Written by our Chief Operating Officer, John Janenda

We tend to get excited about what we do here at Uniform Advantage (UA) and recently someone from our design team was fired up about the huge ‘variety’ in our nursing uniforms.’

One of the copywriters (an English major) said, ‘That’s kind of oxymoronic.’

The designer (NOT an English major), said, ‘What did just you call me??’

She was a little hopped up on pumpkin spiced latte and I thought she might be ready to take it to the next level, so I quickly stepped in and said, ‘No, no.  He means that it’s somewhat paradoxical, that despite the fact that we sell medical uniforms, we have a gigantic selection of body styles, fabrics, colors and scrub prints that our customers can choose from.’

Apparently ‘paradoxical’ didn’t clear things up, so I continued.

‘An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side, like when you say something is ‘awfully good’, or ‘pretty ugly.’

‘See, when most people consider uniforms, they think ‘boring’ uninspired, dull, and uncomfortable.  I mean, just look up the word uniform in a thesaurus and see what you get:

• Rigid
• Inflexible
• Normal
• Regular
• Monolithic

‘I mean, ‘yuck!’  Who wants to be associated with that?  Imagine if you had to wear a rigid, inflexible, monolithic UNIFORM to work every day.’  That’s the way a lot of our customers feel.

This made her pale a little, as she is something of a fashionista around here.

‘But at UA, we have so many great body styles, fabrics and colors to choose from that even when you are being asked to ‘blend in,’ you can still ‘stand out.’  And there’s nothing moronic about that!

That settled things down quite a bit and we were able to go back to work.

If you are being asked to standardize your uniform, or just feel boxed in by the choices in front of you, ask your uniform coordinator to check out Uniform Advantage’s full suite of professional programs.  They have been designed specifically to enhance your brand AND make you feel great in your uniform.  We think that’s awfully good.

 Have the unenviable task of managing uniforms for your team?  Let us know what ‘great pains’ you have endured to make it all come together?