For those of us not in the medical field, we believe that a lab coat is just a lab coat. But for those in the medical field, you know that you ultimately get what you pay for.

Like most people I have always been under the impression that there is no difference between one doctors lab coat and another. Lab coats are just lab coats, right? Just cloth with pockets for prescription pads, correct?

Ask any doctor and they will laugh at this. I actually know this because one of my friends who is a pediatrician did this when I asked her why she would spend $150 on a lab coat. How was I supposed to know? But I guess the old rule applies here: you get what you pay for. You can spend less on a lab coat, but if you spend all day in it, you wouldn’t want to.

She put it to me this way: say you’re a lawyer who has to spend most of his or her day driving from city to city for court appearances. You spend, say, four hours a day on the road driving your car. When it comes time to purchase a new car that you’re going to spend all that time in, are you going to buy the cheap car with uncomfortable seats or a more expensive one that has designer seats which won’t hurt your back day after day? Chances are if you have the money you’re going to spend a little extra of it on the car that you’ll be the most comfortable in.

And like a car, differently priced lab coats have different features and comfort levels. A basic lab coat will essentially give you a coat with one or two pockets, no stain protection and very little breathability. If you can live with it then go ahead, you just won’t be very comfortable with it. Also, they probably aren’t going to last that long so you’ll have to buy a new one fairly soon.

According to my friend good lab coats all have a few things in common. First of all, the fabric needs to be breathable. 100% cotton lab coats seem to be the way to go since they not only breathe but also are more durable, comfortable, and look better longer. While most people might not think about it, the way a lab coat fits is also very important. A properly fitted coat disperses the weight of the garment and its contents (i.e. what’s in the pockets) over the entire shoulders and not just the back of the neck. This obviously makes the lab coat more comfortable.

My friend also stated that a quality doctors lab coat should have at least four pockets, have soil and stain treatment and should give its wearer a full range of motion without compromising protection. Finally, lab coats have to have a certain style. Since it will be one of the first impressions you make to your patients, you want them to look good and give them off a certain professional feel. All of these make a good lab coat, and it’s a lot more important than you might think.

Author Kimberly Green has many friends in the medical field and got this information about doctors lab coats from those who are actively wearing them in the field.

Author: Kimberly Green

When shopping for a lab coat, one has to consider the merits of a true designer lab coats versus the mass-produced, poorly constructed lab coats that some companies recklessly label as “designer”. True designer lab coats are hand-sewn, made of premium quality fabrics and have interesting, sophisticated designs. Couture tailoring details such as inside seams, rounded collar, darting and treatment with high quality fabric protector are the hallmarks of true designer lab coats.

As “designer lab coats” go – buyer beware. There is more to a designer lab coat than mere appearance. Before making a purchase, one must ask, “does this ‘designer lab coat’ have the same attributes as any other piece of designer clothing?” If not, consider buying from uniform companies that don’t assign designer labels to mediocre products. Also consider original designer lab coat manufacturers based in the U.S.

If one is looking for a designer lab coat, look beyond price and focus on the details. You can easily identify a hand sewn garment by the type of stitching and complexity of the details. Hand sewn garments often have rounded collars, pockets and finished French inside seams, as opposed to sloppy, outer stitching that is visible and exposed to fraying. These details give a true “designer lab coat”, the feel of a finely tailored ladies sport coat rather that a boxy, square cut, smock.

Look for premium quality, 100 percent cotton fabric, as the gold standard in “designer lab coats”. This is what gives the garment its structural stability and permits a sophisticated designer form. Some “designer lab coat” companies use soil and stain treatment to help prevent soil and staining in harsh medical environments. When one evaluates the design of a lab coat one must give soil and stain treatment a high priority, considering the environment and the intended use of these garments.

Designer clothing flatters and compliments its wearer. From elegant evening gowns to “upscale jeans”, designer garments are synonymous with quality, durability, and timeless style. A “designer lab coat” should also live up to these standards and make the person wearing it feel good about themselves, as if they were wearing a favorite outfit.

“Genuine designer lab coats” are “designer” and tested by people who wear them, just as performance athletic clothing and any other specialty item. Some companies create, manufacture and test their designs while others simply act as resellers. To ensure you are buying a designer lab coat, purchase it directly from the manufacturer. Many can be found online and more are found in uniforms stores across the United States.

Whomever believes that all women’s lab coats are created equal obviously has never had to wear one. As someone who wears lab coats on a daily basis I feel like I need to speak out about what I find to be issues with finding the right one to purchase.

As a woman, I just feel the need to speak out. The vast majority of women’s lab coats I find online that is advertised as “designer” or “qualities” are merely false advertisements. Most of these lab coats are poorly made from flimsy fabric, with not much attention paid to fitting an actually women’s body. Also, the fabric is nowhere near what you would call “designer” and looks terrible. We aren’t talking “made in America” quality fabrics, instead most of these “designer” lab coats are imported from some far away land.

Haven’t the people who design these lab coats ever actually wear lab coats? It seems like they don’t even know the basics of what makes a comfortable one. Lab coats made from cotton/poly blended fabric? That is so uncomfortable. In addition, they don’t hold up well to washing and when you do wash them they hardly come clean. I guess the stains set into the poly or something. Anyone who wears a lab coat during their work day knows that 100% cotton fabric is much more comfortable. In addition, unlike their cheap cotton/poly blended cousins, they clean and wash better. This means that the lab coat will last longer and, just as important, look good for your bevy of patients.

Why is it that very few websites offer women’s lab coats that are made specifically to fit a women’s body? Most say they do but they just don’t. There are sized down versions of men’s coats which clearly don’t work for me. I look for lab coats that are in women’s sizes 0, 2, 4, 6, etc, not men’s sizes that happen to fit a woman. It takes a little searching, but eventually I found a few companies offering specifically fitted women’s lab coats in my size. I even found a few that offer free return shipping- a definite plus with the purchase.

