Resources · Choosing Uniforms
Most uniform regret comes from a decision nobody realised they were making. These guides cover the ones that matter before you order.
1,000+
Healthcare organisations
60,000+
Garments supplied
40+
Years experience
95%+
Client reorder rate
Why this is worth reading first
Choosing a uniform looks like a shopping decision and behaves like a policy one. The style is settled in an afternoon; what comes attached to it is lived with for years. These are the decisions that are cheap to make well now and expensive to revisit later — and they usually get made by default, by whoever happened to be placing the order.
A garment, in a colour, chosen from a photograph and signed off between other things.
A garment, in a colour, chosen from a photograph and signed off between other things.
Seven things follow from it, and every one of them outlives the first order.
The guides
Work through them in sequence if you are starting from nothing, or go straight to the one you are stuck on.
What clinical, allied health, reception and support roles each need — and where one range can cover several of them.
How healthcare fabrics behave in practice: comfort across a shift, laundering, colour retention and wear.
How sizing is handled across a team, what to do about fit variation, and why sizes are recorded once.
What happens to a uniform after it is issued — washing, wear and how long a garment realistically lasts.
Before you order
None of these are difficult on their own. What makes them expensive is deciding them differently each time somebody orders.
Defined once, before anything is ordered.
Then decided once, and repeated.
Choosing by role
A clinician, a receptionist and an allied health practitioner do different work in the same building. Putting all three in the same garment usually means it suits one of them and is tolerated by the other two.
The workable approach is one coordinated range with several garments inside it — scrubs, tunics, polos or shirts as the role requires — held together by a shared colour palette and branding standard. The team still reads as one organisation without forcing every role into the same garment.
Different jobs. One coordinated organisation.
By setting
The decisions are the same everywhere. What changes is the setting they have to work in, and what the people wearing the uniform spend the day doing.
Learned the hard way
Not hypotheticals. These are the reasons organisations end up changing a range earlier than they planned to.
Made while choosing the range
A garment picked from an image rather than handled, then found to be wrong on the floor.
A single style forced across roles it was never designed for.
A palette settled after the garments, so the range cannot extend cleanly.
Made while running it, long after
Nobody agreed how many sets a person gets, so it varies by who asked.
A logo applied to a garment that was never assessed for it.
The first order is considered; the second is improvised.
Where this leads
Choosing the range is the first decision. Once that is settled, branding, ordering rules and replacement become much easier to standardise.
Garments, colours and quantities,
by role.
Artwork prepared once and applied to one standard.
Who orders, what is approved, how replacements work.
Staff order from what has already been decided.
Four decisions, a year later.
Nobody notices a uniform that was decided properly.
With roles. Decide what each group of staff actually does in a day, then choose garments to suit that. Colour, branding and ordering rules all follow more easily once the roles are settled.
Rarely. Most organisations use one range with several garments inside it, held together by a shared colour palette and one branding standard. That reads as consistent without forcing an unsuitable garment on anyone.
It depends on how often the uniform is laundered and how physical the role is. What matters more is that the number is decided once and applied consistently, rather than varying by who asks.
Yes. Fabric and fit are difficult to judge from a photograph, and most organisations want to handle the garments before committing a whole team to them.
Ranges do change. Where a style is discontinued, the closest suitable option is identified and confirmed with you rather than substituted quietly, and your program is updated so future orders use it.
No. Many organisations settle the core garments first and add items — outerwear, additional roles, seasonal options — as they become necessary.
No. A program is a way of managing the range once it exists. You can choose garments without one, though the decisions in these guides are what a program would hold on your behalf.
Whoever has to live with it. The people wearing the garments have the most useful opinions about comfort and practicality; the person managing ordering has the most useful opinions about everything else.
Avery is cut for a contemporary, slightly tapered fit that flatters without restricting movement. Prefer a relaxed fit or planning to layer? Size up.
| Model — Women's | 5'7", wearing size S |
| Model — Men's | 6'1", wearing size L |
| Fit | True to size, tapered body |
| Length | Hip-length, V-neckline |
| Chest (CM) | Body Length | Sleeve | |
|---|---|---|---|
| XXS | 81–86 | 58 | 30.5 |
| XS | 86–91 | 60 | 31.5 |
| S | 91–97 | 62 | 32.5 |
| M | 97–102 | 64 | 33.5 |
| L | 102–107 | 66 | 34.5 |
| XL | 107–114 | 68 | 35.5 |
| 2XL | 114–122 | 70 | 36.5 |
| 3XL | 122–132 | 72 | 37.5 |
| 4XL | 132–142 | 74 | 38.5 |
