JKL Facts - Workwear Buyers Guide

Aims of the guide

The aim of our guide to buying workwear is to help our customers select the right item of workwear clothing specifically for them. We know that each individual customer will have their own unique requirement which is why we have put together a comprehensive range of workwear products from which to choose.

We also know that a vast choice can sometimes lead to confusion and difficulty in selecting the right workwear. Hopefully the guide below can help you make the right choice.

Workwear Requirements 

Before you begin the process of choosing specific workwear clothing it may be helpful to first of all consider why you require work clothing and what it will be used for?

Try to prioritise your requirements. Do you need a work uniform, does the clothing need to provide protection, does it need to meet PPE Workwear standards, is fit and comfort your priority or is it a combination of all these.

Once you have decided your individual requirements you can then begin your selection process.

How to choose

Once you know the clothing item you require you can start to narrow your choice by selecting the appropriate category on our site. For example we have categories and sub categories, such as underwear and thermal workwear or workwear jackets, within our workwear department so you can navigate directly to the product page you require. 

You may be familiar with a specific workwear brand. You can select products from a specific brand on our website and view them all in one place. 

Fabric, style or a specific standard may be high on your list of priorities. We have therefore tried to provide an accurate description of all our products highlighting the main benefits and unique points.

Colour may be one of your requirements to match in with company colour schemes. We have a colour filter option down the left hand side of sub category pages to help you identify only those products available in a particular colour.

Price and budget always need to be a consideration when it comes to any purchase and workwear is no exception. To help you filter to the clothing items that fit within your budget, we have a price sorting filter from high to low or low to high on all of our pages from category level down.

Once you have selected the most appropriate product you need to know if it is in stock and what the availability is. Our website is updated daily to ensure current stock levels can be viewed online.

If all this is still not enough to help you with your choice we have trained staff, ready to take your call or respond to your email. Contact one of our customer account managers who will be able to help and advise on the choice of workwear you require.

Branding or Personailsation

We offer embroidery, screen or transfer printing and tax tabs to create personalised workwear. There are tax advantages to branding your garments along as well as providing your clothing with a unique, personalised look.

Applying a company logo to your workwear garment may be one of your requirements. We have tried to make this as simple as possible and offer a number of options. 

1. You can get your quote and proceed with your order online through our website. Details of how to do this can be found on our “How to order” page. Further instructions are provided once you have entered your selected products into the basket.

2. You can send us the information through one of our contact forms and we will provide a fully itemised quote for you.

3. Finally you can call or email one of our friendly staff who will be happy to help you with your personailsed order.

Why choose JKL?

We know you have plenty of choice when it comes to purchasing workwear. So why choose JKL Clothing and what makes us different from the rest. 

First of all over 15 years experience within the workwear sector. We have been trading since 1998 so you can be sure we know what we are talking about. 

We have fully trained account managers that provide the highest levels of customer service and will look after your order from beginning to end. 

Our offices are staffed Monday to Friday so you can talk to a real person at any time. 

State of the art website, and online ordering system. We have invested heavily in our online presence and believe our website to be a market leader in the workwear field. Order both plain and personalised garments online.

In-house branding, and personalisation. We have full embroidery and print services so you can brand your garments with company logo’s etc

JKL Facts - Corporate Clothing Buyers Guide

Buying corporate clothing can be a daunting task. Hopefully this brief guide will help you through the process and ensure you get the clothing you require. The following information is written to help both the individual looking for clothing to wear to the office and the corporate buyer sourcing a staff uniform for their business or organisation.

So, what do you need from your corporate clothing items? They need to be comfortable to wear. We are all different shapes and sizes and most of us have an idea of what we feel comfortable in. This is not a problem if you are buying clothing for yourself and JKL have categorised the different styles so you can quickly go to the type you require and select from that point. For example our Men’s shirts fall within either long or short sleeve so you can go directly to the type you wish to shop for. This is not so easy if you are selecting a shirt for everyone in the office to wear. Each person will have their own idea of what is comfortable and what they want to wear. Sometimes too much choice may not be a good thing and you will have to narrow down your options. We have tried to help you do this by identifying on our site garments that come in a male and female versions along with different style options such as fitted or shaped.

