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Clothing the Well-Dressed Fracker
This article is a few years old. Sales of frackwear might be on the wane, along with the price of oil.
Business
What the Well-Dressed Fracker Is Wearing
Retailers, Manufacturers Envision a Gold Rush in Duds for Workers in Booming Oil and Gas Fields
By Shelly Banjo
Shelly.Banjo@wsj.com
@sbanjo
Facebook: shelly.banjo
May 15, 2013 10:03 p.m. ET
Clothing companies are trying to cash in on America's oil-and-gas boom with a new fashion that is unlikely to make the runways of Milan anytime soon: frackwear. ... Retailers including Cabela's Inc. and clothing manufacturers like Carhartt Inc. say they are seeing an increased demand for sturdy shoes and fire-resistant clothing that oil and gas workers can wear to protect themselves from fires and explosions. ... The appetite for fracking gear is leading clothes makers to send research and development teams to consult with oil-field workers in Texas and North Dakota, in the same way Nike Inc. taps elite athletes to test out its track shoes and football cleats.
....
Part of the uptick is due to a series of flash fires and explosions that killed refinery workers who weren't wearing proper clothing, prompting a 2010 memo by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requiring workers at these industrial facilities to wear flame-resistant clothes. ... Following the 2010 OSHA memo, retailers near oil fields in North Dakota, Montana, Pennsylvania and Texas began seeing workers come in to outfit themselves in new gear.
"Before 2010, you would see workers in jeans and cotton T-shirts with the sleeves ripped off," said Tom Kiddle, director of industrial sales at Carhartt, a closely held clothing manufacturer based in Dearborn, Mich. "Suddenly thousands of workers were pouring into the oil business and were being told they had to wear flame-resistant clothing."
....
The U.S. military has also played a role in the safe-clothing expansion by pushing U.S. textile mills to create flame-resistant fabrics cool enough that soldiers can wear them in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. In turn, the textile mills plunged the research and technology into fabrics they make for frackwear manufacturers.
What the Well-Dressed Fracker Is Wearing
Retailers, Manufacturers Envision a Gold Rush in Duds for Workers in Booming Oil and Gas Fields
By Shelly Banjo
Shelly.Banjo@wsj.com
@sbanjo
Facebook: shelly.banjo
May 15, 2013 10:03 p.m. ET
Clothing companies are trying to cash in on America's oil-and-gas boom with a new fashion that is unlikely to make the runways of Milan anytime soon: frackwear. ... Retailers including Cabela's Inc. and clothing manufacturers like Carhartt Inc. say they are seeing an increased demand for sturdy shoes and fire-resistant clothing that oil and gas workers can wear to protect themselves from fires and explosions. ... The appetite for fracking gear is leading clothes makers to send research and development teams to consult with oil-field workers in Texas and North Dakota, in the same way Nike Inc. taps elite athletes to test out its track shoes and football cleats.
....
Part of the uptick is due to a series of flash fires and explosions that killed refinery workers who weren't wearing proper clothing, prompting a 2010 memo by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requiring workers at these industrial facilities to wear flame-resistant clothes. ... Following the 2010 OSHA memo, retailers near oil fields in North Dakota, Montana, Pennsylvania and Texas began seeing workers come in to outfit themselves in new gear.
"Before 2010, you would see workers in jeans and cotton T-shirts with the sleeves ripped off," said Tom Kiddle, director of industrial sales at Carhartt, a closely held clothing manufacturer based in Dearborn, Mich. "Suddenly thousands of workers were pouring into the oil business and were being told they had to wear flame-resistant clothing."
....
The U.S. military has also played a role in the safe-clothing expansion by pushing U.S. textile mills to create flame-resistant fabrics cool enough that soldiers can wear them in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. In turn, the textile mills plunged the research and technology into fabrics they make for frackwear manufacturers.
Here's the memorandum:
Enforcement Policy for Flame-Resistant Clothing in Oil and Gas Drilling, Well Servicing, and Production-Related Operations
1 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
