Watson Blog

Funny things happen when you turn 100. First, you reflect on the past, where you’ve come from, what you’ve become. Then, you start to look ahead. Look at the future. Look at the “next 100”. That’s what we, at Watson Gloves, did this past year. We patted ourselves on the back, we celebrated and oh my, we had a great party. But then we looked around, at the world, and especially at ourselves. What will our legacy be? What are we, giving back?

Suddenly the state of the planet and its sustainability became something that we needed to focus on, as a business. It certainly can’t all be about bottom lines, profit and growing market share. Sure, we want to be successful, but we want to do so in an ethical way. We, as a company, need to do whatever we can to stop this alarming thing called climate change.

We are looking at all aspects of our operations and know we can make a difference. This year we are committed to the following:

1. Reduce our carbon footprint by:

a. Recycling everything we can, reducing our waste and cutting down on our carbon footprint and even composting our lunch leftovers.

i. We have launched a recycling program in every branch and are excited to say that we have already recycled:

* Leather Scraps since May of 2018 to Feb 2019 – 5128 lbs

* Plastic Strapping since May of 2018 to Feb 2019 – 616 lbs

* Plastic Shrink Wrap since May of 2018 to Feb 2019 – 1769 lbs

* Food scraps have been diverted from the landfill since July 2018-March 2019– 908 kgs

ii. We no long buy plastic cups or cutlery

b. Going paperless in our accounting department

c. Transition to landfill biodegradable polybags

We are also excited to announce that we have developed a landfill biodegradable disposable glove that will be available to purchase in May 2019. Did you know that regular nitrile disposable gloves take 200+ years to biodegrade? Our new Green Monkey biodegradable disposable gloves will biodegrade in 10 years in landfill conditions. (ASTM D5526)

We created a position for Corporate Social Responsibility to keep our team focused and on track. Progress on our green initiatives will be ongoing; it will never be “done”. We will look to see how we can keep improving and our Watson team will be the key to the success of our green initiatives. Please keep checking back to see our progress.

We are also committed to being philanthropic. This year we have partnered up with Wounded Warriors of Canada. The veterans give life and limb and need more support. We will support them by donating partial proceeds from some of our new products for Spring 2019.

Our homeless and down-on-their-luck also deserve protection from the elements. We will give them gloves each Winter to keep their hands warm. Our staff will come together as a team and gather clothing and food to donate to local shelters to help out those that need it. Lastly, our staff will be given the opportunity to work for a charity of their choice on our time & on our dime. A Corporate Volunteering policy is now in place.

This 100th year has given us the gift of reflection, we saw who we were, and what we wanted to become. For that we are thankful to our customers who have supported us over the years buying our gloves. We will continue to thank them while paying it forward. Watsons will Give Back.

We are excited to announce that Watson Gloves has started our Kaizen journey. All of our employees have been trained and understand the Kaizen mindset, our executives have completed the executive lean program as well as 4 of our team members have completed the advanced Green Belt training program. Congratulations to Lee, Harm, Rebecca and Marlon for getting your Green belts! (shown below).

What is Kaizen? 
Kaizen (改善) is the Japanese word for “improvement”. In business, kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers.

Did you know that Kaizen is one of the core principles of The Toyota Production System, a quest for continuous improvement and a single word that sums up Toyota’s ‘Always a Better Way’ slogan. (source)

What does this mean for you?

We are committed to continuous improvement; constant improvements of products, processes and services, with the goal of improving product performance, customer service and workplace productivity.

Thank you all for your continued support and we are excited for what the next 100 years has in store for us.

Our Corporate Label program is the perfect solution if you are seeking to customize a Watson glove with a company logo. With 100 years of glove experience we can add value to you and your customer by co branding gloves for all different industries.

We offer 3 Tiers of corporate label branding depending on your needs:

Tier 1 – Private label branding – applying a company logo onto a Watson product

Tier 2 – Custom sourcing – based on your specific needs, we will work with our suppliers to source or develop the perfect glove (*Depending on scope of project)

Tier 3 – Corporate branding – our Product Development & Marketing team will design a customized glove line complete with corporate logo and retail hangtags

Tier 1 Private label branding is our most popular type of corporate branding solution. It is an easy 3 step process and our dedicated team will help guide you through every step of the way.

1- Establish your needs

2- Pick a glove style & branding option

3- Request a sample

Watch our Private Label video to learn more about the 3 step process to customizing your own glove:

Do your gloves stink after a hard days work? We get it, it’s easy to just throw your gloves in your tool box or the back of your truck without airing them out. We have a couple of solutions for you to keep your gloves lasting longer which will help you save money.

