2026-02-23 Podcast with RedWing

[00:00:00] [00:01:00] Hey there, safety friends. Today's conversation is an important one, especially if you work in environments where PPE is considered one size fits all. Now, while we've seen more women enter the skilled trade over the last several years, their access to properly fitting PPE has not kept pace.

And this isn't about style or preference. It's about safety and health and retention. Ill-fitting boots can lead to back pain and loose gloves and vests can get caught in machinery. And too often women are still expected to work in PPE that was never designed for their bodies or their shape. I'm really excited to welcome today's guest, Tito Warren.

Tito is the president of Global Sales and Distribution for the Red Wing Shoe Company. You know, you know that [00:02:00] company that's known for Red Wing and Works and Irish Sutter brands across the globe? Tito is a respected safety leader. With deep experience in industrial work environments with over 30 years of experience in overseas environments, and not just with Red Wing Red, red Wing, I'm gonna have to redo that.

Easy for you to say, right. And not just with Red Wing. He has also worked with Campbell Corporation and real su. State development firms. He's currently sits on the board of directors and has been volunteering for in his community for over two decades. So today we are gonna talk about why shrink and pink approach to women's work wear is a real.

Safety issue and why safety professionals can do things differently now and how investing in the properly fitting PPE can actually be in a competitive advantage for many organizations. So Tito, welcome. Welcome to the podcast. I am so glad you're here. I'm so glad that we were able to finally connect, and I cannot wait to hear about what Red Wing [00:03:00] is doing.

Yeah, looking forward to it and I'm honored to be here. Absolutely. Awesome. Just tell me a little bit about your background and how you ended up focusing on safety and PPE. Yeah, so I have, you know, as you called out, I've been with Red Wing for, for decades, and. I, I came to Red Wing from a completely different industry, but you know, really what, what I was brought to do originally was develop international markets, right?

And that's kind of where I began my, my journey with Red Wing. And you know, I think at last count I've been to like 126 countries for Red Wing shoe company, a lot of miles. But all of that, you know, obviously in, in. Really challenging safety environments. So, you know, as you go outside of Europe and the United States, and you go to a lot of these other countries that are developing safety standards and looking at, or modeling kinda what is world class, what does that mean?

You really, [00:04:00] you get, you get involved in, you know, really development from the ground up. What does safety mean? And you know, as a provider of safety solutions. That's really where we get, you know, we're in there with HSC, we're in there with those groups that are developing it and saying, this is why these topics are important.

You know, whether it's quality, whether it's you know, anatomical differences in PPE fit Shape. All of these different things go into creating what companies do as their spec, right? What is our space safety spec going to be? Yeah. I'm curious, like I know here in the States we are definitely seeing a lot more women entering the trades.

Like we see more women in construction, transportation oil and gas even Right. Mining. I, I've even watched videos of women out on like oil rigs out in the middle of the ocean. Oh, yeah. Are you seeing that internationally as well? [00:05:00] Absolutely. I mean, I would actually say. That in a lot of places where, I mean, I think whether it's Europe, and the United States in general have been more, not more advanced, but just more progressive in hiring women into a lot of different work environments.

The rest of the world is going full tilt at that. Right. And it's really a big deal. We've seen it. The biggest change that I've seen is really probably in the Middle Eastern countries, right? And okay. The Middle Eastern countries have really brought in a tremendous amount of women in the workforce.

I mean, whether it's working in a rig or you know, anywhere in the, whether it's trades, any of the industries, it's, it's across everything. And it's great to see, and you, you're seeing more adaptation to kind of. What are world class standards and why should we do this? Right. But you know, to your point earlier, you know, women in the trades, just, just in the [00:06:00] United States, I, I think, you know, between 2 20 18 and 20 23, 20 8% increase in women in the trades, specifically trades.

Right. Yeah. It's, it's really a, I mean, that's a, that's a significant jump in a short amount of time. Yeah. Yeah. It is, it is. I, I would say like traditionally, women have been put into roles that were lower paying. Mm-hmm. And some of these trades are just, they're higher paying jobs. So it's nice to see that change.

