If you run a warehouse, you already know the floor is a mix of hazards that don't look like hazards. A forklift moving at walking pace. A roll cage that won't corner. Cardboard that has had a box cutter through it ten thousand times. Smooth concrete that turns greasy around the loading bay.
The kit your team wears is the last thing standing between those small, everyday risks and a RIDDOR report. So what actually earns its place on a picker, a packer, or a forklift driver?
Hi-vis first, because of the vehicles
Warehouse floors are shared space. Pedestrians and moving machinery use the same aisles, and that mix is where the serious injuries happen.
HSE's provisional figures for 2025/26 show 24 workers were killed by a moving vehicle. Transportation and storage was the fourth-highest sector for fatal injuries, at 15 deaths. Around a quarter of workplace transport deaths happen while a vehicle is reversing, which is exactly the manoeuvre a picker walks into when they cut a corner.
Hi-vis is not a legal formality on a warehouse floor the way it is on a highway, but it is the cheapest control you will ever buy. EN ISO 20471 Class 2 is the usual working level in a warehouse, with enough reflective tape to be seen above racking and around vehicles. A Class 2 vest costs £2.99. A Class 2 polo your team will actually keep on for a whole shift is £11.50.
Watch the condition, though. Reflective tape stops working once it is grey with dirt and worn flat. EN ISO 20471 sets no expiry date, so you are checking condition, not the calendar.
Slips and trips hurt more people than anything else
Fatalities get the headlines, but the sheer volume of warehouse injuries sits in slips, trips and manual handling. Smooth concrete plus a bit of shrink wrap, oil from a pallet truck, or water tracked in from the yard is a low-friction surface.
Under EN ISO 20345:2022 slip resistance is no longer an optional add-on. Every certified safety shoe now has to pass the ceramic tile test as a basic requirement, and the old SRA, SRB and SRC codes have gone. If a boot carries an additional SR mark, it has passed the harder second test as well.
For a warehouse you do not need a £120 boot. You need a light trainer or shoe with a grippy outsole, because the person wearing it is on their feet driving a pallet truck, not standing in a foundry. Our composite safety trainers start at £35.50, and a plain S1P trainer with a composite toe covers the vast majority of picking roles. If your team crosses a wet yard as well as the floor, step up to an S3 boot with a waterproof membrane.
Gloves: get the cut level right, then stop overspending
The box cutter is the tool that puts most warehouse hands into A&E. Cut resistance is widely misunderstood, though, because people buy the highest level they can find and then stop wearing the glove.
EN 388:2016 grades cut resistance A to F on the ISO 13997 test, measured in newtons. Level A starts at 2N and level F is 30N and above. For cutting cardboard and banding, level B or C is plenty. Anything higher is a thicker, stiffer glove that gets pulled off the moment your back is turned.
You do need the higher levels on glass, sheet metal and recycling, where the edge is genuinely sharp. Our Level F Pawa PG555 is £10.53 a pair, and it belongs on the glass-handling team, not on every picker.
For general picking, a PU-coated glove at around £1 a pair gives you grip on boxes and enough cut protection for a blade used carefully. Buy a few levels and match them to the task rather than one compromise glove for the whole floor.
The rest of the kit, and the chill aisle
Warehouse trousers should be hard-wearing first and warm second. Cargo trousers with knee pad pockets let you drop in inserts instead of issuing separate strap-on pads that end up in a locker. A basic knee pad insert is £7.10, and a gel stabiliser pad for someone kneeling at a low bay is £17.90.
If you run a chill or cold store aisle, that is a different problem again. Below -5C you are into EN 342 territory, with insulated jackets, bib trousers and a base layer. Above that, EN 14058 covers cool-environment clothing. Either way, the people who suffer most are the ones who go in and out all shift and never get warm, so a fleece or softshell layer they can strip off outside the aisle earns its keep.
One more thing people forget: issue the kit to the person and keep a record. The PPE at Work Regulations 1992 make you responsible for providing it, maintaining it, and replacing it when it fails. A vest that has been in the bottom of a locker for a year is not being maintained.
What a basic warehouse kit costs
Rough per-person figures from our current range, ex VAT:
- Hi-vis vest: £2.99, or a Class 2 polo at £11.50 if you want something worn all shift
- Hi-vis bomber jacket: £22.95
- Composite safety trainer: £35.50
- PU-coated grip gloves: around £1 a pair
- Level B or C blade glove: £5 to £8
- Knee pad inserts: £7.10
A sensible floor kit lands under £100 a person, and the hi-vis and the footwear do most of the heavy lifting on your risk assessment.
Whatever you order, buy two of everything for each new starter. The colleague who turns up on day one in their own trainers is a risk you do not want loose on the floor.
Need a hand kitting out a team? Call Colbrook on +44 (0)1236 755544, or browse our hi-vis range, safety footwear and work gloves.
REF: WAREHOUSE-WORKWEAR
