What Happens When a Construction Safety Professional Starts a Clothing Company

I know OSHA regulations the way some people know song lyrics. I've written safety programs, developed site specific safety plans, inspected rigging, ladders, equipment, trained crews, investigated incidents, and navigated workers' compensation claims for contractors across the country for nearly two decades.  Outside of work I'm a woodworker, I own a handmade goods business, I've built a 500-square-foot deck, remodeled bathrooms, laid flooring, drywalled, and tackled more home renovation projects than I can count. I’m someone who knows how to use her hands and her tools.

What I did not know, at all, was how to make a pair of pants.

Not the fabric. Not the construction. Not what a tech pack was, what pattern grading meant, or what it actually costs to turn an idea into a physical garment sitting in a box ready to ship. I knew workwear as a user and as a safety professional. I had zero experience on the design and manufacturing side.

That gap between knowing the problem and knowing how to build the solution is exactly where WorkHer Wear began.

The Part Nobody Tells You

When people romanticize starting a business they talk about the idea. The lightbulb moment. The passion. What they don't talk about as much is what comes right after, when you realize the idea is the easy part, and everything that follows is a master class in things you have never done before.

For me, that started the moment I decided WorkHer Wear was actually happening.

I knew I wanted to make work pants for women. I knew what was wrong with every pair I had ever tried on. I knew the pockets needed to be bigger, the fit needed to account for the female body, the fabric needed to hold up on a job site. I had opinions about all of it, informed by 18 years of wearing workwear in environments that demanded it.

What I did not know was how to translate any of that into something a manufacturer could actually build.

So I started learning. Fast.

One of the First Big Decisions: What Should These Pants Be Made Of?

After hand sketches and rough ideas on fit, pocket placements and other design features, I had to answer a more fundamental question: What fabric to use?

My original vision was clear. I wanted to make a fully American-made product, fabric sourced from a domestic mill, manufactured on U.S. soil. That mattered to me personally. And while my own market research showed that where the pants are made was not a top priority for most women in the trades, fit, function, and durability ranked far above country of origin, making something here felt like the right foundation for a brand built on quality and integrity. It was my value, even if it wasn't the deciding factor for my customer.

I also had a fabric in mind. A 100% hemp canvas.

Hemp is remarkable on paper. It’s four times stronger than cotton. It’s naturally resistant to mold and UV damage. It gets softer with every wash without losing its structural integrity. It is more sustainable than conventionally grown cotton. For a workwear application, where durability and longevity are everything, hemp made a lot of sense.

What I Actually Found

Sourcing fabric as a startup is humbling. Mills have minimum order quantities. Specialty fibers have limited suppliers. And domestic textile manufacturing, while absolutely still alive, carries a price premium that reflects the true cost of making things in America.

The first protype developed was using a Hemp fabric. But the stiffness of the canvas, while it softens over time, was simply too much for a work pant that needs to move with the body from the moment you put it on. Women on job sites are squatting, climbing, kneeling, reaching. A fabric that needs six months of wear to break in is not a fabric for this application. And beyond the performance issue, sourcing quality hemp canvas at the volume a startup can realistically order carries a significant cost premium that would have pushed our retail price beyond what the market would bear.

So hemp was out. I pivoted to cotton canvas, a time-tested workwear fabric, breathable, durable, and proven on job sites for generations. The right call.

But then came the American mill question.

I found one. One domestic mill producing the cotton canvas I needed at the quality standard I wanted. And their pricing came in nearly 50% higher than sourcing the same fabric internationally.  I sat with that number for a while.

The Decision I Didn't Want to Make

Here is the math that no one talks about when they tell you to buy American, and I say this as someone who deeply wants to make an American made product.

At small batch production quantities, a 50% increase in fabric cost does not translate to a 50% increase in retail price. It compresses your margin to a point where the business cannot sustain itself long enough to grow. And a business that cannot grow cannot employ people, cannot reinvest in better materials, and cannot eventually bring production home, which is exactly what I want to do.

The goal of Made in USA was never about a label. It was about quality, accountability, and investing in the kind of manufacturing that creates good jobs. I believe in all of that. I still do.

But getting there requires building a business that is financially viable first.

I made the decision to source my cotton canvas through Carr Textile, a U.S.-based textile sourcing company that works with overseas manufacturers. The fabric is not made domestically. The company I’m working with is. Every conversation, every quality decision, every relationship is managed through a U.S.-based partner who is accountable to the same standards I hold myself to.

It is not the origin story I envisioned, but the origin story was never the point. The point is what gets built.

Why I'm Telling You This

Because I think there is value in watching something get built honestly.

WorkHer Wear is not a brand that appeared fully formed. It’s a brand being built by a safety professional who knew the problem well and had to learn everything else from scratch. The fabric is not yet American-made. The manufacturing is still being sourced. The product is not yet on the market.

But the Foundation Pant is real. It has been designed, sourced, developed, graded, and about to be sampled! It’s about to go into the hands of women on real job sites for real feedback. And every decision along the way, including the hard ones, has been made with the intention of building something that lasts.

That is what happens when a construction safety professional starts a clothing company.

She figures it out.

WorkHer Wear is a women's workwear brand founded by Jenna Mausolf. The Foundation Pant is currently sampled and about to go into field testing. Get early access at workherwear.com and follow the journey on Instagram at @workherwear.

See you on The Jobsite!

— Jenna