So would you say that, like, that was the turning point, like 2017, 18, around that time period? Or were you seeing No, no. I, I think, I think Red Wing has, you know, for probably. We have developed products and we know that women are, are in the industry and it's really more about the, the size and selection. We, we know that there is a difference, right?

And we've, yeah, we've created products to, to meet those needs. We haven't, I don't think in the, you know, past decades. [00:07:00] Because of the size of, of the, of women in the trades has w was relatively small. We have changed or adapted to that from a, from just a product solution perspective. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Over the last 15, 20 years, our, our product selection for women has dynamically changed.

I mean, really to embrace. A lot of what's happening in the United States, but also around the world, right? There's a lot of different things that we have to adjust to, to make sure that that's all happening the right way. So since you've been doing this for so long, let's kind of like look at the journey.

So when did shrink and pink, like start like way back when women were entering the trades? I'm assuming what they typically did was, well, you'll just have to wear a size extra small and we'll throw some pink lettering on it so we know it's yours. Is that Oh yeah, I remember. Is that how it started? No, really.

I mean, I remember product development. Mm-hmm. [00:08:00] Briefs were. You know, this and this goes way, you know, 20 plus years back where it was, Hey, we need a couple of these styles. Let's shrink it and pink it. And, you know, it's, and that was just common terminology back in the day. Right? And, you know, we have evolved and it's, it's been great now to, you know, we, we have products for her and that, that's really how we think about it.

It's not shrink and pink, it's products for her. What are, what are the environments that she is going to be in? What are the implications of that, you know, safety concerns, all of that. As we develop product for her, not shrinking ink, it's her. So when. Red Wing started to hear that shrink in pink a lot, and you likely saw the opportunity to fill a need in the market.

How did you guys start, like how did you make sure that you were creating products that would [00:09:00] fit her and fit the woman's body? Well, I, I, there's a couple different things. I mean, we have a really dynamic team from product development. Mm-hmm. That is, you know, her. Developing for her. Right. That's critical.

It's not men developing for women. Mm-hmm. It's women developing, fitting it, seeing if that's right. Does that something that appeals to them, so then it'll appeal to a broader audience. And I think that that was foundational, but also going out into the, you know, out into the marketplace and not just thinking about him.

Talking with her, finding out some of the, what is she looking for? What are the things that are important in her job site and obstacles that we need to overcome. So it wasn't that shrink, you know, shrink pink and shrink, shrink and pink. I can't even use that terminology anymore. Tongue twister. [00:10:00] Yeah.

It's like, okay. Yeah. But you know, it was not only getting feedback directly from, from our, our customer mm-hmm. In the field, but also having developers that were developing it. I mean, that, that's the magic mix, right? Yeah. Yeah. So what are the biggest risks that women face when their PPE just doesn't fit them correctly?

Well, I mean, it, it goes to. A bunch of stuff. I mean, you know, boots too large, you know, you have instability, you have back pain, you have, you know, increased trips, slips and falls, right? If, if it's not, if you're moving around in your footwork, that's, that's the base of your, of everything that you're doing right, is your feet.

And if that's not planted firmly or if that's not fitting right, you have risk. You know, you think about loose cover, loose fitting. Work wear you get that snagged in something, it's not [00:11:00] ergonomically working with your body. That's a huge risk. Gloves, same thing. It's not, you know, for, I mean, every aspect of PPE, there is significant risk or harm that that comes to you.

But, you know, there, there's obviously more to that, but I, I've seen and heard of, of horrible things happening because. Women were using men's gear and it didn't fit right, and it caused them pain or it put them at risk, right? Yeah. Can, do you have any specific examples that you can share just to kind of open up the audience's eyes to why this is so important and that way they can possibly use them to sell this idea to their management teams?

I, I think the, probably the ones that I, I kind of reflect on more than anything are, are. Clothing being bound, you know, where it's, it's too loose fitting clothing and it, you know, working in heavy [00:12:00] machinery, I mean, a lot of our business outside of the United States is oil and gas focused. It's EMP, exploration of production.

Mm-hmm. And so when you get into those environments, the, those are, you know, your gear is, is critical. And so having. Having gear that gets caught up in machinery or doesn't fit you the right way. I mean, you know, you think about like an IndyCar driver and oh yeah, all of everything is fit form function, right?

