was purchased directly from the source: the FR clothing manufacturer.
There were two significant problems with this. First, the initial cost of purchasing an entire clothing program was overwhelming. Secondly, the safety supervisors became so inundated with sizing, ordering, inventorying and returning FR clothing, that they had little time to do much of anything else.
As time passed, the large industrial laundry companies offered a solution: they could manage these programs and lower the "end user's" initial purchase price by offering either a rental or a lease program. A rental afforded the end user the option of having their garments cleaned, repaired and placed back into lockers each week. A lease provided the end user garments without the wash and repair option. At times, these programs forced the end user to order anywhere from 11-18 sets of garments per man.
There were also two problems with this path. First, the cost of an FR clothing rental program over a five year period were significantly higher than if the end user were to initially purchase flame resistant garments outright. The second problem had to do with being locked into a program for 5 years. With the emergence of many new materials, and with the move towards more stylish, street-wear looking garments, employees and the companies they worked for began to demand the latest products.
The next trend for acquiring FR clothing was to purchase through a safety distributor. By using a clothing distributor, the end user could buy a year's worth of garments and also be able to update and change their order as new and improved products became available. Also, distributors were not locked into one specific manufacturer, and instead could "cherry pick" the best garments from a variety of products.
This method of providing garments worked fine, except that more and more end users needed a better way of tracking their employee's clothing. A few distributors took a forward-thinking approach by offering online management programs which are still very popular today.
With the emergence of NFPA 70E, there has been an explosion of people looking for FR apparel. A majority of these people have not worked with the safety industry and do not know where to begin to find FR clothing. The trend has been (and should be for the next several years) to search the internet for solutions to their protective clothing needs. While this can be confusing and time-consuming, there are ways around tedious internet hunting: FRSafety has experience in working with FR PPE distributors and providing personalized clothing programs. Contact one of our representatives today to discuss program enrollment.