It was a big night for Cintas, as NAUMD announced the winners of the 2021 Image of the Year Award® Competition, an annual program that recognizes the most fashionable, forward-thinking and innovative commercial apparel designs and the businesses that wear them. The Cincinnati-based supplier walked away with six of the top ten awards, and also earned the Best of the Best nod for its work on the Resorts World apparel program. Twin Hill took home two awards. Rounding out the list are JA Uniforms and Luly Yang Couture.
For over four decades, the NAUMD’s Image of the Year Award® Competition has honored uniform manufacturers, distributors and end users that have mastered the concept of fashion and function within image and market planning. Specifically designed to assist in identifying staff and professionals, image apparel can also extend a company’s brand, increase safety, enhance interior décor and improve employee morale.
Ten companies made this year’s top ten list. Here’s a quick look at each program.
Design Collective by Cintas
Resorts World
Gaming and Best of the Best
Resort’s World is the first integrated resort (hotel, casino, entertainment, convention/exhibit center) to be built on the Las Vegas Strip in over a decade. This property was opened in late June and currently has 3,200 wearers.
Casino floor uniforms are in cool hues of blue to coordinate with the interiors of the space. They are simplistic and sophisticated, with mandarin collars to pay homage to the Asian culture. Cocktail dresses are uniquely designed to make an iconic statement on the property.
JA Uniforms
Bungalows Key Largo
Hotels, Single Location
Luxury, elegance and exclusivity define the Bungalows brand. Customer satisfaction is highly influenced by employee enthusiasm and comfort which is supported by uniforms that are not only elegant but comfortable to wear in Bungalow’s tropical environment.
Climate played a big role in the creation of this program. Performance, light weight fabrics in light colors that don’t draw heat and closely related to the sun, sea and earth were of focus. No expense was spared regarding fishing shirts, performance fabrics, custom polo prints and custom pants to keep every staff member looking light and clean as well as feeling cool.
Design Collective by Cintas
Margaritaville
Hotels, Multiple Locations
Parrot heads, take note: you may never be accused of being well dressed, but your hotel of choice surely is. Margaritaville is a state of mind. It’s a place you can escape, relax, and be yourself. It’s a casual and comfortable atmosphere but still upscale.
The wardrobe addresses every job area in the hotel – from Guest Arrivals and Front Desk to Engineering and Housekeeping. Much of the Margaritaville Hotels & Resorts portfolio is in warm weather areas. It is a casual chic collection that is easy to wear and composed of small wardrobes in each job area. This not only gives hotels different choices based on their location, but also allows the wearers to feel like they were wearing something out of their closet. Garments and colors were strategically selected/paired so that there was no wrong combination.
Twin Hill
McDonalds
Restaurants, Multiple Locations
The new McDonald’s crew program is the evolution of the 2017 program offering a fresh, modern look that was designed to support McDonald’s leadership as a modern progressive brand. The program, worn by 700,000 crew employees is comprised of performance fabrics and t-shirts that offer the comfort, moveability and durability required when working in a busy quick-service restaurant environment.
The program is a more casual range, comprised of a graphic T-shirt, polos and a T-shirts made from performance fabrics, a maintenance polo with reflectivity for safety, and stylish denim jeans with stretch for ease of movement. To compliment the collection, accessories include a stretch mesh denim hat and visor as well as a denim hat and visor and a denim apron.
Design Collective by Cintas
Fairmont Royal York Library Bar
Restaurants, Single Location
Fairmont Royal York is a large historic luxury hotel in downtown Toronto. The Library Bar, for which this program has been designed, is an upscale bar environment offering large selections of specialty drinks and sophisticated light food menu. It’s being operated by 25 employees. The positions include Hosts, AM & PM Servers, Bartenders, and Bussers.
The hotel wanted to convey an upscale English Pub feeling with a modern, elegant feel and a nod to the British fondness of tailoring. There are blazers with peak lapels subtly trimmed with a contrast color. Pants were cut slim; dresses were well tailored to the body.
Luly Yang Couture
Amazon
Transportation, Products
Amazon headquarters reached out to Luly to design, develop and deliver a custom uniform collection … within three months! In true Prime speed, the collection was designed, approved, manufactured and distributed to Amazon drivers in North America within a few months and worldwide in under a year.
Yang’s designs and attention to detail are proof that a uniform serves a purpose greater than utility. Clothing should feel almost like a second skin — comfortable and practical. But it should also give its wearers the confidence to come to work as their proudest and most authentic selves. The collection makes good use of Amazon’s brand colors – Prime Blue and Ink Grey – and performs double duty as a safety feature for the delivery personnel.
Design Collective by Cintas
Virgin Voyages
Transportation, People
The Virgin Voyages program covers all areas front and back of the house onboard. From officers and hotel leaders to culinary and food and beverage service. Vrgin Voyages has 1200 crew members working on each of their ships.
Designer Gareth Pugh was really allowed to push the boundaries and redefine the idea of what constitutes a uniform. The uniform was created around the idea of the modern romance of sailing. This concept combines nautical elements with fun modern details. Incorporating the Virgin “V” was important to the overall design. Some more subtle than others, but creating modern, unique style lines became a signature element to the apparel collection.
Twin Hill
Mary Kay
Service
The Mary Kay Red Jacket Program, one of Mary Kay’s iconic corporate wear collections, is a three-year program consisting of 32,000 wearers. These individuals earn the privilege to wear their choice of one of the distinguished jackets offered in the program by being in the top 6% of all Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultants.
Each Red Jacket is designed with the red color story remaining constant, but the cuts, fits, and details differ within each style, allowing for the recipients to select a jacket that makes them feel empowered, beautiful, and in control of her business.
Design Collective by Cintas
FC Cincinnati
Entertainment Venue
FC Cincinnati is a soccer club located in TQL Stadium. Approximately 1000 wearers are enrolled in the new apparel program. These individuals work both indoors and out, ranging in formality from high-end luxury suites to general admission. Ensembles needed ranged from food and beverage, customer services, operations host, and security.
The program separates the employees from the fans attending the stadium while still giving a nod to the brand and team colors. Bright pops of blue and orange helps employees stand out from the crowds and remain identifiable.
Design Collective by Cintas
ADT
Retail & Professional
The goal of this program was to identify the commercial technicians in a consistent and meaningful way back to the ADT over-arching brand, while still having its own recognizable program. The program utilizes the same fabrication and color palette of the ADT Residential Program but has its own color combination that makes it unique. That allows the brand to have visual continuity, while still having its own individualized look for Commercial vs. Residential.
The ADT Commercial Program outfits 2,000 wearers. The collection includes performance knit polo shirts, T shirts, cargo pants, baseball cap, layering pieces, and outerwear.
