Tree Cutting Safety Equipment Essentials

Hi everybody, my name is Phil from Vision Landscapes, and today I want to talk to you about super basic PPE for the tree care industry. So PPE stands for personal protective equipment, and it's your responsibility to do the research and wear it right. Your employer, if you work in a bigger company, might enforce it, but if you're starting off on your own, you might not know this. Or maybe you have a couple of employees that don't hold you accountable. But you are responsible for your own safety, so let's make an educated decision on what to wear that will be comfortable for the right season and keep you in this industry for a very long time.

I personally like to approach it from top-down. I like to go from bottom-up. Now, if you said, ""Phil, you have $1,000,"" which is not a lot of money to buy boots, pants, and a helmet, I would probably start with the boots. The boots are the most important part of your PPE, in my opinion, for comfort. Okay, pants, you know, if they're uncomfortable, your helmet is uncomfortable, that's one thing. But for comfort, you're in these all day long. You're walking, you're climbing trees, you're going over rocks, you know, you're hurling things. Sometimes you need to be agile on your feet. If you have sore feet, you're not agile on your feet because you have a bad pair of boots, and you hate wearing your boots. Whenever you put them on, your boots have to have the ""I love to wear these"" factor. And if you don't, find another pair that do.

These are the Andrew tree climbing boots. Absolutely love these boots. Light, light, light for climbing, even up a ladder to trim hedges, climbing trees, fantastic boot. Not the most waterproof. And then, for different occasions, I'll wear these HGES Protector Primes. Fantastic boot, waterproof up to here. I've never really got wet in these. A bit heavier, a bit clunkier. So if you know you're going to be doing a ton of walking, I'll take another boot.

When it comes to pieces of equipment like boots that you're going to swap out, you know, maybe every two years or so, or even every year, it really depends on the frequency of your usage. I think that it's really wise to get multiple pairs if you can afford it right away, or if your employer can afford it. Why? If you have a pair that gets wet, you have another pair. And if you're burning through one pair a year, if you get two pairs, guess what? 1 plus 1 equals 2. Those two pairs are going to last you two years. So it's not a waste, and it actually gives you the opportunity of having always the optimal pair of boots for the right situation.

Alright, next step, we are talking pants. Now, for today's example, we're going to go through the entire Clogger lineup. I have been blessed to have received a few pairs from them throughout the years, others that I have purchased of my own money. So, let's go through the Clogger pant lineup. Let's start light and go all the way up to the top.

These are the Spiders. The Spiders are non-chainsaw protective, super, super light. They weigh absolutely nothing. I will use these if I'm pruning in the tree, if I'm hedge trimming. They are nice, light pants with good pockets, and I've yet to burn through or destroy a pair, and I wear these a lot. Let's go off the lineup a little bit further. This is their first generation of Defender Pro pants. Right, this pant will be around the $250 Canadian range, more or less. A bit less in the US. Some reflective strips over here. These are well-worn pants. Some of my employees have been wearing these throughout the years. And yeah, these are well-worn. Some of this starts to fade off, but that's perfectly normal for pants that have been in use pretty often.

This is a nice budget pant for a groundman, right? It doesn't have all the flexibility or features that a climbing pant will have. We'll get to that pretty soon. So the Defender PR has got an upgrade, version two, which has just a little bit more resistant outer fabric. I find much of the same similar features, and a great price point. Right, for $250, more or less, a fantastic pair of pants.

Now, this one that we won in a giveaway a couple years ago from Clogger. Now, Clogger is really known for making high-quality, in-house pants right with us in mind. They're always thinking about the arborist, they're always thinking about how can we make life easier for these people that wear our pants every single day. So, their flagship pant is the Zero. This is it in its orange color. The Zero is a very, very light pant. It's under 2 and 1/2 pounds, if I'm not mistaken. It has little clips down here to clip onto your boot whenever you have your lac. When you're climbing, so that they don't ride up too high. They have fantastic vents, fantastic pockets. They come in great colors. Right, they have a purple color out right now. They have pink every now and then, a green. Great overall pant. I'll wear this pant, I'll say, in the months of May, June, July, August, September. And when October hits, I'm so stoked because I get to wear my favorite pant from Clogger. It's called the Ascends. The Ascends are much like the Zeros, except a little bit heavier because there's a little bit more fabric on them. They have a nice, tighter elastic band with a bib in the back that rides up. It's my fall pant. So I'm going to wear this in the months of October, November, and into early December.