1. WASH YOUR GLOVES:

Washing your gloves is a great way to keep your gloves lasting longer. Here are some tips on how to wash leather and coated styles.

Leather gloves: We recommend hand washing using saddle soap or dry clean, as it cleans and rehydrate the gloves at the same time. Air dry only, do not tumble dry.

a) Saddle soap: Saddle soap is a type of leather conditioning product that’s used to clean, condition and protect leather from damage.

Take a clean cloth, add just enough water to make it damp but not soaked, and rub it across the surface of the leather glove. Remove any lingering dust or debris, which could otherwise affect the outcome of your saddle soap application.

Once clean, apply a small amount of saddle soap to a second cleaning cloth, and then gently rub the cloth across the surface of your leather product. You can then back over it one last time, only with a clean cloth to remove any excess saddle soap.

**Do not use regular soap as using soap for leather gloves removes the leathers natural oils causing them to stiffen and become brittle.

b) Dry Clean: Using a dry cleaner for your leather gloves keeps the oils and gloves dry soft not stiff.

Coated gloves: We recommend washing coated gloves with cold water: 85°F/30°C or less using a mild detergent. Tumble dry on low or air dry.

2. USE A GLOVE WITH ACTIFRESH®

Actifresh® is a odor resistant treatment that is applied to the gloves.

It protects against:

• Mildew and mold
• Bacteria
• Odors
• Algae

to keep your gloves smelling fresh.

We have a variety of gloves that are sanitized with Actifresh®.

Click to view all Actifresh gloves

How to choose the right leather glove for the job can be difficult to navigate through; but we’ve made it easy!

The first step to picking a leather glove is determining which application you are using the glove for. We have leather welding gloves, drivers, high performance, utility and even Winter gloves.

After you’ve determined your application the next steps are choosing:

1. Type of leather
2. Split grain vs. full-grain
3. Glove pattern
4. Cuff/wrist
5. Additional features: Cut resistance, water or oil resistance, impact, lining

FOLLOW THE 5 STEP INFOGRAPHIC BELOW:

POPULAR LEATHER STYLES:

005 Flextime – Featuring Water resistant Dryhide™ leather palm:

Watch Product Video:

202 Perfect 10 – Featuring Nailguard™ Technology and Dryhide™ leather to protect nails from breaking
\

Watch Product video:

5782CR Storm Trooper – Featuring rubber components on back of hand and ANSI A4 Cutshield™ liner

549 Van Goat – Featuring A4 Cutshield™ Liner

567 Stagline – Proudly made in Canada

Watch Product Video:

2757 Fabulous Fabricator

In 2016, the European Standard for Protective Gloves (EN388:2016) added an impact test. This was the first time that a standard was used for impact resistance in the industrial market.

Why was the impact standard created?

There are a lot of gloves that claim they provide impact resistance and this can be confusing for an end user to navigate through. The impact standard was created because all gloves with thermal plastic rubber on the back of the hand were viewed equally when realistically one glove could provide you with more protection then the other.
Having a back of hand standard will help educate customers about impact protection and which gloves are best suited for use in specific applications.

What does the impact test involve?
The new EN388 impact test is based on the EN13594:2015 Standard for Protective gloves for motorcycle riders. This test is optional and only applies to gloves claiming impact protection.

The test consists of:

•The Glove being tested is cut, opened out flat and laid out over a domed anvil w/ sensors underneath
•The glove surface is struck with a 2.5kg striker at a distance sufficient enough to provide an impact energy of 5J
•If the average transmitted force is less than or equal to 7kN, then the gloves will receive a Level 1 Pass rating
•If the average transmitted force is higher than 9kN, then the gloves will receive a Level 0 Fail rating

The video below will show you our #025 Overtime glove being tested under the EN388 impact standard.

Updated EN388 Marking

You will start to see a revised EN388:2016 glove marking on all of our marketing material. A “P” or “F” will be found at the end of the EN388 shield for impact gloves that have been tested, shown below. The “P” stands for gloves that have passed the impact test and the “F” will be for the gloves that failed.

What’s next?
We have started to test all of our impact gloves and under the new PPE regulation. Satra announced that all manufactures who wish to market their gloves as having impact protection have until April 2019 to have their gloves tested.

We are happy to announce that #578 Drill Sergeant and #025 Overtime have been tested under the new impact standard and have passed. We will keep you updated on all of the test results on our other impact gloves.

Click to download the #578 Drill Sergeant spec sheet

Click to download the #025 Overtime spec sheet

Sneak Peak

ANSI (American National Standards Institute) has also announced that they are working on an impact standard for the North American market which will be launched later this year.

