Unfortunately, there is still a lot of non-compliant or unfit for purpose PPE on the market. 

If you’re in charge of PPE procurement or Health and Safety for your company, this blog will guide you on how to know your safety footwear will do the job for your workforce's protection and foot health. 

We’ll also explain the difference between cheap safety boots and bad safety boots, and give you some advice on the best way to kit out your team with the right safety solution based on your workplace environment. 

PPE - A SAD TRUTH

In a series of recent tests carried out by Safety Federation BSiF on 127 safety products, it was found that only 18 (15%) of these products including work boots and gloves were fully compliant. That's 108 unfit for purpose safety products. 

Let's look at that another way.

It's a sad truth, but this shows that out of the multitude of PPE claiming to be compliant, much of it simply isn't.

How does inadequate PPE find its way onto the market? 

The BSiF have suggested that a historic lack of surveillance and enforcement in the UK PPE market has meant distinguishing responsible suppliers from less responsible ones has been difficult. This has unfortunately led to an increase in the amount of substandard products for sale. 

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN A BOOT IS REALLY COMPLIANT?

Pictured: V12's VR620.01 Avenger IGS is trusted by Energy companies across the globe to give wearers reliable protection from the most demanding conditions

Procuring your footwear from a registered safety supplier is a sensible step. 

In order to monitor and remove non-compliant safety products from the market such as the ones found in its tests mentioned earlier, the BSiF recently launched 'Check, Select, Protect.'

This is a programme aiming to illustrate to companies selling safety products the importance of checking that PPE they've procured is fit for purpose. Find out more about 'Check, Select, Protect' here. 

V12 FOOTWEAR – A TRUSTED SUPPLIER 

V12 are a BSiF registered safety supplier, so we've formally committed to selling only certified PPE performing to its safety claims.

Furthermore, our products are regularly randomly audited by the BSiF to verify conformance, so our customers can trust in our footwear. This is because they will be quality checked before and after being released to market and shipped to customers, ensuring standards are and will always be at their highest.   

Find out more about how rigorously we test all of our safety footwear here. 

PRICE AND PERFORMANCE

Another thing that might act as a red flag is price. 

Whether you're in charge of Health and Safety or procuring boots for your team or yourself, you'll know it's possible to buy a pair of safety boots between £10 and £20 online. While this price might seem attractive, it's important to question why this product comes at this cost, in particular given how many components and processes go into making a safety boot. It should make you question the quality of those materials and its construction, and how well that boot will perform if an employee needs it between their feet and a sharp or heavy object.

The important thing to remember here is that cheap doesn't necessarily mean weak. Lower cost safety footwear could provide exactly the right spec for your team's role. The key thing is trust - and the steps you take to ensure you trust your supplier. And procuring your footwear from a registered safety supplier is the best way to achieve this. 

And whilst we’re on the subject of cost, the financial impact when considering the difference between compliant and non-compliant footwear could be huge. 

In the result of an accident, if an employee has been issued and is wearing boots that are fit for purpose, you and they have both done the right thing. And this means that complex and often reputation-damaging claims and compensation processes to establish liability can be avoided. And for any business of course, if they are liable for compensation, this can be extremely costly.

A QUESTION OF TRUST 

Once you find a safety footwear supplier who has committed to producing regularly quality assessed footwear, you can continue to trust in their footwear. 

We understand that when procuring safety footwear, balancing your staff’s safety with your budget is a challenge. V12 can help. 

With our Foot Health and Safety Assessment, we work with our distributors’ customers to establish the most appropriate safety footwear for a company’s workplace with: 

• An industry-leading audit 
• A multi-step safety footwear trial process 
• An expert safety footwear recommendation 

We’ve helped multiple companies get the right footwear for the job that fits their safety, comfort and budgetary requirements, so get in touch by clicking below to find out the benefits.