Bertie Turner, Internal Sales Manager at V12 Footwear, explains how merchants can help their customers select the most suitable equipment to meet the particular demands of different job sites and working conditions.
When it comes to safety footwear, it isn’t a case of one size fits all. The type of work boot required to give your customers the right protection will vary greatly depending on the application, environment and hazards involved in their role.
For example, wet feet aren’t just uncomfortable — they can lead to several foot problems including athlete’s foot, blistering, infections and even tissue damage. So, for wearers working in roles where their feet are frequently exposed to the rain, a waterproof boot is a must.
However, it is no good having a lining that keeps water out but leaves the foot so sweaty it ends up becoming just as wet as it would have been had the rain got in. What’s needed is a boot with both waterproofness and breathability, like V12’s Lynx range. Here, Lynx features high-performing protection and innovative designs to ensure maximum comfort.
Caiman is another V12 waterproof boot trusted by wearers to keep feet dry and protected. Stocking styles like these best sellers ensures that you’ll have a safety boot solution for all your customers’ requirements.
And to give your revenue an even bigger boost, our Point of Sale offering includes eye-catching displays, counter boot stands, in-store posters and stickers to help draw in customers and grow your sales further. It’s a win, win for both you and the customer.
“The V12 Point of Sale offering includes eye-catching displays, counter boot stands, in-store posters and stickers to help draw in customers and grow your sales further.”
Don’t get cold feet…
Of course, it’s not just water that causes problems when working on site — the cold can also seriously affect safety. Numb feet cause reduced sensitivity and stability, and a drop in body temperature can be a big distraction from the task at hand. Offering boots that feature a temperature-regulating lining such as Thinsulate or a cold-resistant fleece lining will ensure that you’ll have the right solution for those customers who need to keep their feet warm throughout cold weather seasons.
Grip, not slip
Slips still account for a third of all UK accidents at work, but on construction sites, slippery and uneven surfaces arguably make the potential for slipping greater. This is why V12 developed the innovative STS and IGS sole units, which offer specific grip for particular surfaces.
The STS sole, for example, was designed to provide traction and create a non-clogging sole to keep the wearer stable and balanced on unsteady ground like mud or sand. Several V12 styles feature the STS sole unit, making them perfect for outdoor roles such as bricklaying or landscaping, where terrain can be more unpredictable.
Meanwhile, the IGS sole has a hexagonal grip pattern which cuts through water and channels it away, increasing stability on more indoor and man-made surfaces that tend to become slippery such as scaffold boarding, steel grating and ceramic or concrete floors.
The BoB boot features the IGS sole unit and is a great example of how you can use our marketing to grow sales. Our marketing focus on this product has driven awareness of the BoB boot sky high, and our consistent and creative strategies mean that over 6 million people have seen the boot since we launched it. In short, we’ve got a lot of people talking about this boot!
We also make a £5 donation to Band of Builders — a charity who help tradespeople in their hour of need — for every pair of the BoB boot sold, so it has become a hugely popular boot for those who want to support a charity as well as stay safe on site. It’s this kind of unique feature that can make all the difference when a customer is making their purchasing decision.
Safe working at height
According to the HSE, ladders account for 40% of all falls from height in the UK each year. And in ladder-fall prevention, if a boot has specific ladder grips built into its tread, safety and stability is significantly increased for the wearer.
V12’s IGS and STS soles both feature strong ladder grips to keep the wearer firm-footed when climbing or descending ladders. And because ladder-work is such a necessity in so many construction roles like roofing, plastering and scaffolding, offering a sole that provides the best chance of staying safe, stable — and out of the ladder-fall statistics — is a big bonus.
Lightweight comfort
In a recent survey of 500 safety boot wearers, 94% of respondents said they wore their safety boots for 8+ hours per day — and this will sound very familiar to a lot of your customers. On average, a person takes 9,000 steps a day but the average tradesperson walks 12,000. And for those who take this number of daily steps, comfortable boots are essential.
And this is where boots with a composite toecap and midsole can really help. Because composite is much lighter than steel, boots featuring this will go a long way to reducing tired and heavy legs as well as the chance of longer-term issues.
You can’t always control the hazards in a workplace, but one thing you can control is what you can put on your customers’ feet — and if you know what they need from their work boots, you can find a top-quality safety boot solution with V12 Footwear. In fact, we’re so confident in its quality, we offer a 200-day warranty as standard on all of our footwear.
The V12 Training Centre is a hub which houses resources to support stockists as they sell their V12 offering.
Click the link for more information on V12 Footwear and its support package for merchants.
A version of this article appeared in the March 2023 edition of Professional Builders Merchant. Click here to read the full digital issue, via the PBM website.
