PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT FOR ALL
A new British Standard paves the way for more inclusive PPE
Dec 03, 2025
A new standard for inclusive personal protective equipment (PPE) has arrived — and The LYCRA Company is primed to support.
The British Standards Institution, or BSI, recently released a new standard for inclusive PPE that's changing the conversation in workwear.
Instead of one-size-fits-all thinking, it guides purchasers, suppliers, and users to consider the real diversity of people wearing PPE — their gender, body size and shape, mobility needs, life stages like pregnancy or menopause, medical conditions, disabilities, and cultural or religious requirements. It’s all about the right fit for every body — so no qualified worker is excluded from a job, and everyone can feel comfortable and confident at work.
The LYCRA Company is prepared: Our range of workwear fiber innovations is designed to make clothing fit better and feel great, whether it’s inclusive sizing, added stretch, temperature control, or moisture wicking that’s required. Every product we produce is engineered to help you show up, confident and supported — no matter who you are.
THE RIGHT FIT
The LYCRA Company’s workwear fibers are designed for better comfort and fit, so employees can don their protective gear — then forget about it. Many of our workwear innovations are tailor-made to support inclusive PPE:
LYCRA® ADAPTIV fiber, our stretch fiber innovation that adapts to the wearer’s needs, accommodates a wider range of body shapes and sizes, and makes clothing easier to put on and take off
LYCRA® T400® fiber is our all-in-one solution, offering stretch, cooling, and moisture-wicking in one industrially launderable yarn
COOLMAX® brand products deliver cooling comfort, ideal for supporting workers experiencing fluctuations in temperature throughout the day
THERMOLITE® brand products provide lightweight warming, ideal for workers with circulatory and metabolic conditions. The reduced bulk of THERMOLITE® fiber and insulation can also offer a more comfortable fit for workers with smaller frames
Our team of fiber experts is ready to collaborate on your next collection and find the right solution to meet your customers’ needs.
WHY INCLUSIVE PPE MATTERS
Picture a construction site: How many women do you see? Or a factory floor — are there pregnant workers there? Probably not, and that could be because the PPE required for those roles didn’t take their needs into consideration.
Research cited by BSI found a range of issues with PPE affecting a variety of workers:
Over 80% of women reported experiencing one or more problems with their PPE, including an oversized fit that moves and shifts during work and sizing that doesn’t take their body shapes into account
If a worker is outside of the 5th or 95th percentile for typical body measurements, finding well-fitting PPE is unlikely
57% of women respondents found that their PPE “sometimes or significantly hampered their work"
28% of women do not wear all the required PPE at work because of issues with fit
This has real consequences: Without adequate PPE, workers can be seriously injured or worse. In fact, as BSI reports, an estimated 35.2 million UK workdays were lost in 2022-23 due to work-related ill health or injury, as self-reported by workers.
The British Standard, BS 30417 Provision of Inclusive PPE, which applies in the public and private sectors, encourages a move away from “standard” sizing and unisex PPE toward garments that suit a wider range of workers. It recommends employers and fabric makers get input and feedback from actual end-users along the way, so workers with diverse PPE needs have their voices heard. Because who knows PPE better than those who have to wear it?
Ultimately, the goal is to open the door to industries and roles that have long been closed to qualified workers, making PPE accessible to all — at last. At The LYCRA Company, we’re all in.