Clothing, boots and misc.

I wear sneakers into the truckstop and have a pair of of Adidas sandals i wear inside the shower. I'm with you, i don't need any fungi on my feets

 

Good deal.... the problem i have with sweats are the waitband is elastic. The only way I know to quit eating crap out here on the road is when my belt gets tight. Then it's time for the salad bar for about a week

 

I unfortunately haven't learned that lesson yet..... That and a knee on the way out... Tho the new titanium brace should help that.

 

I am a businessman who owns and operates an expensive piece of equipment. People respect me because I: 1. Drive well. 2. Treat my clients with respect. 3. Visit with the "working men" loading my truck. I spend 11 hours driving my truck and countless others living in it. I choose to be comfortable wearing my sweat pants. If some don't like that then they should wear jeans. Chill.

 

The box of used uniform clothes I ordered from Walt's Wholesale Clothing came in today. Ordered on the 2nd, so at the outside of their claimed 2-4 weeks but still ok. I decided to post the vendor since the product is good as well. I'm pleased with what I got and will order more soon. Definitely don't wait till the last minute with that turn around time LOL.

One thing that hadn't occurred to me when I ordered: order a size larger than you normally would get. These clothes have been laundered a LOT, so I guess some shrinkage should be expected. I usually fit between a L and XL. I went with the XL and they fit like a new L would, slightly snug but definitely wearable.

No mistaking this stuff for used. I ordered six short-sleeve khaki work shirts with labels removed. Three still had the previous company patch on them. No worries, the ones that didn't had a brown rectangle where that used to be, so not much better LOL. At $4/ea I really could care less. About half the shirts are in good enough condition for daily wear and the rest would look fine if I wasn't just standing right in front of you. They arrived clean and stuffed in a box, so I will launder them mainly to get the wrinkles out.

The $12 coveralls are in excellent condition with one or two small tears mended and nearly impossible to detect stains. I almost hate to use them as throw aways LOL. They'll be perfect for protecting my better clothes when doing parking lot repairs and whatnot. The XL fit me a little snug over light clothes. For wintertime I'd definitely go with a 2X to go over more street clothes.

They included two free sport/polo style shirts as well. Similar to the rest, not something I'd necessarily wear to a fine restaurant but more than ok for a distribution center or truck stop.

Looks like this turned out to be a great value. If I lay back or put my elbow in a glob of grease, it's not going to sting too much to just throw them in a dumpster. The coveralls will be perfect for the toolbox and used mainly for playing with air lines and brake adjustment or grease gun duty.

 

Just get the basic essentials and start off from there on "need to" basis. Don't know how your storage "concerns" on your truck is nor the depth of your wallet but it can get overwhelming over time. My W9 w/ Studio seems to get smaller every day.

For Shoes: lizard skin cowboy boots, Ariat cowboy boots, Timberland steel toe boots, Hiking sneaker/shoe type boots, Sketchers casual shoes and Sketcher sneakers. Steel toe boots for only when required and sneakers for the most. I wear toe-socks all the time (controls odors + anti fungal) and can wear sandals with them as well.

Work clothes: I wear Banana Republic jeans + Polo shirts for most but I have Dickies coverall (both regular and insulated) and colorful Mohawk style insulated knited Afgan ski hat for colder weather but baseball cap for most. Work -N- Wear got great stuffs. I have regular safety vest and also the ones where you dip it in water and it stays cold for hot days. I carry various types of gloves but my favorites are Home Depot ultility gloves (grey/black) because you don't lose too much dexterity with them. I buy those (Walmart) latex gloves to work on my truck/generator but on wet/cold days I wear them under my regular gloves. I have North Face Gortex (Jacket,pants,jumper) for snow / rain, Nautica full rain coat w/ hood for (not a big fan on Cowboy look and I do have one but Wrangler make brush poper shirts that repels water) heavy rain, Carthartt sherpa lined jacket + vest for colder weather, various jackets for dirty work days. Lots of insulated pants (Carthartt, LL Bean, Smith Workwear, etc...) for winter weather.

For those of you that have trouble getting grease + heavy stains off your clothes. Try (Super Clean?) from Wal-Mart, it's a de-greaser that comes in a purple gallon jugs at automotive section. Get a heavy duty spray bottle because that stuff chews up + spits out the cheaper spray bottles for breakfast. With that stuff, I usually don't have problems getting my clothes cleaned.

For flashlight - definitely get an extra one that you wear on you fore head. You won't always have anyone to hold a light for you when you work, comes pretty handy when you're working in cramp areas (under your truck or loads).

 

Getting grease/oil stains out: If they're really bad, I'll pre-soak using Oxy Clean. For really heavy oil stains, use a few drops of Dawn dishwashing detergent and scrub with a wetted toothbrush. YMMV.

The stain removers like Spray & Wash and the like work best on food stains if you treat the stain and then give the remover a few days to work, something about enzymes digesting stuff, I think. But it works.

 

Imo, boots and gloves are most important. I had rain gear and rarely ever wore it because generally loading does not take long. You cant have too many pairs of gloves. You do not need to bring a repair truck with you. I wear wranglers, a nice work shirt, and good red wing boots. That is just me obviously but i think some people get carried away. Build your shower credits up and you will be fine. And i agree 100% leave the sweatpants at home for pj' s

 

Sooooo...I have to admit that when I was puling refer and dry van I wore sweats all the time...I don't see anything wrong with it. I am not overweight or oddly shaped so I think that I look fine in sweats and a T-Shirt ... BUT at this time I was a company driver so I was more focused on being comfortable and not the image I presented ... I would never wear sweats as a flatbed driver and it annoys me when I see drivers in sweats and shorts... but hey to each his own and I am quite sure that I used to annoy drivers in my comfortableness

 

When I see someone walkimg around a truck stop or shipper/receiver with sweat pants on I look around for a trailer park to see if one of the locals is misplaced.