Women's workwear designed for inclusion
Hi vis maternity wear
Toowoomba based Co Gear has created a workwear range that supports women's real-life decisions
Thu Jan 14 2021
Industrial workwear company Co Gear has collaborated with BHP and Blackwoods to launch a redesign of its women's workwear to give mums to-be a comfortable option that will take them through their whole pregnancy.
Founder Kym O'Leary said for quite a while industries had been talking a good game about addressing inclusion and diversity initiatives in their workplaces but were slow to change. She told The Daily Mercury:
There is a growing number of women looking to pivot away from roles in metro areas and take on industrial and trade roles with some of the biggest mining and construction companies in Australia.
But they are holding themselves back because things like workwear are not always suited for women ... businesses need to go beyond creating committees and implementing policies, assuming the job is done.
They need to make broader strides and take immediate action where they can, even if it is bucking the one size fits all mentality around workwear.
The Co Gear designs were tested across the Bowen Basin (QLD) and Pilbara (WA) mining regions to ensure they withstood the practical challenges women face every day on site. Ms O'Leary said:
We also had an exciting opportunity to collaborate with a number of women from varying industrial and trade backgrounds over a 12-month period on our maternity wear range, which went through endless rounds of design changes to ensure it provides comfort, functionality and a flattering fit at all stages of pregnancy.
Ms O'Leary said the real-world application of the Co Gear range had been important.
When we started working on the redesigns for our range of women's workwear, we knew that collaboration was going to be a major contributor to our success, and fortunately we had plenty of support from industry leaders such as BHP and Blackwoods.
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