Search for a shirt for a woman electrician and you will find a lot of shirts. Some are men's designs in a smaller size. Some are about being the wife of an electrician. Some are pink. A surprising number are a script-font "boss lady" with a lightning bolt tacked on.
Women in the trades have noticed. They have also mostly stopped expecting better. That is the gap WORKWORTH was built to close — and this is how we do it.
Drawn for one trade at a time
Every design in our line starts with a single trade and a single woman in it. We build a brief: what her day looks like, what tools she carries, what words she uses, what she is proud of, what she would roll her eyes at. Then we draw.
That is why our electrician collection is built out of conduit bends and conductor colors, our welder collection is lit only by the arc, our carpenter collection borrows from woodblock engraving, our HVAC collection opens a pair of manifold gauges into flowers, and our collection for crew leads is about raising the next crew.
The rule is simple: the design has to use the language of the trade, not slogans about it. A welder should be able to look at a stack of dimes on a shirt and see that someone actually looked at a weld. If a design would work just as well for any trade, it is not specific enough for us.
We celebrate the women who do the work by describing the work accurately. That is the whole brand.
Made to order, in the USA
Nothing in our shop is printed until someone buys it. Every order goes to a US production partner, who prints or embroiders it on demand and ships it directly to you. Most products are made in two to five business days, with embroidery taking a little longer.
Made to order means three things for you:
- No overproduction. We are not sitting on a warehouse of shirts that will end up in a landfill.
- More range. We can offer colors and sizes a small brand could never hold as stock.
- Get the size right. There is no shelf to put a returned shirt back on, so every product page lists the exact sizes that blank is made in. Check it before you order.
If something arrives misprinted, damaged or wrong, report it within 30 days of delivery and we will replace or refund it. You do not need to ship it back unless we send you a label.
Blanks that survive a real work week
A thin shirt looks cheap on a jobsite and does not survive the first wash after real work. So our tees are heavyweight garment-dyed cotton, and our crewnecks and hoodies are cotton-blend fleece. The fits are relaxed unisex — most people order their usual size for a roomy fit, or one size down for a closer one.
We do not sell PPE or workwear. Our shop is what you wear and use around the work — on the drive in, at the union hall, on the weekend — not the gear you work in. (For the gear you work in, our guide to PPE that actually fits is a good start.)
Embroidery for the milestones
Some of our pieces are embroidered rather than printed, and several carry a blank year field: the year she turned out, the year she started in the shop, the year she made foreman. Tell us the year when you order.
Those pieces exist because the milestones in a trades career — turning out, topping out, twenty years in — are chronically under-celebrated. They deserve something permanent. We wrote a whole piece on how to mark turning out properly.
Crew orders: outfit the whole crew
Our favorite orders are the big ones: an apprentice class, a union women's committee, a NAWIC chapter, a company crew for Women in Construction Week.
Crew orders work differently from the regular shop:
- Tell us the job — how many pieces, which products, the size run and your date.
- Approve the proof — a real person sends you a digital proof, and nothing is produced until you approve it.
- We produce — including names, local numbers and custom placements where the blank allows.
- One delivery — the whole order arrives together.
Volume pricing starts at 12 pieces: 5% off retail from 12, 10% from 25, 15% from 50, and custom quotes past 100. Start on our crew orders page, or read our Women in Construction Week crew guide for a planning timeline.
Gifts that get worn
If you are buying a gift — as a partner, a parent, a kid or a coworker who wants to get it right:
- Start with her trade. Shop by trade and you will see what an electrician, welder, carpenter, HVAC tech or supervisor would actually recognize.
- Not sure of her size? A mug, tumbler, tote, sticker or print has no size at all.
- Mind the calendar. Christmas, Mother's Day and turn-out season in June are the big gift dates in the trades. Everything is made to order, so order early — and if your date is tight, ask us before you order.
And for a one-of-one gift, artist Sol Nguyen draws private portraits from your own photographs.
Our gift guide goes deeper on what gets worn and what gets left in the truck.
Built with the women who build
WORKWORTH exists because the women building, wiring, welding and fixing America deserve gear that describes them accurately — and that treats their trade with the same pride they do.
If there is a trade we have not drawn yet, or a word we got wrong, tell us. That is how the next collection gets made.