Thu 24 Apr 2008
Hard Hats Make Me Go Hmmm
Posted by thenextstopwillbe under Whatnot
[3] Comments
I’m a curious individual so when I see something new I have to investigate. New York City is overwhelmed with construction right now so it’s not uncommon to see guys in hard hats on the street. Most of them are wearing the type of headgear you see below, the plastic hard hat that’s been the prevalent option for years.
Lately however, I’ve noticed a shift to a retro looking hard hat like the one below. It’s made of fiberglass. They’re not dominant like the plastic ones but they’ve been popping up with more frequency.
New headgear on construction guys? What’s that about, my curious brain asked. Unfortunately, I never felt confident enough to walk up to a construction guy and ask him about his hat. Probably a very prudent decision on my part, nevertheless I still wanted an answer to the puzzle and today I finally got one.
The museum where I work is not immune to the construction boom in the city and with construction comes construction guys. I find myself in the staff cafeteria this morning and a construction guy that I’ve seen around the building is in line behind me. I screw up my courage and ask him, “Do you mind if I ask you a stupid question?”
Thankfully, he doesn’t. “What’s the story on the new hats I ask?” pointing to another guy in line opposite us who happens to be wearing one. He said they’re not new, they’ve actually been around for years. “So why the renewed appearance of them?”, I ask. Would you believe he said it’s a fashion/status thing?
It’s true! Apparently, construction companies will buy their workers the least expensive hard hats that meet OSHA requirements which happen to be the plastic ones. A free hard hat is not good enough for some guys so, on their own, they purchase the fiberglass hats. The guy I asked about this said they run about $70 and it tends to be supervisors who choose to buy them for no other reason than how they look.
So there you go, while trying to solve the puzzle of new hard hats I discovered that construction guys are just as vain as the rest of us. My world just got a little bit wider.
UPDATE: Wikipedia has a few other reasons why supervisors prefer the fiberglass helmets. “Brown fiberglass is still preferred by workers who buy their own equipment, for better balance, lighter weight, resistance to scrapes and stains, and shedding rain without big drops forming on the edge. These hats stay on when tilting the head at an extreme angle to do the job.”
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April 24th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Remember the awesome old school safety glasses that all looked like Ray Bans with clear lenses?
I just saw these and thought about hard hats for the first time in years.
My dad was in the forest service (as a fire spotter) when he was in college and he had a thick aluminum hard hat that I wish wish wish I had.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
neato. i’m super shocked they’re into fashion. still, i like a little capitalism even at the nitty gritty level. reminds me of space balls a little tho, bigger, fancier, but is it really cooler? the sneeches storyline also seems to bubble up.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Interesting. I can see protection from raindrops would be better, but how many times do they continue working in rain?