PITTSBURGH – Companies that make protective equipment for do-it-yourselfers have learned an ugly lesson: Many homeowners would rather risk losing an eye than strap on those oversized safety goggles that look like fish aquariums.
So manufacturers have added some style to their safety gear – slick eyewear and sleek earmuffs.
With housing sales still strong and more people taking on home improvement projects, industry leaders say there is a big and insufficiently served market for eye, ear and lung protection.
Until recently, Mine Safety Appliances Co. made only advanced military helmets and high-end protective gear for emergency and industrial workers. Now it’s targeting the do-it-yourselfer business and is aggressively trying to expand the market itself.
The firm surveyed consumers who purchased equipment for home projects from large home-improvement stores and found that the thought of protective gear did not even occur to 92 percent, despite clearly marked warnings by manufacturers that safety gear should be worn.
“If we get just one more person out of 10 thinking about protecting their eyes or ears like they should, we could double the size of this market,” said John Quinn, marketing manager for MSA Safety Works, the consumer division of the company.
MSA has hired designers to make rakish protective eyewear with hopes that the new glasses can make safety a little more snappy.
According to the National Safety Council, which tracks injuries, thousands of people are hurt each year undertaking home projects.
“There aren’t any scientific studies that would show how many of these injuries could have been prevented with the right protective gear, but the injury patterns on the body – the eyes, the face, the loss of hearing – suggest that many of them could have been prevented,” said Meri-K Appy, the council’s president.
Safety gear companies estimate the size of the current market for eye, ear and lung protection is less than $140 million annually, but the market has been growing at a steady 8 percent a year, Quinn said.
Economic indicators bode well for MSA and other companies in the market; sales of previously owned homes remain strong. Meanwhile, home improvement retailers’ business is growing. Home Depot Inc. has raised its full-year earnings outlook, while rival Lowe’s reported its quarterly earnings rose 18 percent.
Chris Ahern, a spokeswoman for Lowe’s, said the retailer displays safety gear next to the tools they should be used with.
“The increased popularity of personal safety gear for the do-it-yourselfer is a trend we’ve been seeing for the past five years or so,” Ahern said. “That’s about the time eyewear, particularly, began to become more stylish.”
The new safety glasses are selling at twice the rate of traditional safety glasses, she said.
Lowe’s sells Fuel protective eyewear, made by AO Safety, a division of Indianapolis-based Aearo Corp.
Pete Murphy, vice president of marketing for AO Safety, said retail sales of safety products in the hardware industry climbed from $99 million in 1999 to about $137 million in 2002.
“The look of this stuff has had something to do with it,” he said.
Eyewear is the most popular safety item, but as both AOSafety and MSA make earmuffs and ventilators that are more consumer-friendly, sales of those products are rising, retailers say.
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