I mean, those things are, are all foundational in their getup. It's the same thing in, in high risk, high, you know, extreme condition work, and you it, it's the same methodology, right? And not. Like I said, I, I don't want to like dwell on like, oh, somebody got their arm ripped off, or, you know, something like that.

Mm-hmm. I, I can't remember something that bad, but, you know, you hear stories out in the field of people, people having significant problems. Right. Especially with clothing. [00:13:00] Slipping, tripping and falling, not having the right gear. I mean, that's, that's a constant, right? That's a constant thing that you hear and you know, our feedback.

You gotta, even, even men, when men or women wearing not proper fitting gear, it's just a general risk, right? Get the right gear. Yeah. I actually had an employee one time, not at my location, but at a sister location that got their glove caught in a conveyor belt. And it was not an ill fitting glove, so it doesn't match this exactly, but it was caught in the conveyor belt and they kept pulling to try to get their hand out and it literally pulled their finger off and it was just, it was a great teaching opportunity for our entire organization.

But that's what it kind of reminds me of. So I can like see not just, not just harm to the worker, but also harm to the equipment. So let's say it's loose fitting gloves, likely that glove will get pulled off. But now that glove is into the [00:14:00] machinery and it's causing problems in the machinery. Right. So you have that aspect of it too.

But obviously if it's a tighter fitting or they're wearing a, a jacket or boots or anything, then it's gonna hurt the person as well. Well, I just, I think that you get into even the question around productivity. You know, when you, when you have really good fitting gear and you are comfortable. You work longer, you work better, right?

Yeah. I mean, I, I think that that's just kind of a, a natural for, for a, you know, the call out to make sure your gear's right, right? Yeah. All the time. Make sure you're, you're, you're gonna be more comfortable. You are not gonna feel whatever, you know, whatever you went through in a hard day of work, you're not gonna feel it as bad.

If you have good fitting gear, right? Yeah. And so it's just foundational. It's just foundational. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Is there, so I have not looked at Red Wing's [00:15:00] pricing in a while, 'cause I train safety managers now and don't run a program. But I have had your boot truck come out to my facility before.

Good, good. I am curious though, so on your women's line of PPE, is there much of a price difference? Is that an argument that some of the employers are making? You know, it, it can be, but I, I think that we have, we have products that, that, that span, right? Mm-hmm. We don't make junk, so we're not, that's just not our, in our wheelhouse.

We don't make. Price point products that are way down, down low. Mm-hmm. And I, I would just say you get what you pay for. I mean, I'm, I'm a firm believer in that. I think about, you know, when I buy outdoor gear, I, I buy it because I never want it to fail. So I spend, you know, I spend. Top dollar for my gear.

And because I know that if it fails out I'm in the woods or where I'm at, you know, wherever I'm at, I, I can't just go [00:16:00] down the street and get it fixed. Right. I need it to, to function. And I think coming back to the price point on, on Red Wing, you know, red Wing is a premium brand. We use premium materials.

Everything we do, you know, again, coming back to fit form function is to to provide Workwear footwear. To be part of your body. Right? I mean, it's just like mm-hmm. This is, it's an extension of you and you shouldn't, you shouldn't know that it's even on. Right. Right. So yeah. Work. Are we expensive? Yeah.

And you get what you pay for because Yeah. It will, it can last you a lifetime and it will, it will provide, you're paying for it to provide. Mm-hmm. Something. And we do that right every time. So one of the ways that I sold it to my employees, because the, at the time the way that my safety boot program worked was they got an allowance, but we brought the boot truck out and if you bought from the boot truck, we gave [00:17:00] you a higher allowance.

And the way that I sold it to the employees, like, yes, you can go to Walmart and you can buy the Walmart brand of safety shoes, but guess what? You're gonna have to buy another pair in three months. You know, and I think that that is the argument that we need to make to our management teams is I loved how you brought up productivity, because I'm all about like, how can I sell this to my management team and how can I give them an a return on investment for what they're spending their money on?

