All posts by: dotamos

It’s always exciting to start a new job at a reputable company, but if the required uniforms are uncomfortably stuffy, the anticipation of clocking in may decline a few notches. Polos and work shirts are definitely the preference when it comes to uniform gear.

One of the benefits of dispensing Polos and work shirts to employees is the easy upkeep. There’s nothing worse than the look on a supervisor or manager’s face when an employee shows up in a wrinkled garment. While it is possible to wrinkle Polos, it would take a lot of effort, such as scrunching the shirt into a ball, running over it with a steam roller and then attaching it to a flag pole to flutter in the wind! As long as the worker washes, dries and hangs up the Polo or work shirt in a normal and proper way, they should be able to walk into work wrinkle-free. Really, the only concern at hand for management is making sure the Polo work shirt is tucked into the dress pants or jeans and not stylishly (and sloppily) hanging loosely over the waist line.

Employees prefer polos as work shirts because they simply are more fun and comfortable. These duds are less confining and resemble the casual attire many people would likely wear during their everyday lives rather than a button-down, stiff dress shirt.

Solid color Polo work shirts also add a bit of excitement to the atmosphere of a retail store or restaurant for business patrons. They project a lively and playful environment which sends a message of light-heartedness and sincerity. Additionally, providing employees with matching Polos and work shirts will send a message to customers that help can be attained by simply tracking down an eye-catching red work shirt, for example.

For a retail business, such as an electronics store, it is probably best to keep the Polo work shirt direct and modest as to express the utmost professionalism and business-like atmosphere. Name tags would be a nice addition to add a personable touch to the customer-salesman relationship. Instead of blue jeans, require employees to present themselves in a more salesman-type way, accompanying the Polo work shirt with dress slacks or kaki pants and comfortable, yet clean and tidy, shoes.

However, in a restaurant scene, the more fun the ambience the better. Encourage employees to not only display name tags, but also sport entertaining (but tasteful) pins or broaches and colorful animated buttons. This adds a memorable experience to the paying customer. Because most restaurant workers are required by the health department to secure long hair, providing employees with solid color baseball caps that coordinate with their Polos or work shirts will add to finesse of the uniform. Not only will instituting Polo work shirts into uniform requirements for your business add a controlled and professional appearance to your sales floor, but it was also instilling a high-spirited and lively attitude in your employees, as they will feel more comfortable and less confined in their work uniform.

If you are supplying your hospitality team with uniforms in 2020/2021 or planning a uniform refresh sometime soon, there are a few trends you need to know about to stay ahead of the competition. In Dotamos S.A.S we’ve explored 7 of the hottest trends hospitality businesses need to know…

1. Approachable & Relatable

First impressions matter, and staff uniforms set the tone for your customer service expectations. Embrace cool, effortless and approachable, but make sure the uniform is still functional and distinguishes your staff from your patron. Your staff should feel comfortable, and physically able, to do their job in their uniform. When organizing a new uniform think about the types of activities that your staff need to perform. For example, are they bending down or reaching up a lot? This often requires longer length shirts to maintain modesty and professionalism. Do they need to carry items with them, like notepads, pens or bottle openers and how does your uniform accommodate these to make it easier for your staff?  You also need to understand your customers and culture, to ensure the uniform communicates the desired brand voice.

2. Fashion Forward Updates

Who said uniforms can’t be fashionable? In a fast-paced market, companies can no longer expect their uniform style to be relevant for 5+ years. The industry leaders are all about implementing stylish and fashion-forward uniforms and reviewing them regularly. We recommend you plan to refresh your uniform every 3 years to ensure your team and brand stays relevant in your market. This can be done incrementally and subtly. Updating smaller items like aprons, or adding a custom scarf or bandana can be a powerful way to change a uniform look without draining the budget. Seasonal items can be a fun way to keep your staff comfortable but add some branding flair. Updating your uniform also keeps your employees interested in what they’re wearing. Block color and pattern mash-ups continue to inspire hospitality uniforms through 2019/20. Checks and chinos, and denim-on-denim aren’t going away anytime soon. Checks are also great for hiding those tough hospitality stains!