Different kinds of belt clips. These I've been wearing for three years, a little bit of wear and tear, that's perfectly normal. But once again, these pants and the Zeros, you know, they're going to get you up into the $400 range, $450 range. So we're getting up a little bit. We're getting specific pants for the industry. And the same thing again, you get a couple pairs of pants, you're going to be able to go through them at the right seasons, and you'll also have longevity from the lot more. Instead of only wearing one pair of pants 12 months throughout the year, right, you get more. They'll all get used a little bit less.

And this pair of pants is the Clogger Ember. This is a winter-insulated pair of pants. Right, I'll wear these a few days in the month of December until we shut down. Or like last spring with the ice storm, I wore these a lot whenever it was still pretty cold outside. They are insulated pair of pants. These are where your underwear, your thermal underwear, no problem. Super cozy, Clogger Embers. And then, for you that don't like the look of looking professional, you're just a weekend warrior and you want to look cool, they thought of you. These are their jeans. They make a really cool denim Clogger denim pair of jeans, right, full chainsaw-proof. Take this at home. I mean, this is not a climbing pant at all. Right, it legit has a stitch at the end like a jean. Up the back pocket as well. It's just a well-styled pant for someone who just wants to be safe but look cool at the same time.

Right, so all this together, you have a complete lineup here from one company. There's many companies that make chainsaw pants. I love the variety that Clogger has to offer. Been highly comfortable in their pants for many years, and I look forward to—I'm going to have to buy myself another pair of Ascends. These have a few years of wear on them. They are my favorite pair of pants.

Alright, last one, we are talking about the helmet. The helmet is going to be your most expensive piece of PPE. Now, if someone gave me $1,000, where would I start? Like I mentioned, that's not a great number because you're going to blow through that real quick with your helmet, right? Boots, in my opinion, the most important for comfort. You know, pants, make sure you have the right ones on, but the helmet is pretty important as well, right?

Protos is like the standard when it comes to helmets. It has the best side-impact rating. Whenever it comes to like, I said, impact with a helmet in the tree care industry. It comes stock with a mesh over here that you can flip up and down. Some models even, you can get built-in sunglasses here if you want to add those on. These are aftermarket. So, this is a specific type of headphones or a Sena cast. This is something that we added afterwards. Just this will set you back around $900. They're pretty, pretty expensive, but they are high-quality intercom systems to be able to talk with other members of your crew. I can't talk about how important that is to have good communication with your crew.

So, a helmet like this, right, is fully adjustable for your size of head and will keep you safe. You can open up some vents on the top. You know, you're not wearing a helmet to fall off a ladder. You think, ""Oh, if I fall off a ladder or fall off a tree,"" no. You're wearing this helmet more times than not for random impacts, you know, something that occasionally flies out of a tree that you weren't paying attention to. Or, you know, someone smacked something in your head as you're walking by, or a branch, etc. You're using this. Don't think about like if I fall on my head I'm going to be fine. This is more just for your everyday stuff. You'll be surprised how many times that we're just walking around every single day on the job sites, and we're not doing anything tremendously dangerous, but then we'll get a bump on the head for some reason or another. We're glad I'm having my helmet. So, invest in a good helmet. Cask is another great company.

All this to say, guys, PPE is not cheap. It will set you back a lot. It's pretty expensive. But you know, missing out a few days of work, missing out a month or so of work, people that cut their legs sometimes for not wearing PPE, it's not worth it, guys. Invest in good equipment that's going to keep you safe, keep you comfortable, and keep you in this industry for a very long time.

Once again, guys, it's Phil. Thanks for watching. We'll catch you next time.