May/June 2008

Every Uniform Tells a Story
Elbeco customers share their most memorable moments in uniform.
By Mary Beth Swayne

For its 100th anniversary, Elbeco Inc. asked customers to share some of their most outstanding moments while in uniform.

The maker of police, fire, EMS, postal, security and transportation uniforms recently sponsored the “Every Elbeco Uniform Tells a Story” contest, where customers were invited to share how they made a difference while wearing their Elbeco uniforms. Finalists were chosen for a chance at the $5,000 grand prize.

“We really want to thank and honor the people who wear our uniforms,” says Elbeco President David Lurio. “We’re giving them an opportunity to have their stories heard, and to win prizes for themselves and their departments.”

Check out the finalists’ stories.

Elbeco Inc. has listed the finalists and their stories on their Web site. To read about other finalists and the grand prize winner visit www.ElbecoUniforms.com.

Frank Roe
Concord Township Fire Department
Elkhart, IN

His Story: After 9/11, Roe felt he should give something back to his country. During the final truck test to become a volunteer firefighter, he looked down to see a small child looking up at him through a car window. The child gave a small wave and a broad smile. “The emotions that pulled out of me were something I never expected to experience,” Roe says. “To have a child looking up at you, with the look of awe and admiration on his face, showed me the reason why we help our communities in public service.”

What He Wears: Roe is a firefighter instructor as well as the chaplain. “I help care for the spiritual needs of the department and also for the needs of anyone on the fire scene,” he says. As a chaplain, Roe wears a white, long-sleeve shirt with black pants. As a firefighter, he wears a blue shirt. The department patch appears on the blue shirt, but his name and shield are on both. He wears a cross on each lapel to signify his position as chaplain. “The uniform creates a presence that goes beyond who you are as an individual,” Roe says. “When I knock on a door because of a death in the family, they don’t see me as much as they see the uniform. They feel a sense of security because of who I am. The uniform allows me to perform my function as chaplain.”

James Fairfield
Tallahassee Police Department
Tallahassee, FL

His Story: When visiting a house for a death investigation, Fairfield noticed a mother in tears. “The deceased was an adult, but he was young,” he says. Fairfield approached the mother and knelt down. “I just had to get low to make eye contact with her,” he says. Having lost a son himself, Fairfield felt he could share an emotional bond with the woman. “It was natural,” he says.

As he walked away, Fairfield felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to face a man he immediately recognized to be former military. The man said, “Thank you for that. It reminded me of military honors for a boy who never earned much respect in life.” It then dawned on Fairfield just how similar his kneeling action had been to the events at an officer’s funeral where the commanding officer takes a knee to hand the flag to the family.

What He Wears: Fairfield recognizes that his story wasn’t like any other adventure he’s had in uniform. “I wasn’t wrestling a bad guy or jumping over a fence. It purely had to do with the visual impact of the uniform,” he says. “I was in spit-shined boots and wore solid blue from collar to toe,” Fairfield says.

John Karmondy
Immaculata University Safety
& Protection Department
Wilmington, DE

His Story: Karmondy received a call from a residence assistant with a request for help early on a Sunday morning. A student had fallen and left a trail of blood from the stairway to the dorm lounge. Karmondy administered first aid and had bystanders open boxes for the injured student to lay on. His quick response helped the student make a full recovery.

What He Wears: “Our uniforms are great,” Karmondy says. “They’re made of a tightly woven fabric designed to keep blood-borne pathogens off the skin for a period of time.” He is so pleased with the capabilities of his uniform that he also wears it when he volunteers at the local firehouse.

Karmondy’s uniform consists of navy blue pants and jackets with black ties. “My department is safety and protection. That’s what we do,” he says. “Even if it’s as simple as directions, they depend on us to take care of them. If they can identify us with a uniform they recognize, that’s paramount.”

Rogelio Gonzalez
Pharr Police Department
Edinburg, TX

His Story: After a call regarding a domestic dispute, Gonzalez and five officers surrounded the scene. The man had a knife to the woman’s neck and was threatening to kill her after already stabbing her abdomen. Gonzalez broke away from the cover of his peers, holstered his gun and came within 15 feet of the couple. “I just wanted to save her life,” he says. “Then he started listening to me.” The next 19 minutes were the longest of Gonzalez’s life. “The minute he put down the knife and walked backwards towards me with his hands behind him was the biggest relief,” Gonzalez says.

