Walmart Is Ditching the Blue Vests in Favor of Uniform Choices

Brendan Menapace

Walmart is hopping on two of the biggest trends in workplace attire: environmentally friendly fabrics and options for employees.

The mega-retailer is doing away with its famous blue vests in favor of “modernized” gray vests made from recycled plastic bottles. The vests come with an option of pink, green, blue and orange trim, so while they’re still a uniform, it lets workers show a bit more creativity and adds a splash of pizzazz to the gray vest.

According to USA Today, the vests are also receiving a pocket upgrade, so employees can carry more items, and the vests will also have a larger logo on the back so shoppers can more easily identify who works in the store.

Walmart commemorated the event with a truly groan-worthy pun, as is the current trend with brands on twitter.

This appears to be only the first step in a larger effort to add more options to the uniform.

“Bringing your true self to work means bringing your own style, so later this year, there will be lots of options for associates to customize their looks,” the company said in a statement. “Uniforms are important, but looking exactly like everyone else isn’t. We all want to be able to express who we are, and the new Walmart vest will allow associates to do just that.”

This wave has been growing for a minute. We last saw McDonald’s offer a variety of uniform options to employees, like different shirt styles, color options and more. While it keeps the brand image consistent and allows customers to easily identify employees, it still creates a more modern look and boosts morale.

There is one possibly negative trend that Walmart is following here, too: Making employees purchase their own uniforms.

According to USA Today, more than a million Walmart associates will receive one vest for free, but otherwise the new vests will cost up to $11 per vest, the same as one hour of work at Walmart, thanks to the company increasing its starting wage last year.

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