And Absolutely. Yeah. So like. What our people can do is talk about like, no, we don't wanna buy our gear from the Walmart of PPE. We want to buy a premium brand because one, it's gonna last longer. So that way we're not spending as much money on it. It's gonna increase productivity because the premium brand is gonna fit better than the cheap Walmart brand, which is probably one size fits all, and still using shrink and pink.

And we want to make sure that we're improving our employee morale [00:18:00] because they're going to be happier employees when they are in nice gear. And it, and on top of it, you're gonna improve compliance because people like to wear PPE that fits well. Like they don't argue, they don't argue with you about putting it on.

You're right. No, you're right. I mean, I have thrown out the concept around. If you're gonna buy PPE for, and so I got three boys, right? Yeah. One is in the trades. Love it. Absolutely love it. Mm-hmm. And when you go as a safety manager and it's your kid that's going out onto a construction site, what are you gonna buy him?

Are you gonna buy him the cheapest stuff? Are you gonna protect your child with the best stuff you can afford? It's the same concept. It's the same. What, what are you telling your people or how much are you caring about them? I'm gonna put my kid in the best gear that I can put 'em in. I want him protected.

I want 'em to be comfortable. And this is what you're gonna have. Well, why wouldn't you treat your pe your, [00:19:00] your, your people, your most important asset the same way, right? I want my people in the best gear There is, and we have a lot of companies that just say, I, I want the best gear there is period.

Because that is a critical thing to us. Morale, cost of a slip, trip, fall, I mean, all of those, the cost of a, of an incident is, is horrible. Right. But at the, you know, that's, that's a side note to you're protecting a human being. What would you put your kids in? Right? Yeah. And the cost of the incident is not just.

The workers' comp claim, it's not just the lost time. There's so many things that stack up when somebody is injured because like, productivity stop down, stopped for that little amount of time times how many employees were actually working, and then the replacement employee is not gonna be as productive as that current employee.

There's just like so many things plus the employee morale issue and the customer reputation issue. [00:20:00] All of those things stack up. That can make a very small accident actually, like balloon in cost when you add it all up. No, a hundred percent. You know, and there, there's also. That point of, you know, you can buy all this stuff, but if you don't, if you don't train your people how to use it or what to look for, I mean, that's on a manager too, right?

Yeah. You, you gotta, all of that cost is great. You know, you can, you can, you can wrap your head around what would happen if it fails, but don't go into it. Without making sure while I bought great gear, I gotta train, make sure that they know how to use the gear. Mm-hmm. And that way, all of those costs that you're talking about, you're, you're just, you're, you're minimizing every time you do that, you're minimizing some of that effect to your company.

Right? Yeah. So you said that you've worked with companies that were just like, I wanna buy the best for my people. Oh yeah. Can you talk about how that company's culture was. Do you know if any of those [00:21:00] companies saw like a re Definitely like a reduced incident rate because they had that attitude of, I put, put my people in the best.

Not only did they have reduced incident rates, they had higher morale. They were active and engaged with us in developing solutions for men and women. Both sides. Yeah. And they were fundamental in getting us down that road of, you know, hey, if I'm gonna, I want the best I want, as a matter of fact, we're gonna put you out on a rig, and we want you to be out there with us.

We're gonna help develop a boot for a rig. We have rig boots that are developed by a company for them. Right. And they were that active. And that's that, you know, a, a. Relatively speaking, custom product for a very harsh environment. Mm-hmm. They were serious about it. We want the best gear for our people.

And it is the same thing even on the, you know, fi we sell a va, the vast majority of our, of our work [00:22:00] wear is fire retardant. Right. And yeah, it's the same thing. It's, it's. You gotta make sure that number one, that you know it's performance. It's performance, it's performance, and then we will build in the functionality because that's the last line of defense, right?

I can do all of this different stuff. PPE is the last line of defense. Yeah. Yep. So yeah, companies. It has, it is, there's many companies that have joined us on that journey. And we love it, right? We love that engagement. We need that engagement, whether it's workwear or footwear or, or some of the other products that we're involved in.

But yeah, we want 'em along the ride because they see value in providing the best gear for their people, and they can help us it's a solution. Yeah. So what I can see happening in somebody's workplace who's listening to this right now, is that they're a safety professional.

