VIDEO: TOOLING UP – KleenGuard PPE, Where Function Meets Fashion

Narrator: This video is brought to you by Kimberly-Clark Professional. Inside every workplace, it's people who matter most. Welcome to Tooling Up, a series by MSC Industrial Supply Company, the show that provides real world insights and is brought to you by leading industry experts aimed at improving the efficiency and productivity of your operation. And now the host of Tooling Up, Mitch Free.

Mitch Free: Welcome to Tooling Up. I'm Mitch Free. If you're new here, be sure to subscribe and hit the like button. Our guest today is Stacy Turner, the PPE Category Manager at Kimberly-Clark Professional North America Safety. Thank you so much for taking the time to join me today, Stacy.

Stacy Turner: Thanks, Mitch. It's so good to be here with you today.

Mitch Free: Yeah, I'm excited to dive into this conversation and learn about the new products that you guys are innovating. But before we do, I'd appreciate if you could share a little bit about your background and what led you to the role that you're in today.

Stacy Turner: Sure. So when I started the safety industry at 17 years ago now, but who's counting right when you're having fun? I was walking the NSC show floor with a veteran safety professional, and he was walking me around and onboarding me. And, and as far as I knew, we manufactured products that kept people safe. But I didn't realize the magnitude of how these products actually affect everybody's lives on a day to day basis, and that it keeps them really going home the same way they came into work right.

So I just found a new passion in the industry. And he looked at me and he said, “kid, once you're in safety, you're never going to leave safety.” And you know what Mitch? He was right. So 17 years later, here I am. I'm very passionate about safety and I love what I do.

Mitch Free: Well, that passion comes right through. And you know what? I love that analogy that you made of sending people home the way that they came to work. That's really powerful when you stop to think about that.

Stacy Turner: It is, yeah.

Mitch Free: So, I mean, I think, you know, you guys sent some samples to me of some of the glasses. And my first reaction to the Nemesis glasses, when I put them in my hands, was that these things are really cool. They're comfortable, they're stylish. And, you know, both of those things are critical if you want people to wear them and not have to be, you know, beaten into submission to put your safety gear on. Tell me more about the Nemesis glasses.

Stacy Turner: So this really is a very comfortable, durable. I can bang it. I can bang it. I can twist this Mitch. I can pull this all the way back. I can't I can't break it. I can't. I've tried. It is indestructible. We've had people run them over, you know, so it's really fantastic. And part of compliance is comfort. Part of worker compliance is style and durability.

It's really what drives compliance and the safety industry. So we've taken that to heart with the Nemesis.

Mitch Free: I've noticed it. I mean, I find myself wearing these as my sunglasses now. They're so stylish and cool, I don’t even think of them as being safety glasses. And then there's the Maverick product line as well. And that's really cool. And it gives the end user more variety to choose from, you know, as long as they're keeping their safety glasses on, that's what matters, right?

Stacy Turner: That's right. Absolutely. We need our workers to be safe, and to be safe we have to leave them on. You know, so many workers are adjusting them while they’re at machinery and things because they're uncomfortable or they're pinching their nose or they're sweating. And that's one thing Nemesis does really well right? We have a patented nose clip design that really, really beads the sweat.

So it's not in your face. It's not slipping constantly. And when workers are, you know, trying to adjust it, whether they know it or not and they're doing it Mitch, it really causes a safety issue. You know, you adjust or you take off for 2 seconds and there could be a machine in front of you and it could shard something and really, really cause a serious eye injury.

So it's important that our workers aren't stopping in front of their hazards to adjust, because sometimes you don't even know you're doing it. I mean, how many times a day do we adjust something, clothing or hair or glasses or earrings, anything? Right. You adjust. You don't even know it sometimes. So it really is, it really is an important aspect of the product.

Mitch Free: Yeah. So, so we had a box of different styles come in and you know, my guys sort of dove into those really quick and there's two behaviors that I've noticed, well maybe three, but at least two behaviors I’ve noticed I haven't seen before. So number one, after a few hours, they started writing their names on them.

I've never seen people claim safety glasses before. And then the second thing they did was they started putting straps on them, so they hang around their neck so they don't lose them. So they don't set them down. And of course they're wearing them more than I've ever seen them wear. So I'm a case study that people adopt them, they like them, they don't want to lose them. And the product works.

Stacy Turner: That's great. I love that. I love those stories. It makes me passionate about why I do what I do.

Mitch Free: Stacy, Nemesis, Maverick, these products are cool, stylish, people want to wear them, but let's talk a little bit more about the functional aspects, because after all, they have to be protective, right?

Stacy Turner: Right. Yeah. So a couple things, Mitch right. So we're always adjusting as we talked about. And if a worker has to leave the environment that they're working in to adjust or to get another pair because it broke or it fogged up, right, then that is losing a lot of productivity in time on the manufacturing floor. So one of the great things about Nemesis I'll start with is a few things besides, you know, style, is this we have a wide curvature on the side that really gives a nice peripheral vision so you can see really well. Our anti-fog and anti-glare coating is phenomenal. But stay tuned Mitch, I'm giving you a little tidbit. We have KleenVision coming soon that we're innovating right now. That's coming online next year. So really, anti-fog is our number one. The number one reason why users take off their eyewear other than comfort. So it's comfort and fogging. So our Nemesis and Maverick have been tested and against other PPE usage and really our anti-fog is phenomenal. And like I said, our new KleenVision coming soon.

Mitch Free: Well, we're going to stay tuned for KleenVision. I can only imagine it's going to be something that is new to the industry and very innovative, just like all the other products that you guys are coming out with. Stacy, before we wrap it up here, I'd love to hear a little bit about Kimberly-Clark's sustainability program. I believe it's called RightCycle. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Stacy Turner: Sure Mitch. So RightCycle is a recycling program led by us as a manufacturer. It’s the only manufacturer-led recycling program that exists today in the market. And so what we do with RightCycle is a few things. One, it allows you as a company and an organization, to recycle your used PPE. And it's very easy to use you put it in a receptacle bin, it gets picked up and it goes to what we call a JCDC.

So what they do is they sort through the used PPE products and then that gets sent to our recycling facility. And then you as a company that's enrolled in RightCycle gets a sustainability report each year. So each year we tell you how many tons or how much waste you diverted from landfills, and you can use that to reach your sustainability goals and yourself within your own corporation. So really it's a great program all the way around.

Mitch Free: It warms my heart to hear that, to hear a corporation as big as Kimberly-Clark being so caring about sustainability and the environment and the world around us. And it's certainly refreshing to hear. Stacy, thanks so much for for joining me today. I really enjoyed our talk.

Stacy Turner: It was really fun Mitch. It was so nice talking to you about about our KleenGuard products and Kimberly-Clark Corporation. So thank you.

Mitch Free: If you enjoyed our talk with Stacy as much as I did, please subscribe to our channel where you can find many more great interviews just like this one. To learn more about KleenGuard products, visit mscdirect.com/kleenguardppe. See you next time on Tooling Up.

Narrator: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the Tooling Up video playlist to hear tips that can take your company to the next level. And subscribe to our channel so you won't miss out.