What Is HVSA and What Are the Benefits?

HVSA, short for high-visibility safety apparel, is a type of clothing made with brightly colored and highly reflective materials. This clothing, also known as hi viz or hi vis, can include a wide range of apparel from shirts and vests to pants, overalls, and gaiters. 

By wearing these vibrant colors—fluorescent lime, red, and orange—that contrast with your work environment, you’re helping ensure that people are more likely to see you as you’re working. The goal of all high-visibility apparel is to keep the wearer safe and seen at all times, day and night. 

What Makes a Garment High-Visibility Safety Apparel?

We’ve all seen the hardworking men and women in safety vests working along the roads and highways, and many people think these safety vests all look the same. Maybe you even own a neon yellow shirt that appears to be the same color of the vests, they should be interchangeable right? Unfortunately, you can’t simply swap one for another. Yes, color plays a large part, but there are actually other very technical things to consider including ANSI/ISEA guidelines, material requirements, work environment considerations, and more.  

Who Sets the Standards for High-Visibility Clothing?

ANSI/ISEA, the American National Standards Institute and International Safety Equipment Association, approve and help set standards for everything from safety glasses to, you guessed it, high vis clothing. The standard provides a consistent authoritative guide for design, performance specifications, and use of high-visibility garments.

ANSI has classified work environments into three different types, and each has its own HVSA class requirements. The different classes of clothing determine how much coverage is needed and how much retroreflective material is required to be used. 

Let’s look at this vest for example. It’s Kishigo’s 1550 Heavy Duty Vest and it’s been designed and certified as ANSI 107 Type R | Class 3 Compliant. What that tells us is that it’s been approved for Roadway and Temporary Traffic Control Zones (Type R) and that it’s met or exceeded the minimum amounts of background and reflective material for that environment.

If There Are Set Standards, Is All Hi Viz Workwear Equal?

As with most things, there are varying levels of quality depending on the manufacturer. Search for “hi vis clothing” or even “workwear” and the results are endless. It might even be tempting to go for the cheapest one you can find, but consider you’ll be wearing it nearly every day and that it’s meant to keep you safe, we hope you’ll think twice. When you choose high-quality workwear, it can last a lot longer and you don’t have to worry about inferior reflective materials or poor craftsmanship. With our products, you can trust that they’re made with high-quality materials and adhere to ANSI/ISEA standards.  

Who Should Wear High Visibility Apparel?

People often think that only those working in traffic and construction need to wear high-visibility apparel. Far from it, safety workwear can be beneficial for everyone from cart collectors to warehouse workers to police officers. The ANSI/ISEA-107 standards even offer suggestions as to which Class and Type of clothing should be worn by workers in the following professions: 

Note that these are only suggestions and HVSA should be chosen after a trained professional has completed a basic hazard assessment that considers the job tasks and working environment.

What Are the Benefits of Wearing HVSA? 

The main, and incredibly important, benefit of high-visibility apparel is to improve other’s ability to see you in all conditions. Whether it’s dusk on a curving road and you’re helping someone in need, working in a busy warehouse, or directing traffic in pouring rain, the better you can be seen, the lower the risk of a life-threatening accident. Wearing HVSA keeps you safe. 

These days, there are more distractions than ever for drivers. They’re distracted by navigation systems, cell phones, or kids in the back seat playing and that puts you at higher risk of “struck-by” accidents when you’re working potentially feet away from high-speed traffic. 

Aside from keeping you safe, here are some other benefits for wearing high-visibility safety apparel: 

Makes Workers More Easily Identifiable

By utilizing different colored vests, you can easily tell workers from visitors or even which workers are assigned to which tasks for better safety and efficiency. 

Extends Workable Hours

Working during dusk and night hours are inherently more dangerous due to the lack of visibility. Wearing HVSA can help ensure workers are seen long after the sun goes down so work can continue as needed. 

Unites Your Team

Adding the company logo to the apparel you wear daily makes everyone feel like they are part of the team. 

Kickstarts an On-the-Job Mentality

Putting on your safety vest signals to your team that you are ready to get to work. 

The Summary

Wearing high-visibility safety apparel is of the utmost importance. Even if your job doesn’t require it, you can wear it if you feel like the environment or job at hand does. Ensure you’re wearing the right type and class of clothing for the job as well. You want people to see you as easily as possible so you’re as safe as possible. 

Need help finding the perfect workwear? We can help.