Finding lab coats online that are made in the U.S.A are rare. Those I have found cost a little more but are absolutely worth it. They are much higher quality that those imported from foreign countries, which means that they last longer (and save you money in the long run). I’ve also found that they fit better and offer some kind of stain fighting treatment. And, best of all, they help our economy.

Overall, searching most sites just drives me crazy. I would suggest buying lab coats right from the manufacture when you can. They offer more personalized service and some even offer embroidery. It may cost a bit more but it’s worth it in the long run.

Author Kimberly green has found that picking out a lab coat is easy once you know what to look for.

If you wear a lab coat at any time during your work day you notice that there are certain factors that go into making it a quality coat. Fabric, fit, function and style all goes into making a coat that you’ll enjoy wearing throughout the day.

While most people might believe that a lab coat is just a lab coat, anyone who wears one for at least part of their workday can tell you that there are four main characteristic which determine a superior men’s lab coat from one’s that merely make the passing grade. Fabric, fit, function and style all must be paramount in its design for it to be considered superior coat.

When it comes to what makes up your coat, 100% high denier cotton is the Rolls-Royce of lab coat fabric. High denier cotton makes the coat more comfortable to wear, makes it more durable, and with the correct thickness it doesn’t allow the shirt underneath to show through the coat. In addition, cotton lab coats don’t pill and turn the unpleasant shade of yellowish-gray like most cotton/ploy blends do. Ultimately, 100% cotton lab coats are more durable, more comfortable and look better longer than the other, cheaper fabrics.

Unfortunately, most lab coats are not designed for comfort. Most lab coats are cut like boxes or doll clothing, which leads to an uncomfortable fit for most men and women. These uncomfortable lab coats can also lead to fatigue of the neck as pockets filled with stethoscopes, prescription pads and other medical necessities continuously pull on the neck. A properly fitted men’s or women’s lab coat disperses the weight of the garment and its contents over the entire shoulder’s and not just the back of the neck making the lab coat more comfortable.

Function is an important aspect of any work coat, but for a lab coat it is paramount. In a lab coat utility equals function. Superior lab coats should have four or more pockets, as well as feature a soil and stain treatment and should give the wearer a full range of motion without compromising coverage. Lab coat pockets should be large enough to hold all the necessities depending on the medical environment. Soil and stain protection is a must to repel organic fluids and release ground in strains like ring around the collar. And, most importantly, the lab coat should allow a full range of motion without compromising protection.

When it comes to the style of a lab coat remember: lab coats are not simply a utilitarian item. It is one of many first impressions health care providers make to their patients. Superior quality men’s lab coats are designed more like fine men’s clothing rather than the homogeneous square lab coat. Stylish lab coats present a professional image in today’s healthcare environment.
It is important to look for all four of these components when shopping for superior quality men’s lab coats.  If you skimp on even one of the components both you, and your patients, will realize it almost immediately.

Author Kimberly green has found that picking out a lab coat is easy once you know what to look for.

Everywhere you look in the professional world, clothing style, length and cost signifies a little more than you might imagine. Like ancient tribes and civilizations used to determine a person’s rank or social status by the type of feathers, robes or medals they wore, today’s workplace is littered with examples of how what you wear signifies where you are on the corporate ladder. Be it a simple suit, casual work clothes or a white lab coat, work uniforms and dress codes are a lot more telling than you might think.

Next time you visit an office building, think about the different styles in dress you see and what positions they each signify. While each company has a different dress code, “lower totem pole,” behind-the-scenes employees are usually going to dress in a much more casual way (since customers or corporate partners only hear their voice) than managers, supervisors, presidents and human resource managers. Chances are anyone in a position of authority or having outside physical contact with clients and stockholders will be donning a suit and tie during their workday.

Another locale to keep an eye on work uniforms and wear is at middle to high end restaurants. Here, everyone from the busboys to the managers are dressed in different, telling attire. A busboy is mostly working on clearing and setting tables, so they are usually dressed in simple attire that is good for the constant moving and collecting they are prone to do. Since a waiter has more one on one interaction with the customer, they are going to be dressed up, usually each donning the same uniform throughout the workplace (men and women vary of course) with a sport coat sometimes included. A restaurant manager (or owner) is usually the best dressed one out of the lot (especially in a fancy restaurant), wearing a different colored shirt or sport coat than the waiters so that he can stand out. Then there is the kitchen, which is a whole different animal as head chefs usually don custom aprons, coats and hats that distinguish them from the other chefs.

One workplace where you might not pay much attention to the work uniforms and what they may signify is at the hospital. While a lab coat is a functional and very important piece of clothing to a medical professional (many are custom made with breathable fibers and advanced stain guards), few people know that its length may hold a secret to the medical professional’s seniority in the office.

In many hospitals, senior doctors wear longer lab coats, while medical students tend to wear shorter lab coats. One way to tell a student doctor apart from a senior one is that their lab coat is around hip-length. It is not until they graduate with a professional title, that they wear knee-length white coats, which signify seniority at many teaching hospitals. Today, some nurses, physician assistants and technicians wear long lab coats or medical scrubs, which are becoming a more comfortable option for many male and female nurses. Each hospital has its own tradition that determines the code.

Again, these aren’t steadfast rules in today’s workplace, but just something to keep your eye out for. A person’s work uniform might give off a little more information than you might think.

Author Kim Green has worked in the medical field and has had the opportunity to wear different styles of lab coats and medical scrubs – Medelita is the company she prefers to buy from.