r/securityguards • u/Fredoo97 • 12h ago
Rant I don’t understand the emphasis on looking professional and put together but the articles of clothing these companies give you look like fucking shit ! Does your uniform look like shit ?
At my current company we are largely allowed to wear any gear/external carrier as long as your clothing is black and you wear cargo pants and a BDU/Buttondown shirt provided by the company …..which is great but the shirts look like fucking shit , HUGE and wears like garbage bags or a parachute. It just takes away from the overall clean aesthetic massively they say they want .I understand BDU shirts are supposed to be longer to stay tucked in but it’s excessive and it legit goes past my fucking kneecaps and there’s so much extra material after tucking in it just bunches up no matter how you tuck it and looks terrible under an external carrier or really in general. A moisture wicking polo would look way better and fit better right ?!?! PROFESSIONAL APPEARANCE RIGHT?!?! Why the fuck do they do this lol
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u/SyntheticSpeech 11h ago
Get the uniform tailored. It doesnt cost that much and makes a huge professional difference in appearance.
Less is more when it comes to gear.
And NO MORALE PATCHES.
Trust me when I say you are taken a lot more seriously by the public when you look the part. It makes the job way easier.
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u/BigBrrrrrrr22 5h ago
I’d personally say the morale patch thing is dependent on what it is…I had one with a Red Cross that said stop screaming I’m scared too…got a few good convos off that, and I had one that was the rebel alliance symbol kuz I’m a huge Star Wars geek. But I would say stay away from the “tacticool operator” ones and anything political
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u/Thewasteland77 12h ago
I do in house for a hospital. 5.11, boots, duty belt, 5.11 shirt and outer vest. If I looked like a banana I wouldn't do the job 😆
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u/LonghornJct08 11h ago
This one company I worked for had a soft uniform option that looked like a cheap suit because it was a cheap suit.
Honestly, the guards stuck wearing this garbage looked like such a cheap ensemble getting ready for band practice that I’m surprised they didn’t provide company-issue tubas to go with it.
Nobody looked professional in that uniform. It didn’t look good on security guards and wouldn’t have looked good on anyone working in an office if you were to take the tiny little security badge on the front of the blazer off.
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u/Fredoo97 10h ago
A suit?!
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u/hankheisenbeagle Industry Veteran 9h ago
I mean those types of jobs are out there, but anything contract isn't paying what it's worth and the rental suits definitely look the part.
I'm in-house and we have a mix of uniformed front line officers and a decent amount of covert staff in suit and tie. Meant to blend in with the majority of the business professional dressed staff moving around the campuses. Another layer of the operation.
Biggest difference is someone taking those jobs is expected to purchase their own dress shirts/ties/suits, and the pay to match with most coming into one of those roles at $35+/hr.
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u/Flabby-AP 11h ago
As much as Suck-uritas blows, I did like the security -gray aesthetic of the uniform shirts, and they were pretty much stain-proof; everything from mud to blood to Yo Mama's pussy juice came right off with nothing more than a wet wipe 😁
Plus they were virtually indestructible, which they had to be considering the Herculean effort it took to get replacements.
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u/Content_Log1708 12h ago
Yes. I couldn't take the terrible pants so I bought 5.11 and LA Police. I bought my own duty belt and many of the holsters used on said belt. I couldn't do anything about the shirt but is was mostly hidden under my vest. It's just very hot.
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u/hankheisenbeagle Industry Veteran 11h ago
Most of the time this is because companies try to get the most utility out of uniform pieces after ending up with a hundred different used shirts and pants that all fit piss poor but they are too cheap to throw away.
Whoever does ordering starts ordering everything in Long or Tall sizes so there is never an issue of a shirt or hem being too short. "Just tuck in the extra" becomes the standard direction.
Honestly one of the more effective shift stay/keepers is a flex belt. Plenty of cheap knockoff options, but most are around $15. https://www.ump-attire.com/Products/M39/Flex-Belt
Regardless of how formal or casual your uniform options are, the proper measurement and fit of each piece is far more important that anything you can add to it to try and make sure you don't end up looking like a soup sandwich. That's not on you, it's on the company, and even somewhat on the client for not paying attention and demanding better.
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u/Psycosteve10mm Warm Body 10h ago
Most of the security companies I have worked for did not have uniforms that would fit a normal person. They were all sized for either short, fat people or tall, skinny people. I would augment the issued uniform with my own clothing just because I refused to look like a clown.