What He Wears: The Pharr Police Department wears navy uniforms with yellow emblems on the sleeves, and light blue on the shoulder to identify the department. “Our uniforms make us pretty visible,” Gonzalez says. “It really makes a difference to people when the first thing they see are our uniforms.”

John Pulitano
Lauderhill Police Department
Lauderhill, FL

His Story: Perhaps the most heroic tale of John Pulitano’s career is the attempted stop of a driver involved in an armed carjacking and kidnapping. The suspect, after crashing the car, fled into an occupied store. “I had a surge of adrenaline,” Pulitano says. “That’s what you’re riding on after a high-speed pursuit and a short-foot pursuit. The guy had a gun. My gun was out. There were bystanders around.” What took seven minutes felt much longer to Pulitano. Fortunately, he was able to apprehend the suspect.

What He Wears: Orange and royal blue shoulder patches adorn Pulitano’s navy blue short-sleeve shirt. Matching blue pants are topped off with a black nylon duty belt. Polyester gets warm in the sun, so a poly/cotton blend offers more flexibility and comfort, says Pulitano. “The uniform is immediately recognizable and people associate it with authority,” Pulitano says. “Therefore, you’re a little more apt to get compliance.” Except in the case of a kidnapping suspect on the run.

Brian McKnight
City of Kenner Fire Department
Metairie, LA

His Story: In Louisiana, events are now defined as before Katrina or after Katrina. But what about during Katrina?

Several days after the hurricane hit, McKnight was able to go to Baton Rouge and pick up some new uniforms. “We had been washing our own uniforms by hand and it was getting tiring looking for swimming pools that weren’t too contaminated for washing,” McKnight says. The new Elbeco uniforms fit better and were more rugged than uniforms McKnight had previously worn.

It was a difficult time, as the department couldn’t ask for resources they normally would have. “Everyone had their own problems,” McKnight says. “New Orleans was under water. Metairie was under water. Kenner was under water.” But McKnight and his fellow officers went out every day searching for Katrina survivors.

What He Wears: The uniforms McKnight picked up were navy blue pants and a navy blue shirt. “I found them to be a little bit better quality than some of the others,” he says. “I couldn’t have asked for a better fit.” Years later, McKnight still wears the donated military style Elbeco pants that were such a relief in a time of great stress.

Brian Gallant
New Bedford Fire Department
New Bedford, MA

His Story: “When I was a kid, I often visited my father at his firehouse, climbing aboard the fire engine, pretending I was racing off to a fire,” Gallant says. Soon enough, Gallant’s childhood dream to join his father and grandfather in the ranks of firefighters became a reality, and both were on stage to pin on his badge at the graduation ceremony.
Gallant’s Elbeco uniform is especially important to him because “the uniform symbolizes my dream,” he says. “It’s a hard thing to describe. I realized I’d achieved everything I wanted to achieve and become everything I’ve wanted to become.”

What He Wears: Gallant wears a single-breasted navy blazer with dark navy blue slacks. Unfortunately, outside of promotion and award ceremonies and graduation, Class A uniforms are worn only when firefighters bury one of their own.

“It’s powerful when you see thousands of us,” Gallant says.

“Our uniforms are a source of pride,” he adds. “When we put them on, it reflects our pride in becoming firefighters and being a member of a service that’s on the front line to protect the community.”

Caffeinated co-promotion
Coffee, tea or…some custom scrubs?
By Jay Gordon

To stand out in the uniforms marketplace, you need to think outside the box. And inside the box, too.
That’s just what custom scrub supplier Sassy Scrubs (www.sassyscrubs.com) is doing in an unusual cross promotion. Sassy, based in Penn Yan, NY, has teamed up with two other local online businesses to reach into each other’s markets for customers.

Sassy first teamed with gourmet coffee and specialty foods specialist Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters, adding Keuka Lake flyers to Sassy Scrubs customer shipments. The fliers include special offers only available to Sassy Scrub customers. Sassy also used packaged gourmet coffee as a free gift promotion during the Christmas holidays, using the tie-in to promote a sale on its coffee-themed scrub fabrics.

“Our customers were able to order their favorite coffee-themed scrubs and drink fabulous Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters coffee at the same time,” says Sassy Scrubs President Karen Bradley. “We’re excited to be able to help market their coffee products while expanding our sales at the same time. It’s a win-win marketing plan.”

Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters’ Susan Atkisson believes it makes sense to cross-market with customers that already are online shoppers. “Gourmet coffee and specialty foods are some of the fastest-growing sectors in online sales,” she says. “Partnerships with other local companies are a great way to grow and promote each other’s businesses.”

In addition to the partnership with Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters, Sassy Scrubs also teamed up with Penn Yan’s historic Birkett Mills to help educate its customers on the health benefits of Birkett’s natural, non-wheat products, such as buckwheat. Birkett also provided flyers to Sassy Scrubs to include in the company’s shipments, which are sent around the world. Since the majority of Sassy’s customers are in the medical field, it made sense to educate them about the health benefits of using Birkett Mills products. “Because our products are gluten-free and wheat-free, they are a perfect choice for celiac patients and diabetics, and they’re also effective in lowering cholesterol,” says Birkett Mills President Jeff Gifford. “Knowing this will allow Sassy’s nursing customers to help their patients make healthy diet choices. This partnership gives us an opportunity to reach a potential consumer we may not have reached in the past.”

In return for this partnership, both Birkett Mills and Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters have agreed to share promotional flyers generated by Sassy Scrubs in their own customer orders as well.

Drab to Fab: The Evolution of Nurses’ Uniforms
From nun’s habits to celebrity-endorsed scrub lines, it’s been a century of change for the uniforms worn by women in the health care field.
By Linda Shorter

The classic image we hold of a nurse is of a brisk and efficient woman wearing a white dress with a cap and cape. Today’s modern nurse is very different. She is still efficient, though now she is often highly specialized. She is independent and sees nursing as a chosen career and not as her only option. Her uniform has evolved to keep in step with her growing responsibilities; it must be functional, comfortable and professional, and at the same time allow her to express her personal style.

Early uniforms were a habit

Nuns once fulfilled the vital role of visiting with patients and offering them comfort during their hospital stay, so it is no surprise that the first nursing uniforms were influenced by the nun’s habit. In the early 1900s, the sweeping dress, cape, prim hair and cap were the characteristics of the uniform that signaled both the advent of nursing as a career for women and early attempts to create a visual identity for them. A starched apron was soon added, and it was commonly believed that the full coverage of the uniform offered a ‘fever proof’ protection for visiting nurses.

The role of the nurse soon evolved to include direct involvement in the medical care of the patients and placed the nurses on the front lines, right alongside their male doctor counterparts. The First World War solidified and validated the role of the nurse and a more practical and recognizable uniform began to take shape. The ankle length white dress, a cap with the Red Cross symbol and a less cumbersome cape were the new norm

Rising hem lines

The nursing uniform not only evolved as a reaction to the changing job description of nurses, but also morphed along with the fashions of the day. The end of the First World War saw hemlines rising and also marked the dawn of ‘comfort’ as a concern for women. Uniforms became shorter and more comfortable as a result. By the 1960s, the nursing uniform was significantly shorter, was fitted to the body and even featured design details from the fashion front. Bib styles, pin tucks and flared hemlines were added to the uniform even though these details offered no practical use other than to bring some fashion to the nursing industry.

The biggest change in the nursing uniform came about in the 1970s when pantsuits began to appear both for nurses and for the new generation of independent women. These ‘slacks’ and coat silhouettes echoed the doctor’s uniform and also mirrored the universality and acceptability of women wearing pants in the workplace. Power suits emerged on Wall Street and the modern nursing scrub began to take shape inside the nation’s hospitals.

The nurse and her feelings towards her career and her increasingly significant role in society were the catalyst for many of the evolutionary changes in the nursing uniform over the years, but one of the biggest shifts took place when nurses began to re-evaluate patients’ feelings and perceptions of the role of the nurse and the impact of her uniform. Colored uniforms were already widely used in nursing uniforms as early as the 1950s to distinguish rank and specialization, and by the late 1980s, prints were added to convey a lighthearted and relaxed attitude that nurses hoped would translate into more relaxed patients. White coat syndrome – where patients’ hypertension symptoms actually worsen at the sight of a doctor – is now widely accepted as truth. So nurses’ perception of the need to ‘lighten things up’ was not misguided.

Changing roles

Many of the fashion trends from the 1980s and 1990s were ignored by nursing uniform manufacturers because they were impractical and would not have added to the comfort level or to the dignity of nurses. However, the advent of scrubs as an acceptable replacement for the strict nursing dress indicated a shrinking divide between the roles of doctors and their nursing counterparts.