As Watson Gloves gets ready to head into our 100th year of business, we say goodbye to our 2017 fiscal year. A year where we achieved all of our corporate objectives as we continue to grow to be the most successful glove distributor in Canada. All of our departments are aligned and pulling in the same direction to give you, our valued customers, unsurpassed customer service, and innovative, high quality product. Our goal for fiscal 2018 is to develop procedural improvements by implementing automation and technology. By doing so, we will streamline efficiency and increase productivity to further enhance our already strong Watson experience for both our valued customers and all of our employees coast to coast. I personally want to thank each one of our 128 incredible staff members and celebrate them for embracing our Watson Core values: family spirit, integrity, fun and authentic to help make our company what it is. I also want to thank you, our loyal customer for your partnership with us to make Watsons the 100 year Canadian icon it has become.

It is with profound regret that we note the death of our friend and colleague Harry Hargreaves (1934-2017).
His stories, jokes and friendship will be missed, as will his outstanding karaoke rendition of New York, New York.
Harry was indeed a true character, he lit up the room. He will be missed by the Watson Glove family.

In January 2016 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) introduced a new standard called the ANSI/ISEA 105. The goal for updating this standard was to create consistency between ANSI and EN388 methods as well as to account of the recent advances in cut resistant yarns and technologies. The European Norm (EN) standard is still in the revision process and will be released later in 2016.

What are the changes that are being made to the 2016 Cut Resistance standards?

• Both ANSI & EN 388 standards will now be required to measure cut resistance using the same machine: the TDM-100 machine
• The new 2016 ANSI cut test standard is called ASTM F2992-15
• In the 2016 En388 standard, it will be required that the EN ISO 13997 must also referenced on the En388 score as it
also uses the TDM-100 Machine

Because both the new ANSI F2992-15 cut test method and EN ISO 13997 use the TDM-100 machines,
their scores now will roughly correlate as you can see illustrated in the chart below.

The 2016 Cut Resistance Ratings System

The 2016 revision of the ANSI/ISEA 105 standard is a more expanded level of classification of cut resistance:
• The ANSI ASTM F2992-15 cut test method will feature 9 levels of cut resistance: A1-A9 with smaller increments
between levels
• Additional levels have also been added to the higher end of the cut resistance scale to account for new cut resistant materials and technologies coming on to the market.

For the EN 388 cut test ratings, both the Coup Test cut score and ISO 13997 rating will be required to be represented on the En 388 score
• The new ISO 13997 rating will be represented by the letters A-F at the end of the score
• The current Coup Test ratings of 1-5 will remain for now
• The European norm EN 388 standard is in the revision process and will be released in 2016

New EN 388 and ANSI Shields:

2016 EN388 Pictogram:
The new EN 388 rating will be scored from (A-F)

2016 ANSI F2992-15 Icon:
The new ANSI ratings will be scored from A1-A9

How Watson Gloves are changing

As leaders in the industry, most of the gloves in the Watson cut resistant line have already been tested in accordance to the new 2016 ANSI F2992-15 and ISO 13997 standards using the TDM-100 machine. In fact, 90% our cut resistant gloves have been compliant with this standard since 2011.
Over the next few months, we will start to transition the glove markings on our products to represent these new standards. To make the transition easier for you, our glove markings will for now include the old ANSI rating as well as the new rating shown below. The new EN388 TDM cut test will not be on our glove markings until the standard has been released which is set for the end of 2016.

All of our marketing material as well as our website have been updated to reflect the new ANSI scores for easy reference.

Our trained sales team are here to help you make informed decisions when selecting the proper cut resistant gloves.
Please do not hesitate to ask us if you have any questions.

Download a PDF of this blog

Check out our Cut Resistant Gloves

We here at Watson Gloves have just completed our 2015 fiscal year end and are proudly into our 97^th year of successful glove manufacturing and distribution. For fiscal year 2016, our corporate agenda is to strive for 100% accuracy in all of our various departments. Our goal is to deliver to you, our valued customer, an unparalleled experience when dealing with us.  We have introduced matrixes and measurement tools internally to ensure that we are doing it right to meet your expectations. You deserve the very best from every facet of our organization.  We appreciate that you have chosen to do business with us and we will not let you down.

Our mantra for fiscal 2016 comes from Brandon Webb.  He is an innovative US Navy Seal trainer/instructor and CEO of Force 12 media: “In times of difficulty your team doesn’t rise to the task but rather sinks to its level of training”.

Thank you for your continuous support over the past 97 years.  We will live up to our corporate agenda,
you have my word on it.

Marty Moore