So they are 100% on board. They're like on Team Red Wing here, right? Like, they're like, this is what I [00:23:00] want. But they don't necessarily have the skills to sell it to their management team. Their management team might be like, no, we don't really need it. We don't have, we don't see that it's worth it.

Could that safety professional. Call you in, call in a representative to help them work out like exactly what that company needs, and basically sell it to their management team to invest in it. A hundred percent. And you know, I, my team prides itself on, you know, we don't sell, we sell boots, but we don't sell boots.

We sell solutions, right? And so I don't want to be a vendor. I wanna be a partner. That, that's the kind of attitude that you're gonna get from Red Wing when you engage with us to say, Hey, come on out here and tell us, help us develop a spec. We develop specs all over the world, right? We don't have a safety program.

We can help you develop that. We sit at the table with you and we'll help you through that. And at the end [00:24:00] of the day, whether you buy our products or not, at least you have. A standard, right? Yeah. You, you set something in stone that says, this is kind of where we want to be, and ideally we hope that, that we're a part of that solution.

But if we're not, we're not. But you have, we have done our partnership to you in helping you develop that program or sell it upstream or downstream, whatever that is to, to make sure that your people are in the right stuff. Yeah, I hope everybody hears that because I know that that's something so many safety professionals struggle with is that, you know, they're still learning to influence their management teams.

They're still learning how to market safety to their management teams and to the employees. And to get people engaged, but you really need to partner with your suppliers because they are a wealth of knowledge and what we do and on top of it, they can back you up. So it's not just you saying it, it's this other professional saying it with, I'm assuming some scientific research behind it too.

[00:25:00] Right? There's a ton and you know, we bring in people to teams, to our labs and to our factories. I mean, all of that helps develop that. That recognition of and value of what you are going to embark on with safety, right? And why this is proven right. This, the, all of this stuff, this will help you understand the terminology.

I mean, all of this, all of the standards that are out there. And, you know, I, I deal with global standards, E and A STM, I mean, there, there are so many standard I couldn't even imagine. I don't even try. But we can help, kind of help you navigate through that. Right? I mean, I, yeah. My, I, I pride, my, my team prides itself on being able to, to do that.

Help you understand the standards. Mm-hmm. That's your baseline, right? That's, we're gonna set that foundation and we'll build from there. What do, what do you need? Fit, form, function, embrace all of [00:26:00] that into a safety protocol and build a safety culture. Right? That's what it's all about. Yeah. And that's, you know, it's, it's amazing in the oil and gas industry, I mean, there is a safety culture and it is, it is a, it's, it's rugged and it's, mm-hmm.

It's really in, so, and this can be from, from places that you couldn't find on a map to, you know, Houston that industry has really. Gone down the, the road in creating salt, safety culture, driving it, implementing it around the world. It doesn't matter whether where you are, we all, we all ring the same bell for safety.

Right? Yeah. That's, that's the deal. That's a very high hazard industry. Do you think that con. Oh yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. So how could somebody who maybe isn't, isn't in that type of industry? Like maybe they are in a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. Yep. [00:27:00] Or they're running like a mom and pop shop carpentry business.

Like how could that safety manager start building their culture and their engagement? Well, I mean, you know, as we just talked about, you get a along, you get to ride along for free with Red Wing, right? Yeah. I mean, the reality of it is we, we deal with all aspects, right? Mm-hmm. And so you get to use and harvest the information that we have and that we've dealt with 6,000, 200,000 employee companies, and you're a 50, a hundred, a 300 employee.

Guess what? You get to ride for free, right? You, you're gonna, you get all of that information. Mm-hmm. And we'll help you do that. I we're, we're happy to do that. Yeah. And you know, it's, it's definitely helpful to do that. 'cause like, well, you have to do a PPE hazard assessment once a year, right? Like the, the formal hazard assessment and every so often bringing in a supplier like Red Wing to come in and help you and make sure that your hazard assessment is.[00:28:00]

Accurate is very helpful and it's something that people should not discount and they shouldn't be worried about somebody being judgmental over their facility and like, I don't wanna bring somebody in and they might see that we're doing something wrong. It's like they're there to help. Well, and you know, that's, that's aligning our, our Is your safety gear aligned with your assessment of hazard?