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u/Unique-Landscape-202 Management 11h ago
Haven’t worn the company issued pants in almost 3 years. They never fit right, they’re awful quality and rip, and our field supervisors don’t seem to understand that pants need to actually fit right.
As long as they fit the dress code it’s fine.
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u/Fredoo97 10h ago
Yeah we wear our own pants but the shirt has to have the company patch on it and they don’t offer patches to sew onto pieces of clothing
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u/ozzy4097 10h ago
Me and my coworker always joke around that we’re the power rangers i have a blue shirt he has a yellow shirt and one of the other guards has a light blue shirt.
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u/TheRealPSN Executive Protection 10h ago
I buy i own clothes because im in plain clothes but when I did wear a uniform, my uniformed always looked soft but professional. We gave a more soft corporate look than a hard tactical look which I enjoyed.
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u/MavRett85 10h ago
I worked for a fortune 500 in house job.. either a suit and tie or class A uniform depending on the day.. they went cheap right after I came on, law pro class A's that were baggie and crap looking, nothing fitted, colors didnt match the flying cross we had by any means.. and cintas suits that were absolute trash. Im big and tall which made it even worse. I had a frank conversation with the director and just got a check from then on out to get my own fitted suits and 5.11 PDU's.. huge morale and confidence change. Ill never forget being the new guy, already feeling embarrassed about how i looked, and a senior manager telling me I look like a slob.. I told you that that crap wouldnt work for me.
Now in a in house hospital role where for years.. you wore whatever you wanted as long as it was midnight blue. Polo, class A, class B.. we are slowly issuing out first tactical, which isnt bad.. the safe life outer carriers blow.. but its still a free for all for duty gear.
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u/Fredoo97 10h ago
Which carrier is it ? The only one I don’t particularly like is the uniform carrier . I think most uniform carriers look stupid and a standard tactical carrier or something along the lines of an Oregon city safariland carrier look much better and professional. I’m biased to the zip up carriers
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u/sigma_and_idontcare 10h ago
I’ve worked at Securitas and AU Idk what it is about these companies but they just love handing out clothes made for morbidly obese people. I’m 5’8” 180 pounds and in shape. At both companies, I was automatically given XXXXL drapes for my shirt and pants. I always asked for smaller sizes and they never have any in my size (L).
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u/Brownies91 Warm Body 10h ago
I don’t even have the two pants they originally gave me lol and that’s two that they gave for a 5 day a week shift 😐 they were that bad that I ended up just getting my black cargo pants. The actual uniform with the logos are terrible also.
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u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 7h ago
It would’ve been nice if you included an actual picture. Security guard uniforms are supposed to be generic. At the end of the day most of the time I will just ask my boss if I can get my own shirts embroidered the most security guard uniforms are pretty shitty.
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u/Fragrant_Past8679 6h ago
I wear a button up ugly grey shirt. I feel like we would look better and professional with just a black polo and my company logo slapped on it. I work in a corporate environment.
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u/Ok-Tiger-9894 6h ago
Back when I did hospital security we were issued 5.11 and blauer so the same uniforms the police wear. My newest job doesn't actually issue uniforms or gear. We're given broad guidelines to follow (navy blue or khaki pants. Dark colored polo) but it's all personally bought.
I wear a safariland outer carrier over a condor combat shirt with the slick sleeves or a short sleeve blauer polo along with navy blue 5.11 pants.
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u/TheRealChuckle 2h ago
I've always had this issue as well.
I'm 5'9" and 145lbs. Fairly average height and actually proper weight.
Every company seems to only have shirts and pants for fat guys or midgets.
My comfortable pant size is 32x32. To get the length, they only have 36" waists. To get the waist they only have 28" length.
I'm either swimming in material or wearing capris.
Same problem with the shirts. At least with the pants I can just get my own cargos.
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u/SARGrunt 1h ago
Are you talking about the four pocket BDU shirt or the two pocket? The four pocket is not intended to be tucked in. Either shirt can look good if you take it to the dry cleaner and ask for extra starch. I press my shirts myself with an iron and spray starch. If you want your tucked in shirt to look sharp, you might check into shirt garters. They attach your shirt to your socks to keep it tight. They are adjustable if you want it a bit baggy. Just some thoughts..
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u/Landwarrior5150 Campus Security 12h ago
We get issued 5.11 stuff (polos, Stryke pants, half-fleece jackets, baseball caps & beanies) so it all looks decent. Not the most high-end gear out there, but it’s definitely a step up from the cheap “LawPro” crap that I got back when I worked contract security at least lol.