The corporatewear market can still be split into five segments. These are:
* workwear;
* careerwear;
* corporate casualwear;
* uniforms;
* protective clothing.
The dividing lines between them are becoming ever more blurred. It is no longer possible to be categorical about where workwear ends and protectivewear begins. To most people a standard boilersuit made of poly/cotton is workwear. But if the fabric is impregnated with chemical dyes which make it reflect light, and it therefore becomes a high visibility boilersuit, has it transformed into protectivewear?
The industry has suffered from becoming commoditised', as a result of irrevocable and irreversible changes in the supply chain. Consequently the market has become fixated on price to its own detriment.
This latest edition of our global workwear review discusses the state of the sector at the end of the last decade, analyses the market from 2004 to 2016, looks at how sellers reach buyers, analyses worldwide production and reflects on views from people in the industry.
Beginning with a 10-page Executive summary, this section wraps up the key findings from the report, then leads into Chapter 2 Introduction.
Chapter 3 Workwear at the end of the decade
Today, it is far more likely that retail sales of corporatewear will be of suits, jackets, skirts and trousers to both men and to women; in other words, careerwear. In the UK, for example, many accountants, estate agents, law firms, etc provide an allowance for employees to go and get suited and booted' from mass market retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Next.
The sale of workwear through retail is far harder to pin down. A self-employed builder might buy jeans and a fleece jacket for work. He can obtain these from almost any casualwear retail outlet, without there being any distinguishable branding' of the apparel as workwear. Or, he can buy CAT, Dr Martens, Dickies, Carhartt or another workwear fashion' brand.
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