Right. Is is that coming together? To have a solution for that. Right. That's, yeah. That's kind of the, that's where you need your partners in there to say, Hey, if we're wearing this mm-hmm. Is that catching all of the things here that we're talking about from a risk assessment? Yeah. You know, is the fit, the form, the function of what I'm wearing?

Are we aligned? And if we're not aligned, let's adjust. Right. Let's, mm-hmm. Let's adapt and let's get the right gear on the right people all the time. I love that. So since you've been doing this for so long, I know that you have seen so many changes [00:29:00] in PPE and what was available and designed for people.

Where do you see PPE going in the future? How do you, how do you expect it to evolve over the next 5, 10, 20 years? You know, I, I think it just becomes more and more robust. I think that, you know, the, what's been fun to watch is kind of the main streeting of PPE. You, you know, you, whether it's your glasses, your jeans that you wear every day.

Yeah. All of a sudden you're seeing more and more, you know. Products that you wear in your everyday life that actually are safety products, right? And so it, well, it, it becomes so much easier to put on safety gear because the goal here is that you don't even know it's safety gear, right? It's just part of what you do.

And I'm not saying everybody's gonna go out and wear FR shirts and wear steel toe boots all the time, [00:30:00] but I'll tell you what I mean, there's a lot of places that I go to here in the US or in other places where. They want their clothing, their kit to be from, you know, from, from work to restaurant, so to speak.

And so they can wear it and that it, that, yeah, that just makes it less onerous on the person to adapt to a safety culture because it's just what I wear. It's comfortable. Yeah. It doesn't look like safety wear, so. Mm-hmm. I think that. That migration. And there's, there's a lot of companies great companies that are doing that.

Not only Red Wing, but you know, really adapting people's everyday wear or adapting safety wear mm-hmm. To reflect everyday casual wear. Right? Yeah. And so it's just not, it's not bulky. It's not because I, I remember, you know. What, 20 plus years ago. You know, you go, oh, I gotta wear a fr fr shirt, or I gotta wear my steel toe boots.

Well, it's like [00:31:00] these big old steel toe boots and you know, you got your gear on, man. I'm telling you, there's, there's places now that you would never know that you have fr clothing on, or you have safety, safety, tow athletics on, right? I mean, it's like, yeah, you could go, you could go run down the street with 'em and you wouldn't.

It's not a big deal. Right. Yeah. It's, that's, that's what I love to see is the evolution of, of the safety gear where it's just, it's just not really safety gear anymore. It's, it's advanced. Day-to-day wear, you know? Yeah. And you know what? That actually helps our problem as safety professionals that we have all the time, which is getting people to wear their PPE, just getting them to wear it.

Right. You know, I love it. And I, and I love the whole idea, like one of my biggest things is always like, don't make safety separate. Make it like, this is how we do business. Like this is your work uniform. Right. We don't need to like be pointing out all the safety features for it to make it feel like it's a different thing.

I, you know, I used to buy FR clothing for [00:32:00] my maintenance department and I just called it their uniform and they didn't even realize they were wearing it for a while. It was like, yeah, this is why you're wearing it, you know, but Exactly. I love that whole combination and I love the idea of like, from work to the restaurant, like if you can get your employees to be able to not have to change out of their PPE or anything to actually go and meet their family at the ball game.

Or at the restaurant that makes it even easier for them to wanna wear it e Exactly. Right. You know? Yeah. I mean, and that was always, I think that that's what I mean. You still see that in a lot of different parts of the world where, you know, putting on safety gear is putting on safety gear. Yeah.

You know, it is not like putting on a, you know, it's like, it's almost like this. I'm putting on a, you know, a. Buoyancy, you know, whatever. I, I, yeah. A life, a life preserver, right? It's like mm-hmm. Right. You don't have to, you don't have to wear that. Right? And so it's, it's just fun to see [00:33:00] how, how people, you can adapt your manufacturing to lifestyle and, and it's just you, it shouldn't be something that you think about, right?

Yeah. It's just easy. I love that. I love that. So if you can change one belief that safety leaders have about PPE, what would it be? Okay.