3. Statement Pieces

Don’t be afraid to make a statement when shouting out to the world who your company is and what you stand for. The best results come when you use a statement tee, polo or accessory that strongly represents the new look in a fun and flamboyant way. If you are rebranding or launching a new fit-out, a statement piece is often used for the launch month. Often these statement pieces become a staple in your uniform program. It sends a message to the market and your team about the changes you have made and sets the tone around brand expectations. Accessories such as belts, that tie into your color palette, are a nice finishing touch to your uniform and cool enough for staff to wear when off-duty. Dotamos S.A.S have a huge variety of accessories to choose from – check out our Facebook and Instagram for some inspiration.

4. Customization

Uniform customization is becoming increasingly popular. There are now so many affordable ways to customize a uniform so your brand stands out from competitors. Customizing aspects of your uniform is a great way to bring uniqueness and a design edge to your brand. ¿What about a t-shirt with the name of the employees?

5. Tailored chic

While most hospitality uniforms are still casual and relaxed, we’ll be seeing a lot of styles that have a more structured and “grown-up” look. The utilitarian look can be sophisticated too. With features such as patch pockets and eyelets – utility shirts add drama to hospitality uniforms. Light, soft, and stylish chambray is even more flexible than denim and a great choice when extra mobility is required. If you want a more tailored casual look – chinos, tee and a blazer give an instant update to your look and are available in a plethora of color options.

6. Sustainability

Sustainability is not so much a trend as it here to stay, but it’s a hot topic in many industries (and rightly so!) – and hospitality is no different. When curating a uniform program with sustainability in mind, opt for fabrics that are more sustainable, such as organic cotton, bamboo, or hemp to reduce your carbon footprint. Choose high-quality garments that will wash and wear well, which means a decrease in uniform replacements, and less impact on the environment through a reduction in ‘throw-away’ garments. Sustainability might also be a part of your brand story, and an opportunity to communicate this to your patrons, particularly those who share the same values.

It’s surprising how important decisions, such as the corporate uniform, are made without consulting the staff who’ll be wearing it. Really, they should be the first people you talk to. Your staff should feel engaged throughout key parts of the process and be comfortable with the decisions being made. Uniforms should be designed to build team morale, help the wearer feel more confident, and ensure they help the employee do their job more easily. If they feel uncomfortable, self-conscious or unhappy with what they are wearing, this will reflect in their behavior, performance and could ultimately have a negative effect on your company culture, customer experience and job satisfaction.

Getting their buy in up front is one of the best ways to ensure success at the rollout phase. We’ve put together an example survey you can use with your staff prior to embarking on any new uniform project.

Align your Marketing and HR Departments

Before consulting the staff, your Marketing and Human Resources departments need to be fully aligned and have set the parameter for the uniform garments. Documenting the answers to the following questions internally is imperative to ensure the brand is represented well:

What is the intention of the uniform?

What colors must it incorporate to compliment the brand?

How many pieces of clothing will it include?

Who will wear it and when?

What is the budget?

How will the uniforms be subsidized?  Will there be an annual allocation for each employee, and what will this be?

What will the process be for replacing lost, damaged or ill-fitting uniforms?

Top 10 questions to ask your staff

On a scale of 1 – 5 (1 being the lowest in importance) rate the following:

Comfort                                      1     2     3     4     5

Style and fit                       1     2     3     4     5

Fashionable                       1     2     3     4     5

Quality                                 1     2     3     4     5

Easy to look after            1     2     3     4     5

2. What accessories should be offered as part of the uniform (if any)? Tick all that apply.

[  ]  Scarf

[  ]  Belt

[  ]  Cufflinks

[  ]  Jacket / outerwear (in cooler months)

[  ]  Socks

[  ]  Name badges

[  ]  Neck Tie

[  ]  Hat / cap

[  ]  Beanie

[  ]  Safety glasses

[  ]  Ear plugs

[  ]  Knee pads

[  ]  Other

3. What fabric would you like to see the shirts made in?

[  ]  Natural fibre

[  ]  Synthetic

[  ]  Blend – synthetic mixed with natural fibres (eg cotton polyester blend)

[  ]  I don’t know

4. For trousers, skirts and dresses, what fabric would you like to see them made in?

[  ]  Natural fibre (cotton or wool)

