Finding Reflective Tape For Clothing

To protect people in many different types of situations, reflective safety clothing features reflective safety tape. These situations can range from issues in a professional work environment to nighttime jogging and even rescue operations or when out on the open sea. In order to create this clothing, manufacturers have designed retroreflective and fluorescent textiles which use reflective tape for clothing. This reflective tape captures the light and shines it back to the source, which causes the person wearing the tape to become much more visible.

The History of Reflective Tape for Clothing

High visibility clothing with reflective technology first appears back in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, the clothing created with this feature during this time was uncomfortable, impractical and cumbersome. Professionals and civilians alike will not wear clothing if it's a bother to wear. To get people to wear the reflective clothing so they could improve safety, manufacturers had to come up with a practical design that wouldn't get in the way.


It took until the 1970's until more comfortable clothing designs were made. This started with belts where the reflective tape could be sewed on. Around 1982, reflective safety vests were created after much research and development in the reflective technology area. These vests used several features to improve visibility such as a harness that held battery-powered electrical lights and phosphorescent patches. These garments were still fairly large so the reflective components went mainstream. This included white and yellow reflective tape.

Safety clothing that has either sew on reflective tape or some other reflective material is to increase visibility of the wearer. To improve visibility, the design and the classification of the clothing must be chosen. Personal protective equipment, reflective vests and other reflective materials are broken down into three types of classifications. The rating or category will change depending on the amount of reflective material being used and how well the material reflects light.

For someone on a recreational walk, jogging or performing a non-professional task near traffic, there are clothing items that feature small amounts of sew on reflective tape to improve visibility. For professional workers, the various classifications of garments as regulated by the government range from simple coverage with a vest (suitable for parking lots and minimal traffic locations) to high-coverage jackets and pants with 360 degrees of visibility using multiple layers and sew on reflective tape to cover visibility from any angle.


Types of Reflective Clothing

A well known and generally popular piece of high visibility clothing is the vest. This sleeveless item is worn over the person's regular outfit and features several strips of reflective tape. Other reflective clothing is available and varies by the working conditions, the environment, and the duties of the job at hand. Clothing items range from all-weather wear, high-heat flame retardant protective equipment with fire-resistant reflective tape, cold-performance wear, packs, bands, shoes, flags, gloves, boots, and hats. Each of these items has some form of reflective tape to increase visibility. Personal, or recreational clothing, also comes in popular forms like shirts, pants, jackets, and has reflective materials. These can be in accessory form like the logo or the zipper or it can be reflective fabric on the cloth itself.

The progress for increased visibility and design improvements for reflective clothing is never ending for the manufacturers. By striving to create improved retroreflection with microprism technology, improved comfort, better performance for sewed on reflective tape, and highly-visible variations in the fluorescent backing material, manufacturers continue to make both professionals and civilians safe whenever they wear reflective gear.