Once you have chosen your garment you will then need to select the sizes you require. Many of our product pages have a sizing guide to help you do this. Alternatively we recommend you order a selection of sizes for your staff to try on and then return them for a full refund once you have chosen the correct size.

We have also provided in the product description the fabric content of the clothing item. This is important so you ensure the item is machine washable and durable to stand up to daily wear.

An important consideration when buying a corporate staff uniform is stock levels and if it will be available in the foreseeable future. All the workwear within our corporate clothing section are stock items and therefore will not change within a minimum of 12 months. To help you with stock availability we have developed a real time stock level indicator. Once you have selected the colour and size requirement of a garment the current stock level is then shown on the product page.

There is only so much information we can put about a corporate clothing product onto a page and whilst we try to communicate the important features we appreciate you may want more information. This is why we have account managers who are more than happy to discuss your requirements in greater detail and provide further guidance on particular products and services. Our offices are open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday so please call us if you need any further help or advice.

Finally we come to personalisation. General clothing carries no tax benefits unless it is used wholly, exclusively and necessarily in connection with employment, in which case it is exempt from income tax. To qualify for this, the garment needs to be modified or customised to an extent that the tax office deems them to be eligible as a business expense. JKL Clothing can achieve this through embroidery or printing to produce logos, patches, badges or tax tabs. Ordering personalised printed or embroidered corporate clothing is straight forward and can be done in a number of ways. Each product page has a contact form at the bottom which you can complete and upload your logo. Alternatively you can add your items to the basket and proceed to customise before checkout, you can also complete our general contact page found at the bottom of every page on our site, or you can phone and speak to one of our advisors. Whichever way you contact us we will ensure you receive a complete itemised quote.

So how does the customised corporate clothing process proceed from the point of order? Once ordered we will contact you to confirm your logo details. We will then produce your logo and forward a sample of your logo or design for you to approve. Following approval we will then put your order into production. We aim to deliver your order within 10 working days from receipt of logo approval. We often beat this time and if you have a deadline to meet let us know and we will work with you to meet it.

Re ordering corporate clothing is a simple process. We will already have your details on file along with any logos you have had designed. Our only stipulation is that your order meets our minimum of 10 if you require any customisation. This can be made up of any garment style, colour or size.

We hope you have found this guide useful. As mentioned above we are available on the end of a phone so if you need help or are unsure about anything to do with buying corporate clothing, please get in touch and we will be happy to help and provide advice.

JKL Facts - Everything You Need To Know About T-Shirt Printing

At JKL Clothing printing t-shirts forms part of what we do and what we are about. We have been printing the humble t-shirt for over 15 years and in that time have seen an industry transformed by technological advances and garment choice.

The variety of print methods has increased to the point where it can be quite confusing to the customer as to which option to choose, which will look the best and achieve the optimum results. At JKL we guide our customers through each step of the process from selecting the right garment to choosing the most appropriate print option. Each printing decision is based on personal and unique situations and change from customer to customer. We want your printed t-shirt to be exactly what you are looking for at a price that fits your budget. We won’t try to sell you a t-shirt just because we have the stock or have an affinity with a particular brand. We choose your garment based on sound practical facts such as garment fabric, colour options and size availability to name but a few. We also do the same with your print method where again factors such as garment quantity, logo design and print position all play into the decision making process of which type of printing method to use.

