Not All Hi-Vis Is Created Equal — Why Garment Class Matters More Than Color in 2026

High-visibility workwear is one of the most visually obvious pieces of PPE on any site — and one of the most frequently under-specified. As megaproject construction across the Kingdom expands into round-the-clock schedules and sites with mixed vehicle and pedestrian traffic, safety teams in 2026 are paying closer attention to a detail that's easy to miss at a glance: not every hi-vis garment offers the same level of protection, even when the color looks identical.

Color Isn't the Standard — Class Is

EN ISO 20471 certifies high-visibility clothing across three classes, based on the combined area of fluorescent background material and retroreflective tape a garment carries. A Class 1 vest and a Class 3 coverall can both be the same shade of orange, but they are certified for entirely different levels of risk exposure. Buying by color alone — "it's hi-vis orange, so it's compliant" — is one of the more common gaps procurement teams are correcting this year.

Matching Class to the Actual Work Environment

• Class 1 — the lowest level of coverage, suited to environments with clear separation between workers and vehicle traffic, such as some warehouse settings.
• Class 2 — mid-level coverage for environments with some vehicle interaction, such as general construction with managed traffic routes.
• Class 3 — the highest level of coverage, required where workers operate close to moving vehicles or heavy equipment, in low-light conditions, or on roadways — increasingly the default spec on active megaproject sites running extended or night shifts.

What Else Gets Overlooked

• Retroreflective tape condition — reflective performance degrades with repeated laundering and UV exposure; a faded garment can still look bright under daylight while failing to reflect properly at night.
• Layering compliance — a compliant hi-vis outer layer worn over non-compliant inner layers is still compliant, but a compliant vest worn over a jacket that covers too much of it can drop the effective class without anyone noticing.
• Combining hi-vis with FR or arc-rated requirements — sites needing both flame resistance and high visibility require garments certified to both standards simultaneously, not a hi-vis vest layered over separately-rated FR clothing in a way that compromises either standard.

The Bottom Line

As night shifts and mixed-traffic conditions become more common across the Kingdom's 2026 project pipeline, the question procurement teams need to ask isn't "is it hi-vis?" — it's "what class is it certified to, and does that match where and when the work is actually happening?"