I would come back to the point probably about you get what you pay for that whole concept that we talked about earlier. Yes. Right. Is that all PPE is not the same and you get what you pay for. Mm-hmm. And value. Value is important, right? Quality, safety products. I mean, I, I, I, I've seen the gambit of everything and mm-hmm.

I've seen companies that like, what? This isn't even a safety product. Well, but it was cheap. And it kind of goes back to that, that whole concept around, if you could change that, that mentality of this is your kid. Yeah. Would [00:34:00] you put your kid in that really? For them to do that work. Yeah, right. To do that, would you, and so changing that mentality of, of man, you want, you want the best for your people all the time.

And I know budget, I, you know, everybody has to deal with budgets. I get it. I understand that. But what's the most important thing that you have? It's your people. Right. It's your people. So protect your people at all costs, relatively speaking. Right? Yeah. I think a lot of it comes down to understanding the risk because I, I don't think, like, they don't wanna protect their people.

I think that they don't think the risk is as great as we say it is. Or they think that or isn't going to happen. No, that's, that's, that's a really good point. Risk, yeah. Risk is there all the time in our daily lives, right? Yeah. And it's magnified when you get into workforce or into the workplace, mm-hmm.

You know, depending on the scenarios. But you know, that [00:35:00] concept of, and you can't expect a safety professional to understand the difference between this hard hat and this hard hat and the materials in this versus the materials in that. So. Trusting your safety partner is really important and your safety partner should be versed and be able to explain the differences of what you know you want A, B, and C.

Well, this is, these are the differences in them, and you're gonna make an educated choice. Make an educated choice. Don't just look at the price tag and go, ah, it's okay. Make an educated choice. I love that point because I've worked with supply supplier vendors, you know, like the salesperson coming that couldn't tell me the difference.

It was basically just selling a product and they couldn't, they did not have any preference over any product over the other, and they were basically like, ah, just test it out yourself. So like, who you're partnering with is extremely important to, so I love how [00:36:00] you pointed out. That you wanna make sure that you have trust in that partner and that they are, that they're knowledgeable enough to actually explain that difference.

And if your partner is not able to do that, that is a red flag, a huge red flag. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I, I had agree. Yeah. Well this was a great conversation, Teeter. Was there anything else that you wanted to add before we sign off?.

You know, I, I think that I'm just gonna come back to the point of, you know, there's a lot of making sure going into it, you know, making sure that don't get just issued PPE Yeah. Just, just don't take it for granted that, oh, here's your stuff and, and go wear it, man. Go make sure that what you're wearing fits, go to a, you know, red Wing shoe store.

You, you've got a, an unbelievable place there to. To get fitted for footwear. And, and so many people don't recognize the importance [00:37:00] of being fitted until they, they go through that experience and it's like, I had no idea that I, I was wearing, you know, the wrong size footwear. And yeah, I, I just, I just took it for granted.

I've always done this, and that's just what I did. Mm-hmm. And make sure that when you go into get your PPE, whether it's a Red Wing shoe store or, or another location. Put it on, make sure it fits, make sure that, you know, you can move around and do the things that you need to do in it. Mm-hmm. Because it matters.

It really does. Just, just having general PPE, it doesn't, it doesn't, it's not serving the purpose that it was built for. Right. Yeah. It's there to protect you, so give it a chance, make sure it's the right stuff, and make sure it fits you well. Fitting is really, really, really important. Yeah. And like if you, if you had, if you went out and you bought product, right.

Wear it around your house and do some like, household stuff and before you go and you put it on the work site and it might get damaged or ruined [00:38:00] or to the point that you can't return it. Right. So like Right. That's something that I have done as well. Like every time I get a new pair of boots, I will literally just wear them around my house, not outside, nowhere.

Anything else? Let, let's get, make sure these are fitting right. Yeah, no, it's, it's really important. I, I just, you know, I, I just laugh. I, I love to sit in a red wing store and you watch people get fitted and it's a great experience. And I, and I really think that that's something that, you know, as a, as a partner, we, we brought really pride ourselves on is, you know, that fit form and function.

You, you're gonna walk in and say, Hey, I want, I need safety toe boots. Yeah. First question out of the mouth should be, what do you do? Let's think about your, not what's your budget? No, it's not your, but what do you do? And then, we'll get down the road in forming the right solution for your, for you.

