TMS.SITE Is
the Future of
Workwear

I was born in Hong Kong, but my parents took me back to mainland China because their work was there at that time. They both worked in factories, but then my dad started working on interiors and furnishings for inside homes. He was really handy and slowly started to build a construction team to do some projects. As a child I remember spending a lot of time with the team. That’s why I’m familiar with heavy duty workers. He brought me to the construction sites and I’ve always found the unfinished concrete walls and half-painted things to be really beautiful. I’m not exactly the closest with my dad because he worked all the time, and after I turned seven me and my mom moved back to Hong Kong. But the foundations were built in my childhood. My mom’s family is from North China, and most of my grandfather’s generation were blue collar workers, they wore a blue uniform. They don’t wear the same uniform in Hong Kong and I found that contrast to be really interesting. I always asked myself, “Why do the uniforms look like this?”

First I studied fashion in Hong Kong and then I went to London to study design at RCA. During that time I read a book about coal miners in the ‘90s called Blind Shaft, it’s a true story about a scandal in the mines. I wanted to study their uniforms and learn about the workers, their condition and stories. In 2017 I contacted a friend of mine whose father is a coal miner, and I traveled to the mine that his father worked at in China to conduct undercover research for five days. Mining areas are very sensitive due to accidents in the industry. Usually community areas are built around mines where the workers live, they have supermarkets and everything. It’s illegal for women to go into the mines, so I had to be careful. I stayed next to the mining area and would talk to the workers and the laundry ladies in charge of washing their clothes. I also spoke with my friend’s father and he showed me all of the uniforms that he saved over the 30 years that he’d been working in the mines. The first uniform that he ever wore, compared to the most recent one, was literally the same. He was used to injuring his ankles because the coal is hot. He didn’t complain about his uniform, because he didn’t know that he could have a better one.

After the trip, I was so ashamed as a designer. I had lots of skills, but I had never used them to help the people that I really care about, especially the heavy duty workers that I grew up around. I blamed myself, but the anger made me develop. Working under pressure helps me. I put that research into my dissertation for my master’s degree at RCA.

One of my first workwear projects was studying lighting technicians. They were always moving around, jumping, climbing, and kneeling down. A lot of workers complain that their clothes are too heavy, too bulky, don’t fit properly. I believe that being an athlete requires a really strong mind. Working in a construction site is not easy. I wanted to fuse industrial with sport. I don’t think the workers would refer to themselves as industrial athletes, but I want them to know their capabilities, because they really are athletes.

I think if you have a strong story, and you’re honest, people will love it. I try to be really close to our customers. Working directly with industrial athlete communities is the key to the success of the brand. Modernized workwear for real workers is so rare, because the design process is so hard. The workwear market is about the product, so we try to highlight the functionality of the pants. Every cut and panel performs a function. Creating a lightweight protective pant is hard. We tried to find the balance: a pant that protects the same as a heavyweight pair, but provides freedom. You need lots of time to gain trust in that market.

During my research with lighting techs and bricklayers, I received a lot of complaints from the workers about bottoms. It was hard for them to find comfortable trousers. The crotch would always rip, they’re really stiff, heavy, and smelly. I tested my first designs with a bricklayer from the UK and his favorite item was the trousers. I’m a research-based person when it comes to design and I felt that starting with trousers was a good foundation for the brand.

I had my prototype done, but I couldn't afford to bring it into production. I also wanted to bring the price down without compromising quality. This is a workwear brand in my heart. Even though it looks good and is sporty, I really want it to be used by workers. I know that if I make the trousers extremely expensive, even if they perform well, many workers won’t be able to afford them. Many construction workers actually have high salaries, but we’re a new brand and it wouldn’t be easy to get them to accept a high price point. Without the Kickstarter, this would be really hard. Fifty percent of our customers are into fashion sportswear, and 50 percent are real workers. They are very different markets and identities. This isn’t a fantasy process, it’s really down to earth, so much testing, research, design, and problem-solving.

I love the movie Alien. Sci-fi and sportswear inspire me. My pants design combines a lot of elements from ski and motorcycle trousers. You need articulated knees, waist adjustments, and side pockets.

Climate change strongly affects workers. Hong Kong is getting hotter and hotter. The buildings are getting higher and higher, and they trap the hot air inside. You can see how much the workers are suffering. Sometimes I go to the canteen next to the construction site to meet them for lunch, and they are incredibly sweaty. A local story came out last year about Hong Kong workers having headaches and heart attacks because of the heat. How do I help them feel cooler at work while also protecting them and maintaining durability? When you can see people suffering, climate change feels less distant.

The collection is in two categories: The trousers are “hard performance” in terms of the workmanship, and then we have “soft performance.” The hoodies and long sleeves are breathable; they have ripstop fabric on the sleeves to avoid friction and increase life span. There’s a lot of strategically placed 3M for safety, too. Our items fulfill the workwear regulations for uniforms worn on-site. There are quick-dry hoodies and track pants inspired by workers in the UK. I spent a lot of time on the pattern for the hood of the hoodies, to make it fit over a helmet, with a stiff rim that is moldable and strong to shield the sun. They all have problem-solving elements, even though they are “basic” items.

In Hong Kong worker culture, it’s not cool to wear new clothes to site, no matter how high your salary. If the younger workers wear something new to the site, the older workers will call them out. You don’t want to stand out, you want to blend in and follow the tradition. They don’t even use a belt most of the time. It’s hard to break through when it’s a cultural thing. “2x2x A NORMAL DAY” is a hypothetical day when my dream comes true, where I can see workers wearing my clothes on-site and hanging them out of their windows at home to air dry. If this day comes, it means that we broke through and regenerated the working culture in Hong Kong, which would be a really big thing. “2x2x” is a sort of personal deadline, a year in the not-so-distant future, to make this dream come true.