When workwear captured my attention.
By Emily, founder of glow workwear
It all started when I wondered why my Forest Service wildland fire uniform was not made to fit me, a white woman of average muscular build and height.
I'm a curious person. I am a science and big picture driven person. I just wondered why my crotch hung down to my mid thigh and my exterior cargo pockets banged the size of my knee versus up higher.
I can not unsee what I saw. I saw pants uniformly made for a man issued and worn by me, a woman. What if it was the other way around. Unisex uniforms made from women's measurements, well, that would be laughable. (oh but why?) When the oddity of the situation flashed in front of my eyes, sure there was mad and sad. There was also a spark of joy. To say: I see it. I see how we can fix this. It won't be hard. It's not rocket science. We fly people into space in rockets and make astronaut suits for them. This is not that. This is only a better pair of work pants. This is a solvable problem.
Coming from parents who started businesses and organizations out of financial necessity, plus desire to launch their own ideas, it seemed so obvious. Clothing and uniforms can change. Measurements and fabric brought up to date. On the fire crew in 2005, my mindset and expectation about uniforms was that it would have already existed - women’s sizing for wildfire uniforms. But it did not.
First Lady Michelle Obama summarized this sense in her podcast. The sense of how one arrives at a (figurative) table, and although invited, it’s like no one expected you to accept the invitation.
She said, "When it comes to fathers raising their girls, I do think that the average father today does believe that their girl can be anything she wants to be and they are delivering those messages around the dinner table." ...But what we didn’t do... We delivered those messages at the dinner table but we didn’t take them to the board room. We didn’t change our workplaces; we didn’t change things outside the home..."
In the podcast, President Barack Obama chimes in “We didn’t institutionalize…”
I think that is what has happened to workwear and uniforms. Women fight fire. Women are in the military. Women own farms. Women are biologists. Women are in emergency management. But we have not always institutionalized what it means to have women in these spaces.
I saw something personal I wanted changed - uniforms, and better buying options for durable workwear.
But when is a good time to chase that nagging feeling, those dreams?
(A brief interlude happens! Between having the insight and starting the company. Sometimes bad things happen…)
In 2015 at the age of 36 my brother died from colo-rectal cancer. My big brother believed in me. To believe in someone is a most wonderful and precious gift. We did hospice at my parents house as cancer did what cancer and chemo does, slowly and excurisatingly steals someone you love. Trevor left behind his wife and his two small kids, and all of us. Trevor loved to create and problem solve. He loved to work, which was a gift our parents instilled in us. Love what you do. Work hard. Get your nails dirty. He had magic to him. He was a mechanical engineer who could make the energy efficiency of HVAC systems the most fun conversation.
Life now seemed like it had a real outer edge.
When we spread his ashes, I promised to be the best me I could be. That is a gift. To have this life.
Grief flooded for a long time and grief fog eventually lifted.
When the fog lifted, I "quit" my other job. My husband and I created and run a regional forestry and tree care company, TigerTree. It is my first baby. I rehired my own position (don't worry she's better at my job than I was!) and started working full time on Glow Workwear.
It was time to see what was on the other side of creating a workwear company.
Glow Workwear was born!
I want us to improve that moment in the morning for women, transgender and non-binary people. That moment when your brain flashes and you decide what you will wear for the day. A second of joy melts over you because you look forward to putting it on.
To that moment,
Emily