Khaki Work Safety Vest High Visibility

So you don't look like a glowing blob monkey.

Some jobs want you lit up like a runway. Plenty don't. If you are surveying a quiet block, running a camera, guiding a hunt, working your own place or you just want the pockets without the fluoro, a standard yellow site vest makes you the brightest thing in the paddock and you wear that all day.

This is that same multi-pocket site vest cut, in khaki. Full-length zip, zipped chest pocket, a three-layer chest pocket with pen slots and a clear ID window, big flap pockets down low, and silver reflective tape across the body and over both shoulders.

Read this part before you buy it for work. Khaki is not a high-visibility colour. AS/NZS 4602.1 here, and EN ISO 20471 across Europe, both require a fluorescent background — yellow, orange or red. Khaki is none of them. This vest will not satisfy a site, road corridor or rail job that specifies certified hi-vis, no matter how much tape is stitched to it. Front up to a controlled gate in it and you get turned around; worse, if nobody checks you at the gate, you are standing in a live traffic corridor wearing a colour that reads as dirt at dusk.

The reflective tape is real and it does exactly what reflective tape does — headlights or a torch hit it and you light up. That genuinely helps you get seen on a dark driveway or a station track. It does not make the garment compliant on its own. Compliance is the fluorescent colour, the tape and the garment class together, and this one has the tape.

What It Does

• Carries the shift on your chest: pens, phone, tape measure, notebook and your ticket in the ID window, so you are not patting down four pockets looking for a biro.
• Keeps you low-key: khaki reads as workwear rather than a warning sign, which is what you want when you are filming, spotting, guiding or on your own block.
• Picks up a headlight: silver tape across the body and over both shoulders throws light back at a driver on a dark driveway, a farm track or a car park.
• Shows your ticket without a lanyard: clear ID window sits on the chest and tucks away behind the pocket when you would rather it did not.
• Goes on over what you have got: full-length zip, so it goes on and off over a jumper or a jacket without dragging anything over your head.

Key Features

• Full-length zip: front zip runs the whole way down.
• Silver reflective tape: two horizontal bands around the body and one vertical band over each shoulder.
• Zipped chest pocket: vertical zip on the left chest for the things you cannot afford to tip out.
• Three-layer chest pocket: pen slots, a main pocket and the ID card window stacked in one panel.
• Concealable ID window: clear window with a hook-and-loop flap so the card can be hidden behind the pocket.
• Two large flap pockets: hook-and-loop flaps low on the front for gloves, a torch or a radio.
• Side-entry pockets: extra openings behind the lower flaps.
• Single colourway: khaki only, in four sizes from M to 2XL by chest measurement.

Limits

• Not a compliant hi-vis garment: khaki is not a fluorescent background colour, so it does not meet AS/NZS 4602.1 or EN ISO 20471 and it will not pass a site that requires either.
• No certificate sighted: we have not been shown a test certificate for this vest or its tape, and none is printed on the garment in the supplier's photographs.
• Tape needs a light source: reflective tape only works when something shines at it. In dull daylight, rain or fog it does nothing for you, and khaki gives you no daytime contrast either — that daytime job is what the fluorescent colour does on a real hi-vis vest.
• No other protective rating: the supplier states no flame, arc, cut, chemical or water resistance rating. Treat it as a plain work vest and nothing more.
• Fabric is unstated: the supplier does not give us a composition or a fabric weight, so we are not printing one.

Q & A

Will this get me through the gate on a hi-vis site?

No. If your site, your traffic control plan or your rail ticket specifies high-visibility clothing, you need a fluorescent yellow, orange or red garment tested to AS/NZS 4602.1, and this is not one. Pick the right vest for the job you are doing — this is the one for everywhere that does not require fluoro.

So does the reflective tape actually do anything?

Yes, at night, when a light hits it. Headlights, a head torch or a work light bounce straight back off the silver bands and you show up as a person rather than a shape. That is worth having on a dark driveway or around vehicles in a yard. It is not the same thing as being certified, and it does nothing in daylight.

Why are most of the photographs yellow?

Because they are the supplier's own product panels and they were shot on the fluorescent yellow version of the same vest. The cut, the zip, the pocket layout and the tape placement are the same garment. Khaki is the only colour sold on this page, and the first photograph is the actual colour you get.

What size do I take?

Run a tape around the fullest part of your chest and match it: M is 112 cm (1120 mm), L is 118 cm (1180 mm), XL is 124 cm (1240 mm), 2XL is 130 cm (1300 mm). One thing worth knowing — the supplier labels each size with that chest figure but does not say whether it is your chest or the finished garment. If you are between sizes, or you plan to wear it over a jacket, take the larger one.

What is it made of?

Not specified by supplier. We have no composition, no fabric weight and no care instructions from them, so there is nothing here we are willing to state as fact.

How long does delivery take?

Ten to fourteen days from the day you order, and allow up to three weeks. Shipping is free to Australia and New Zealand.

Specs