Where To Buy Women's Construction Gear

I was doing some research today on women in the construction field, and it was interesting that one of the most searched topics related to women+construction was where to buy women's construction clothes, boots, safety gear, etc. By the way, we are 10-14% of the construction workforce across the country as of 2022 and climbing.

While I think we have a lot of topics to google as women in the construction industry, how to dress and where to get the clothes is an ongoing problem. I distinctly remember having a meltdown while clothes shopping (or trying to) for work one time years ago. Not only do I dislike clothes shopping, the experience can be very frustrating and fruitless. I have found that it can be difficult to find the right gear that fits, especially if you are small like me. Gone are the days where you can show up to a jobsite in shorts and a tank top, not that you would want to attract that kind of attention (that is a whole other topic!) Not only do we have to be safe and wear the proper PPE, it is much safer if it fits properly.

 BOOTS

Boots are not too bad, though I prefer a steel toe and steel shank and those are very hard to impossible to find in women's sizes. For some reason the boot industry seems to think if you are a woman wearing work boots you must be an electrician, so composite toe or no protective toe. I recently bought a new pair of boots (my favorite go to is Timberland) and they are available with the lighter composite toes - can't tell you how many times my toes have been saved by these!

Boot World https://bootworld.com/ has been consistent over the years in offering my favorite Timberland boots, with Boot Barn https://www.bootbarn.com/workwear/womens-work-boots-clothing/womens-work/ offering a much smaller selection and at last check no steel toes for women. Redwing https://www.redwingshoes.com/work/ has a selection of women's work boots available including Carhartt, Harley Davidson, Timberland and Caterpillar online. Some of the Redwing stores are quite small so in store availability might be a little limited for us. It's best to find a boot you like and stick with it so you can order online.

Most of the major chain stores that feature outdoor wear and sporting goods or hiking gear and also have boots don't have much for us working gals. They have lots of "cute" boots in the women's department but nothing I would be caught dead in at a jobsite.

CLOTHING

Clothing is a bit trickier. Where the footwear industry thinks we are all electricians, the work clothing industry thinks we are all flaggers - not kidding that is what popped up when I Googled construction+women+clothes, Google added "Flaggers" <sigh>

Carhartt has a limited women's line of work shirts and jackets, but I have never found them in abundance (or ever) in store. Dick's Sporting Goods https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/search/SearchDisplay?searchTerm=womens%20carhartt&storeId=15108&catalogId=12301&langId=-1&sType=SimpleSearch&resultCatEntryType=2&showResultsPage=true&fromPage=Search&searchSource=Q&pageView=&beginIndex=0&DSGsearchType=Keyword&pageSize=48&selectedStore=258and Cabela's offer them online. Cabela's offers the Carhartt bibb overalls for women online- a rare find! https://www.cabelas.com/SearchDisplay#q=womens%20work

Scheel's offers women's hunting pants https://www.scheels.com/c/hunting-pants/women that are suitable for work, not all of them are camouflage. I think pants are the hardest thing to find. Carhartt does make women's pants but you are not likely to find them in store anywhere, Dungarees.com offers them online as well as Cabelas and Scheels. https://dungarees.com/carhartt-104296-womens-relaxed-fit-stretch-twill-pant?&cs=BRN&size=8WTLL&cid=73

I am happy to share that Duluth Trading has upped their women's work wear selection and has some work pants as well as bib overalls. I have not personally tried these yet but their men's gear is outstanding. https://www.duluthtrading.com/women/bottoms/work-pants/

SAFETY GEAR

Vests made for women? Full source seems to be one of the only ones out there catering to us. https://www.fullsource.com/safety-vests-for-women/ They offer a variety of colors and styles but online only. I can honestly say I have never had a vest that was made for a woman, all of mine were huge and baggy, often several sizes too big because that is all that was available (the orange vest in this photo is probably the best fitting vest I ever had!). I think I am going to order a couple!

Safety glasses go check out Safetygirl.com https://www.safetygirl.com/safety-glasses-women.html for a wide variety of glasses, goggles and options to fit our smaller faces. I gotta get me some of these I have a tiny face!

Work gloves are really hard to find for us with the small hands, I always look like I am a little kid wearing my Dad's full size glove. My days of swinging a hammer on a daily basis are over, but if you are reading this you need some good gloves. Looking on Amazon they are mostly gardening gloves. <That sound you heard was my forehead hitting the desk.

I found a website called "Family Handyman" with an article written by Toni DeBella that compared the best work gloves for women. Here were the top picks:

Dovetailworkwear.com Multi Purpose work glove

Seeherwork.com Impact work gloves

BSX Angelfire Women's Stick/MIG Welding Gloves (available on Amazon) https://a.co/d/8nLQ4VR

Mechanix.com Coldwork Guide

Handylady Anti Vibration (available on Amazon) https://a.co/d/9DqqatT

Being married to a welder I get asked the welding glove question a lot - now I have an answer!

When it comes to safety gear, your company should be providing this for you at no cost. If what they are providing is ill fitting and poses some risk, send these links to your safety director and talk to them about it. You could be making a nice move forward in your company!

If you have other recommendations, we would love to hear from you. In the meantime stay safe out there ladies!