T-shirt printing brands come and go and over the years we have seen many new brands with new styles and fabric choices. If your order is for a staff uniform that you will want to re-order again then we would recommend a brand that has a proven track record and has been around for a number of years. Brands such as Fruit of the Loom, Gildan and Kustom Kit and proven longevity within the t-shirt printing industry and we would be confident in stating that the printed t-shirt you order today will be available in six to twelve months time and beyond. If your order is for a one off sponsorship or event then brand sustainability may not be such a big deal and the most appropriate colour, size range or simply price might be the deciding factor.

The type of print is a different matter. JKL prides itself on the quality of our t-shirt printing and will only recommend a specific print technique based on fabric type, position and logo design. These three factors will determine the best print option for your t-shirt and provide the customer with the highest quality print outcome. The only other factor that we will add to the decision process is the quantity of prints required per logo. Cost effectiveness is something that we are well aware of, in the majority of cases the greater the quantity the greater the saving, so for example if we were to screen print your t-shirts the labour costs of separating the artwork (logo), setting up the screen or screens and getting the ink ready to print are basically the same whether you have 10 printed t-shirts or 1000. It would therefore make sense to recommend screen printing as a printing option for large quantity t-shirt orders.

Compare this to transfer printing as a printed t-shirt method. Transfer printing involves more or less the same amount of man hours per garment regardless of quantity. Finalising the artwork, printing the transfer and cutting out is based on single prints and takes the same amount of time for a single t-shirt as it does for 100. The benefit of transfer printing is the cost of the transfer is based on the size of the logo and not the number of colours contained within, as is the case for screen printing. It would therefore make sense to transfer print logos with a large number of colours going onto a small quantity of garments. Conversely, it therefore makes sense to use the screen print method when printing a logo with a small number of colours onto a large quantity of t-shirts.

Ultimately it is the customer’s decision which printing method to use but JKL will provide advice and costs for any number of options so that the customer has all the necessary information on which to base their print decision.

We are confident that whichever the t-shirt printing option you go for you won’t find a better printed product at a super completive price anywhere either on the high street or online. With well over 50 brands to choose from JKL stock one of the widest ranges of t-shirt available. Added to this the option to obtain your quote and order online 24hrs a day and we have your t-shirt printing requirements covered.

There are three ways to get your t-shirt printing order started:

Online, simply add the t-shirts you require to your basket and then proceed to check out. You will be prompted to add print to your order and taken through a step by step process to obtain your quote and place your order. Further information on how to do this is available on our website.

Through our contact page, simply fill out some basic details on our friendly contact page and we will get back to you with a full quote.

Phoning our office, pick up the phone and take the good old fashioned route to your perfect printed t-shirt order. We are open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm and have experienced staff available to answer your questions and take you through every step of the way.

JKL Facts - Clothing Terminology

At JKL Clothing we work with clothing everyday so are familiar with the terms used to describe the many different types of clothing styles, designs, fabrics etc. This terminology is often used in the product descriptions on our website and so, can be useful to understand when you are selecting the types and style of garment for your order.

We have therefore decided to write a few blogs on the subject of clothing terminology in the hope that it will clarify to our customers what the varying terms mean.

Yoke – This is a piece of clothing material that is sewn into a garment in order to support other looser material on the garment. In shirts, such as polo shirts it is sewn around the back of the neck and shoulder. In trousers and skirts it is sewn around the waist thus supporting the hanging fabric in the legs or the rest of the skirt.

Placket – This means “to lay on” and in clothing refers to allowing the garment to be put on and taken off more easily. In shirts for example the placket can be found on the front where the buttons are and also on the cuff at the end of the sleeve. They are almost always made of more than one layer of fabric.

The above image is a Fruit of the Loom polo shirt showing a front buttoned placket.

Taped Neckline – A taped neckline is a piece of fabric covering the stitching between the garment body and the collar. It strengthens the garment but also and more importantly makes the garment more comfortable to wear.

In our next blog we will look at different types of fabrics and what the descriptions actually mean. In the mean time why not do a spot of shopping and check out our casual leisurewear clothing and see if you can spot our terminology.