Our Story
How Lil Worker Safety Gear came to be
My name is James Flawith. I'm an arborist and the founder of Lil Worker Safety Gear. I'm also the father of three ruckus-making young lads.
When I'm at work, the law requires that I wear high visibility, high contrast clothing to keep me safe from hazards. When I get home from work my sons love to tackle me to the ground, strip off my safety gear and parade around the house in it. As cute as it is, wearing big, baggy adult safety gear actually makes my little men less safe. Laughing and running quickly turns into crying and sobbing when long shirts trip little legs and small boys go flying...
As a responsible parent, safe worker and fun-loving Dad, I ventured out to find my boys some high visibility safety shirts of their own. After looking doggedly in retail stores and searching online, though, I couldn't find any children's safety gear that replicated what I would wear on the job site.
I wasn't about to settle for cheap Halloween costumes or dress-up gear – not for my boys. I wanted REAL safety gear.
Do-it-yourself kids' safety clothing
Determined not to let my boys down, I set out to make some high visibility kids' clothing of my own. Real high visibility kids' clothing. And the rest is history.
It turned out my boys loved the high visibility safety shirts I made them, and they absolutely refused to take them off. Seriously, they were like Smelly Socks. Ugh.
Because the boys refused to change out of their new safety gear, those high visibility shirts came trekking with us wherever we went. And that's when my wife and I started to notice something.
When our crew was out walking the dog or playing at the park, the safety shirts made it much easier to track and locate our boys. And if their safety shirts made it easier for us to see them, it must also be easier for everyone to see them – including drivers.
If you're anything like us, you worry about cars. Parking lots. Crosswalks. Walking to school. Biking. Field trips. The list goes on. These are the real danger zones of life. With all these scary thoughts swirling through my head, I had my – ahem – “vision.”
My middle, son who loves to bolt off, is laying in the middle of the road. There's the car. Here's the blood. It's real, but it's not reality. If there is anything I can do to prevent this accident – anything – I will do it. And then it hits me:
The hazards I face at work are the same that our children face at play.
Cars. Struck-by accidents. The primary barrier to preventing these horrible accidents is the same at work or at play – bright, contrasting, high visibility safety gear. The solution was right on my back.
Lil Worker Safety Gear is born
The beauty of Lil Worker Safety Gear is that it's great for kids and for parents. Kids love to dress up and pretend to be just like Daddy, Mommy or whomever their favourite “high viz hero” is that day. As parents, we love the safety and the fact that the high viz clothes our kids wear make them easier to find and keep them safe from harm.
Two birds, one highly visible stone.
Our promise
Like most uber-professional entrepreneurs, I set up a Facebook page to get feedback from people on what they think of dressing their children in safety gear. The support I received was overwhelmingly positive. I learned that most parents, at one point or another, had searched for safety gear for their own children, only to come up empty-handed like I did.
Our world needs REAL safety gear for kids because every child's life is priceless and deserves protection. Though starting my own line of children's safety gear was completely foreign to me, I was driven by passion. And that passion has grown.
We're not making cheap, disposable dress-up garments – we don't need more garbage in our landfills. We're making high quality safety gear that keeps kids safe.
I'm a father. I will do whatever it takes to protect my children from careless drivers, speeding vehicles and getting lost. But I made Lil Worker Safety Gear for your children.
Together, we can protect their priceless lives.
Because growing up is tough work.