Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1479467
W hen most of us think of selling uniforms, we may not even know how that's usually done. While it is a multibillion-dollar industry, many people are not familiar with the major cor- porations, Aramark, Cintas, etc., that make up the rental uniform sales force. ese companies sell uniforms on a massive scale and have huge plants for decorating and cleaning the uniforms and workwear they sell. eir clients are usually large companies with huge workforces to outfit. e scope of the uniforms supplied and cared for is beyond the scale that most average shops could manage. Given that fact, does this mean that uniform or workwear sales are not something that can be done by a smaller shop? WHAT TO CONSIDER When a smaller shop is considering workwear or uniform sales, the thing to remember is scale. Most likely, you will be selling to smaller com- panies with a smaller pool of employees. It is also not likely that you will be involved in cleaning the uniforms, as most smaller companies would expect employees to handle that however they choose. While decorating and maintaining uni- forms for a thousand-piece workforce on a weekly basis may not be possible, embroidering lab coats for a local doctor's office, screen printing wait- staff apparel for a local pizza shop, or blinging out the staff shirts for a local spa is well within the reach of most small shops. is sort of work also has the potential to be very profitable. Staff turnover can mean repeat orders. A consistent uniform means once you have the process down, your production time can be reduced. If a smaller shop is looking to get into sell- ing uniforms or workwear, the biggest challenge may be figuring out what types of things to sell. A P P A R E L D E C O R A T I N G Quality GETTING WORK FROM WORKWEAR AND UNIFORMS B Y K R I S T I N E S H R E V E ON THE JOB 2 8 G R A P H I C S P R O • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 2 Image courtesy Toni Heitzman, Hot T's Designs