The Workwear Ordering Checklist: FR Coveralls, Tactical Pants, Boots & Gloves, Step by Step

Somewhere in your company there's a spreadsheet with crew names, measurements, and an "order by" date that you're definitely ignoring until it's too late. Your job is to turn that list into FR coveralls, hi-vis layers, pants, gloves, and boots that fit, meet current safety standards, and arrive before the project starts.

I've been on the PPE purchasing side for eight years at an industrial contractor. Crews from 12 to 60 people, plant shutdowns, new construction, emergency callbacks. In that time I've ordered the wrong coveralls, skipped the wash test on a full-size order, and bought boots online that looked identical to the real thing but fell apart in six weeks.

This is the checklist I use now. Eight steps, in the order I do them.

1. Build the hazard list before you open a product page

Opening a Carhartt page and picking what looks good is a fine way to spend an afternoon, but it's the wrong way to buy workwear. I start with a piece of paper and the job tasks.

For each person on your list, ask: are they facing arc flash? Flash fire? Working near traffic? Dropped objects? Hot sparks? You'll get different answers for a welder, an electrician, and a spotter—and they need different packages of PPE. A welder doing setup work in an active yard may need Tillman welding gloves plus a hi-vis layer. The electrician in the same yard may not need the welding gear at all, but may need arc-rated clothing.

The hazard list decides the product. Brand comes after.

2. Buy to a standard, not to a label

This part of the industry has changed a lot in the last five years. More facilities now require actual documentation, and that's a good thing. A product marketed as "flame resistant" is not automatically right for the hazard.

If there's arc flash risk, you need arc-rated clothing with an arc rating consistent with the incident energy analysis under NFPA 70E. If there's a flash fire hazard, flame-resistant clothing that meets NFPA 2112 is the usual benchmark. And if you're buying hi-vis, check that it meets ANSI/ISEA 107—and look for the label, not just the color of the fabric.

When you're searching for fr coveralls, you'll see a lot of options. The right one is the one where the manufacturer can show you the standard or the rating, not just the word "FR" in the title.

3. Put it in writing: one-piece FR coveralls or FR shirt and pants?

Here's where I got burned. In spring 2023, I submitted a PO for "20 sets of FR coveralls" for an electrical crew. In my head, that meant 20 FR shirts and 20 pairs of FR pants. The supplier heard one-piece Carhartt coveralls. Result: 20 one-piece coveralls showed up, and the crew sent them back because they needed the flexibility of separates. We paid a restocking fee and expedited a second order.

I still buy one-piece coveralls, but now I buy them on purpose. A one-piece covers you with no gap at the waist, which matters for certain flash fire and hot work situations. It also keeps the shirt from coming untucked when someone is reaching overhead all day. It can be miserable in warm weather, though, and it's harder to adjust if the wearer has to layer.

If a worker needs to take an outer layer off during breaks, or if they're already wearing an arc-rated base layer, FR separates are usually the better call. Just say it clearly on the PO: "one-piece FR coveralls" or "FR shirt and FR pants." Don't assume the person on the other end reads your mind.

4. Wash-test one sample before you order 40

I know this feels like overkill. It's not.

A few years ago we bought 30 pairs of FR pants based on the manufacturer's sizing chart. They fit fine out of the box. After the first industrial wash and dry, the inseams and sleeves had shrunk just enough that the crew hated them. We got a return authorization, but we paid freight both ways, and we didn't have gear ready for the Monday orientation.

Now, every time I order a style I haven't bought before, I order one unit, wash it three times, and have the largest and smallest crew members try it. It costs a little time and a few dollars. It has saved me from a lot of expensive mistakes.

5. Match the pants to the job, not the brand

Another mistake is buying everyone on the site the same pants. If a worker doesn't need FR, forcing them into FR-weight fabric can mean overheating and discomfort, which drives people to stop wearing required gear.

For general construction in non-FR areas, a heavy duck pant with double knees makes sense. For site security personnel and supervisors who carry gear on their belts, the Carhartt tactical pants are a solid choice—the pocket layout and cut work better for someone climbing around a site without having to adjust everything every time they bend down.

The key is to ask what the person does all day. Pants are part of the PPE system, not a uniform afterthought.

6. Buy gloves for the task, not for the bin

Gloves are the easiest category to ignore, and the one where I see the most mismatches. The guys on our welding crew don't use general-purpose leather gloves. We buy Tillman welding gloves and keep them at the welding station, because when the sparks are flying, that's the glove that holds up.

But the same welder doing material handling in the morning shouldn't be handling rebar in welding gloves. If your crew grinds, welds, handles rebar, and works around chemicals, that's four different gloves, not one "work glove" SKU.

7. Where to buy steel toe boots? From a supplier that will stand behind them.

I get this question at least once a month, usually from a superintendent with a new hire standing beside him: where to buy steel toe boots that won't fall apart?

For a single pair, find a dedicated work boot retailer or an authorized dealer. For crews, establish a relationship with one distributor and use it. The big reason is counterfeit boots. They show up on marketplaces, they look right in the photos, and the steel toe may or may not actually meet ASTM F2413. You don't want to find that out after an injury.

Send new hires to a retailer with a real exchange policy—boots that hurt after a week are a workers' comp issue waiting to happen. If your company reimburses employees, give them a list of approved models and make them show you the ASTM label before they start work.

8. Work backward from the start date

Hi-vis vests you can usually get in days. Logoed FR coveralls can take weeks, because fabric, production, and decoration often happen separately.

Once in March 2024, a project manager called on a Thursday afternoon. The site had a scheduled safety walkthrough the following Monday, and the crew needed FR coveralls and Class 3 hi-vis. The usual vendor said "three to five business days"—which meant after the walkthrough. We paid for overnight shipping from an authorized distributor that had stock, and the walkthrough went ahead. The alternative was rescheduling the audit, which would have pushed the project start and cost a lot more than the shipping.

Now the first question I ask any supplier is not "how much?" It's "is it in stock, and what's the latest date you can put it in my hands?" If they can't answer that, I call someone who has inventory.

Mistakes I still watch for

If you remember nothing else:

• Wash-test one sample. It catches shrinkage and sizing issues before you own 50 of them.
• Write "one-piece" or "separates" on every FR coverall order. Don't assume the vendor knows.
• Ask for the rating. If a seller can't show you the FR standard or arc rating, move on.
• Don't buy boots from marketplaces without seeing the ASTM F2413 label first.
• Ask about stock before price. It determines whether you'll be paying for overnight shipping.

That's the list. It won't make the spreadsheet go away, but it'll keep you from reordering the same gear twice.