And so let's sit down, let's, you know, we've got this, this Fantastic 3D right? Fitting the, this Ultimate Fit experience in our stores where it will. It'll do [00:39:00] a three dimensional scan of your foot. It'll test your gait, it'll test your pressure points, and it's gonna give you really important information on what's right for your feet and, and mm-hmm.

Hey, man, and unless you're sitting at a desk all day mm-hmm. Being on your feet means something. Right. And that is going to be a pain point if you get it wrong. Yeah. So get it right. And the professional and get it right. You know, it's really important. I love your fitting solution. Especially like when you think about young people, they don't think about this kind of stuff like, 'cause they're young, they're healthy, they got all the great, you know, muscles already, but then huge damage.

Well damage. They've worn trainers their whole life, right? Yeah. Right. But they damage something. They start like wearing ill-fitting PPE or the bad boots or something like that. And their gait changes and they're straining muscles that lives with them for the rest of their life.

Like I know people that injured their back in their like 21, [00:40:00] 22 years old and I met them when they were 50 and they were still having back problems from that accident when they were in their twenties. Absolutely. So that's what we're talking about and I know it's hard with our younger workers to get them to realize that 'cause like.

Brains aren't fully developed sometimes, but that is, I'm not gonna say a word. I got three of those things. Right. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. You, you've expand on that and, and you say, look, you know, by not getting the right footwear, it re, they.

Putting it together that it affects your whole body because this is, this is the platform, this is the foundation. Mm-hmm. But it does, it will affect your knees, it will affect your back. It will affect long term if you don't get this right. Mm-hmm. It will hurt you. Yeah, it will hurt you permanently.

Permanently hurt. You get it right. Right. Get it right. Yeah. And I think we as an, I think we as safety professionals and as [00:41:00] employers, we owe that to our people. Like you don't want them to be thinking, oh yeah, I worked at this crappy job in my twenties and that's why. My hips are I needed to get this hip replacement in my forties.

You know, so you want to be, you wanna do right by your people. And I always believe that one of the biggest selling points of building employee morale is that it does create a workforce that has the culture, that they're gonna be more profitable, that that organization is gonna be more profitable, so it's gonna pay for itself.

100% pay for itself. Well, you know, and, and coming back to, you know, some of the points on the original questions around just women and women's PPE, right? Mm-hmm. The whole concept around, you know, having women wear men's gear. Mm-hmm. Whatever, you know, it is, how would you, you want them to feel respected.

We have gear for you. Not just go take it off the shelf, because that's what we got. This is gear that's [00:42:00] designed for women. This is gear that will help you perform, you know, to your, your greatest potential. And I think in recognizing that, I think companies recognizing that and, and investing in that is really important.

Going forward. I mean, I, I think that as women become more and more important in the trades, in the workforce in general. Making sure that a company has gear for her. Becomes more and more just to show out of respect. Right. Just out of respect. Yeah. And that, that leads to morale and all of the things that you talk about.

Safety and, but I think just just the, the most fundamental piece of respect. It's just critical. Right. Yeah. That's awesome. This was a great conversation, Tito. Was there anything else you wanna add? No, I, I really appreciate the time. I'm, I'm honored to be a guest and, and Thank you. I'm here to, I'm here to serve, right?

Yeah. Yeah. All over the world. I know when we first tried to connect you were like on the other side of the world. Yeah. I, I, I've got like [00:43:00] two more, I call 'em laps, so I, I take laps around the world and so That's awesome. I've got two more laps ahead of me in the next two months, and I'm just.

It is just another day. That's great. So if anybody wants to partner with Red Wing, I would assume that all they have to do is go to the website and they can find either their local store or they can fill out a form to have somebody contact them. Absolutely. It's super easy.

I know. That's what I did when I wanted to have their boot truck come out. It's a great company and I just love how you guys are revolutionizing PPE. So thank you so much for your time. Oh, the pleasure's mine and I got a, I got a great team of people that want to help that really want to be your partner.

Right. So just, just ask. Yep. Thank you so much. Alright, well thanks again.