[  ]  Full Synthetic

[  ]  Mixed Fabric – wool and synthetic blend

[  ]  I don’t know

5. On a scale of 1 – 5 (1 being the least important) how important is it the garment is easy to iron?

Circle one number below

1     2     3     4     5

6. How would you like to get the measurements for your uniform?

Choose one option:

[  ]  A sample size is made available you can try on

[  ]  Order off a measurement chart and guide

7. If you are wearing a uniform top and bottom once a week, what would be your expectation on how long it should last?

Choose one option:

[  ]  6 months

[  ]  9 months

[  ]  12 months

[  ]  2 years

8. If you worked five days a week how many tops would be enough?

[  ]  Two tops

[  ]  Three tops

[  ]  Five tops

9. If you worked five days a week how many bottoms would be enough?

[  ]  Two tops

[  ]  Three tops

[  ]  Five tops

10. If we were to implement new uniforms, can you think of any negative impacts this may have on the team / business?

Fashion is embracing technology like never before. Here’s everything you need to know about smart textiles and how technology is reshaping the textiles and apparel industry.

The fashion world is changing inside out, and technology is adding more perks to the new fashion. We are living in an era where technology has revamped almost everything around us and fashion is the next new thing.

Technology in wearables is no more limited to smartwatches and fitness trackers. Technology has come a long way to smart textiles. Gone is the time when monitoring and tracking fitness-related metrics-steps counts, walked distance, calorie consumption, quality of sleep and heartbeat rate used to drive people crazy. Today’s generation is looking for more, more and more.

Smart textiles are ready to add more power to humans. These fabrics are designed to regulate body temperature, reduce wind resistance, and control muscle vibration-all of which boosts the athletic performance. More than that, these fabrics can also work as uniforms to guard you against extreme environmental hazards such as radiation and the effects of space travel.

Interesting! Isn’t it?

Smart textiles are the most astonishing innovation of the textiles and clothing industry. Beyond everyone’s imagination-smart textiles are here to blow your mind. Billy Whitehouse, co-founder of Wearable Experiments-a company integrating fashion and technology-says, “As things get smaller and cheaper and faster integration becomes easier, I see fashion and technology becoming one.”

Smart textiles are driven by intelligence where fabrics can sense and analyze a singular element and respond in an intelligent way. ‘Fashion with Features’ is ready to add more style to the word of textiles. Here’s all that you need to know.

1)      Types: Broadly smart textiles can be broken into two categories: aesthetic and performance enhancing.

Aesthetic: Textiles that use technology for fashion and design purpose to bring lights and sounds into the world of textiles. They also gather energy from the environment to harness vibrations, sound or heat, reacting to this input.

Performance enhancing: These textiles use technology to assist human athletic function like jogging and extreme sports by monitoring body temperature and adjusting the breathability of the fabric.

2)     Functionalities: Many functions together are making fabrics smarter than ever before. The major ones:

Sensors: Smart textile have sensors injected to detect the environment and respond in a suitable manner. Fabrics are excellent measuring tools for human senses as they cover our body. For real devices, bio-signals need to be transformed into electric ones and this is what a sensor does. A few materials have the capability of transforming bio signals to electric ones-thermocouple, soft switch technology, and Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor.

Data processor: Smart textiles need data processing only when active processing is imperative. At present, data decoding is the bottleneck. Sensors used in the textiles are ready to provide data but what do they mean is yet to be discovered. Apart from the interpretation of data, the other major concern is the computing power of fabrics. As fabrics don’t have any computing power, pieces of electronics become a vital part of smart textiles. However, they are available in miniaturized and even in flexible form and embedded in waterproof material, but durability is still a question. To overcome all these challenges, researchers are working towards fixing the active components on fabrics.

Actuators: After receiving signals from the sensor and interpreting them by a data processor, fabrics need a response. Actuators back-talk the impulse signal by making things move; they release substances, make noise and do the needful. The best actuators used in tech-textiles are shape memory materials and alloys exist in the form of threads. Shape memory materials can react to temperature changes and that’s what makes them transform thermal energy into motion. In smart textiles, shape memory alloy is woven with traditional textile material resulting in a fabric with a pure textile aspect.

