What Kind of High-Visibility Clothing Do You Need?

Working in a field that requires you to wear high-visibility clothing means you need to be very aware of what that exactly entails. High-visibility clothing isn’t just a way to protect companies from liability, they’re incredibly important to the individual safety of every worker who wears them. The kind of high-visibility clothing you need depends on the kind of work you do and the conditions you do it in.

What Does Your Clothing Need To Have?

High-visibility clothing stands out because of several qualities, and each quality serves a different purpose. Regulations for high-visibility clothing aren’t overly strict; in fact, there are a plenty of fashionable high-visibility clothing options that allow you more freedom while still being within regulations. However, there are a few things high-visibility clothing must have:

The Right Color

High-visibility clothing needs to be in fluorescent colors—either yellow-green, orange-red, or red—to stand out against dull backgrounds.

Retro Reflectivity

The clothing must have something that reflects light back at its source to facilitate working in darkness.

Fluorescence

The clothing also must be fluorescent, meaning it must have a material that reflects normally imperceptible light—such as ultraviolet light—during periods of low light, such as dusk.

Which Class Are You Part Of?

The kind of high-visibility clothing you need depends upon which class you’re in. The class of high-visibility clothing comes from the kind of work you do and how important it is to be visible while you work. The classes are stricter as the number gets higher. Here’s an overview of the classes you might be a part of.

Class 3

Class Three clothing provides the highest level of visibility by requiring the most amount of retro-reflective and fluorescent materials. Usually, class three clothing will fully cover your body so that an onlooker can see your entire silhouette at a glance. Working near heavy machinery or high-speed traffic without a barrier usually constitutes class three high-visibility clothing.

Class 2

Class two clothing isn’t as intense as class three, but it still requires a large amount of your body to be outline in high-visibility material. Crossing guards, roadway construction workers, and survey crews often need class two high-visibility clothing because their jobs put them in dangerous situations. However, these jobs are not as serious or immediately dangerous as someone working in class three gear.

Class 1

Wearing class one high-visibility clothing is usually very easy and doesn’t require a lot of extra gear. Class one gear tends to be for workers who can fully give their attention to whatever hazardous task they have, or for workers who have large barriers between themselves and the hazards.