Here in the early 21st century, several lifestyle trends have emerged to again push the evolution of nursing uniform to new levels. Nurses are not only females; many are male and many are immigrants or first generation Americans. As such, they bring different tastes and requirements to the role of the uniform. Companies such as Dickies began to affix a street-smart style to their scrub sets in an effort to ‘speak’ to the younger and more fashion savvy nurse. Boot cut hems, athletic details and brighter colors were added to the drab mid-tone color stories and basic scrub sets. Other manufacturers followed suit with themed groupings and fashion-based initiatives for their scrubs.

Uniform manufacturers also began to explore other ways to reach out to the fashion-conscious nurse through branding and, more recently, through celebrity endorsements. Baby Phat was already enjoying a rise to fashion fame when it launched a line of designer scrubs. The collection is steeped in prints that have an urban flair and in colors that resonate against the skin tones of the diverse ethnicities of today’s nurses. The looks are bright and bold and appeal directly to the nurse while still offering patients the confidence that a pleasant and professional uniform can deliver.

What the future holds

Sensing that nurses wanted to further close the gap between their working wardrobe and their personal fashion identities, Peaches Uniforms created a line of scrubs in cooperation with TV and film star Katherine Heigl. The goal was to offer nurses a line of scrubs that embraced a modern woman’s desire to look great while bringing fashion and – dare we say – glamour to the role of the nursing professional. Nurses and other medical professionals have embraced the new level of comfort that 100% cotton lab coats offer and have gravitated towards fashionable yet practical details in these uniforms, such as draw cord hems, thigh pockets, adjustable knit waists and layered looks, including fleece hoodies.

No matter how we envision the future of the nursing uniform, both fashion and practicality will have to be addressed together; one cannot be substituted or eliminated at the expense of the other. Modern technology will invariably bring advances in fabrics and finishes for scrubs, while a growing demand for style will mean that manufacturers will continue to turn their attention to the nurse’s lifestyle and fashion aspirations in order to offer her the working wardrobe she envisions for herself.

Linda Shorter is vice president of design for Peaches Uniforms (www.peachesuniforms.com), a leader in fashion-driven uniforms for women in the health care industry.

Workwear
Meeting KNEEDZ
Innovative new work wear brand could save millions in workers comp costs.
By Jay Gordon

Over the past three years, the state of Colorado’s worker’s compensation program has processed nearly 25,000 cases of work-related knee injuries – about 10% of total worker’s comp cases – and insurance companies paid out over $140 million in claims. Virtually every company in the state helped pay those claims by way of their worker’s comp insurance premiums.

Imagine the cost of knee-related injuries based on nationwide demographics, and the numbers become staggering.

A Colorado company called Woodland Wear believes it has a uniform solution that can help significantly reduce knee-related injury costs.

KNEEDZ are gel kneepads that are permanently built into uniforms and work pants. They are designed to take the place of unsightly and uncomfortable exterior kneepads – no more straps, fasteners, snaps, clips, buckles or Velcro. Knee protection is always there when the employee needs it, but the pads are barely noticeable when not in use – allowing workers to present a more professional image. Plus, workers will never forget, lose or refuse to wear their knee protection.

“Traditional kneepads are a ‘necessary evil’ in the workplace,” says Woodland Wear CEO Dale Pelletier. “But the straps cause major discomfort. They pinch the skin, make you sweat and cut off your circulation, causing workers to either wear them improperly or not wear them at all.”

Each of the KNEEDZ gel pads weighs just 5.3 ounces, yet provides the same protection as an exterior kneepad. They are non-absorbent and can be laundered in either a home or industrial laundry setting without removing the gel pads. In addition to high-grade uniform work pants, KNEEDZ are available in a denim pant, construction-grade utility pant, painter’s pant and even military BDU-style pant.

Above: KNEEDZ gel knee pads (far right) are permanently sewn into high-quality uniform pants (center), reducing knee injuries and creating a more professional appearance than exterior pads (left). KNEEDZ can work for any employee who spends a lot of time on their knees - automotive workers, carpenters, painters and masons, retail workers who count inventory or restock shelves and pest control technicians, to name just a few.

“Employers typically issue exterior strap kneepads with uniforms and then hope that workers will not forget to wear them, or hope that they don’t lose them or forget them at home, or hope that they will even want to wear them,” says Pelletier. “KNEEDZ solves that problem by taking the ‘hope factor’ out of the risk management equation.”