Storage: Often, smart textiles need some storage capacity to store data and energy. All functions-sensing, data processing, actuation, and communication-need some energy: electrical power. To manage this energy, fabrics need a combination of energy supply and energy storage capacity. Currently, the textiles industry is using lithium-ion batteries in many applications but for some operations where large temperature variation occurs, it can be used to store thermal energy as well. The same task can also be attained by phase change materials (PCMs).

Communication: Smart textiles need to communicate at every single stage-within an element, between individual elements, and with the fabric. The industry is using optical fibers or conductive yarns to allow communication within the smart textiles as they both have a textile nature and can be built in the fabric. They also use a flexible textiles screen to communicate with the wearer. With the wider environment, wireless communication is the only way as it doesn’t allow direct contact. Antennas are integrated with fabrics to attain wireless communication. Brighter side: antennas can cover the large surface without users being aware of it.

3)      Classification: Smart textile are working on three major classifications: passive smart textiles, active smart textiles, and ultra-smart textiles.

Passive smart textiles: The first generation of smart textiles can only perceive the data about the stimuli of the environment. Passive smart textiles only have sensors. No matter what environment you are into, UV (ultra-violet) protective clothing, plasma treated clothing, and fabric with optical sensor-all will perform the same function they are designed for, irrespective of the environment.

Active smart textiles: The second generation of smart textiles-active smart textiles-comprises both sensors and actuators. They can adapt their functionality according to the environment. Also, they can memorize the shape, regulate temperature, absorb vapors, keep the chameleon effect, resist water, heat fabric of the suit and store it.

Ultras-smart textiles: The advanced fabrics of all time are ultra-smart textiles and the most intelligent one too. These fabrics can sense disparate data types, make forecasts and fit the external environment without preliminary tuning. They have a built-in micro-computer to make them work like the brain. This collaboration between technology and textiles is incredible.

4) Applications: These intelligent textiles are worn as ordinary clothes with super-advanced features. Depending on the purpose they are designed for, here are a few industries they are serving amazingly.

Health: Smart textiles have come a long way to take care of our health. Now, there are wearable devices that can monitor the physiological signal during daily routine activities. Wireless-enabled garments with embedded textile sensors can continuously monitor ECG, respiration, EMG and physical activity of patients. Wearable sensitized garments can measure humans’ heart rhythm and respiration using a three-lead ECG shirt. The conductive grid and sensors are fully integrated within the fabric.

Medical: Smart textiles have given two superpowers: life belt and life jacket. A life belt is a trans-abdominal wearable device to monitor health long term. It facilitates parental monitoring for both the fetus and the mother. Also, it’s a support tool for an obstetrician who is enabled to monitor patients remotely. A life jacket helps patients read their blood pressure and monitor their heart rate. Then, the information is sent to the medical staff to check on the progress of the patient’s health.

Military/defense: Everywhere in the world, military forces are exploring smart textiles to increase their safety and add more to their power. Smart textiles assist them in a hazardous situation by monitoring vital signs and also ease injuries. Wireless communication enables medics to conduct a remote triage of causalities to help them respond rapidly and safely. Smart textiles increase their protection and boost their performance.

Sportswear: Smart textiles are chasing sports at their best. Apart from monitoring and tracking physiological parameters, smart textiles provide ‘smart’ resistance training, and record aspects of performance and protection against injuries. A global positioning System (GPS) is unified with walking shoes to track the wearer, especially young children. Moreover, smart bras can change their properties in response to breast movements. They can also tighten or loosen the straps with ease and relax cups to restrict breast motion, preventing breast pain and sag. Smart sportswear is amazing.

Fashion and entertainment: A new tech world have made almost everything portable. These portable electronic devices and components are infused in clothes used in fashion and entertainment. While technology is hidden through the coating and advance dazzling effects, light emitting fabric is finding its way into haute couture catwalks, suggesting a future trend in technical textiles.

Takeaways: Smart textiles have given a new vision to the textiles industry. Technology is uncovering new possibilities of the textile’s world. The match of ‘Tech & Tex’ will take clothes beyond our imagination. Be ready to meet a more intelligent wearer in the future.