Your perfect fit

At Design Collective, world-class workplace fashion design is just the beginning. In working with us, you’ll entrust your brand to a partner that offers unmatched resources and a creative process that’s truly collaborative. It’s why we call ourselves the perfect fit apparel partner.

 

With every project, we aim to create clothing that people want to wear. Clothing that can inspire pride, empowerment, ambition or a sense of belonging in your staff. 

To seize on this powerful potential, we marry creative vision with thoughtful consideration of garments, patterns, cuts and colors inspired by the latest trends.

Working with us

While there’s no one size fits all approach to working with our partners, we’ve developed a flexible process for going from gathering inspiration to creating the final products.

 

Ready to begin exploring your apparel needs? Let’s Talk.

Connect With Us

Ready to Wear

Need style and performance on short order? Create your uniform or ensemble from our curated off-the-shelf collections.

Partner Brands

Build your wardrobe around brands your employees love. Explore our exclusive collaborations for current retail styles with built-in brand affinity.

Made For You

A truly bespoke approach. Our designers will work with your team to co-create an inspired solution that expresses your brand.

Robust capabilities. Boundless creativity.

From inspiration to fabrication to distribution and beyond, Design Collective is built to provide the creativity of a fashion house and the global operational capabilities of Cintas. Let us show you how…

Design

The Design Collective design team is responsible for the overarching creative, from apparel concept to completion and the ongoing “living” program. Our award-winning designers collaborate with clients to curate a wardrobe collection that enhances their brand, combining custom pieces with Ready to Wear styles.

Technical design

Our in-house team of technical design partners oversee garment silhouette, fit, proportion, and quality. After designs are finalized in an apparel program, this team will interpret styling requirements to yield a final garment that fits all shapes and sizes.

Textile innovation

Design Collective taps into the resources for which Cintas is known: game-changing textile advancements, innovative safety features, advanced construction details. And every fabric is tested for feel, performance and fit.

Sourcing & quality control

Through our teams based around the globe, we provide an ongoing review of product quality with close coordination on new program launches. This includes field engineering support, review of product specifications and inbound and outbound quality assurance.

Distribution

With 15 distribution centers across North America, we are positioned for volume and velocity. In fact, our distribution centers customize and ship an average of 180K garments per day. Each location has modification capabilities, with embroidery, heat transfer and sewing alterations available on demand.

Program implementation

Our world-class program implementation framework covers every element you need to ensure a successful launch. From designing your employee marketing strategy to building a custom e-commerce storefront, our team of specialists will work with you every step of the way to craft a fully tailored program rollout that your organization will love.

Employee engagement

Our apparel programs aren't finished when the products are delivered. During post-launch engagement, Design Collective team members continue to work with clients to evaluate program success, make recommendations for optimizations, add new products to wardrobe collections as trends evolve and make adjustments to existing projects.
  • Hospitality
  • Gaming
  • Cruise
  • National Accounts
  • Transportation
  • Healthcare
  • Retail

You name it, we’ve designed for it.

From the tarmac to the concierge desk to the ICU, we’ve provided apparel solutions for teams across a broad range of industries and occupations. Whether the primary need is performance or style that inspires, we’ve delivered apparel fit for the job at hand.

  • Healthcare
  • Assisted Living
  • Hospitality
  • Cruise
  • Fortune 1000
  • Gaming
  • Transportation
  • Retail
  • In-home services
  • Banking
  • Telcomm
  • Utilities
  • Oil & gas

Made with more.

From apparel design and development to ordering and delivery, every detail is considered. We employ the latest technology and specialist teams to ensure our garments are meeting our rigorous standards and providing your employees with the perfect fit.

Fabric R&D

We’re constantly exploring and implementing the latest cutting- edge, retail-inspired fabric technologies. Current fabric examples include antimicrobial, water-repellent, UV protectant, recycled polyester, bamboo and Tencel™.

Wear Tests

During development, our apparel is worn by our clients to solicit feedback. Every aspect of the garment is considered, including style, fit, comfort, performance and color preference.

Technical Design

The right style is only part of the equation. Our in-house team of technical designers interpret garment silhouette, fit, proportion and quality requirements to deliver a final design that fits all shapes and sizes.

Garment Testing

All of our fabrics and garments are put through rigorous testing. Our product development team works with suppliers to test garments and fabrics through accredited labs. Each item is tested to meet our standards for the following qualities:

  • Strength
  • Durability
  • Laundering capabilities
  • Performance features
  • Color fastness
  • Fiber content

myCintas

Empowering your employees to select apparel, choose a fit and order for themselves with your personalized shopping experience on myCintas.com. The B2C retail- inspired digital storefront features robust capabilities including spending management with budget allotment, bulk ordering and self- service reporting, all backed by reliable online security.

True Fit®

Your myCintas ordering site features True Fit® technology, giving you and your employees the ability to choose a size based on personal preference. And that makes every Design Collective garment an even better fit.

6,400

Style and color combinations

18 M.+

Garments in stock

Fashion house meets powerhouse.

Design Collective pairs a fashion-led, retail-inspired approach with the operational strength and scale of a Fortune 500 company.

In offering over 6,400 style and color combinations, and more than eighteen million garments in stock, the right design is always within reach. And with over 1,200 certified suppliers with production in more than thirty countries, we’re able to distribute apparel in a timely manner.

 

The people behind the apparel.

Companies approach Design Collective in search of an apparel partner. But they choose us for the people behind the designs. Meet the team responsible for helping our partners realize their vision and inspire their employees.

  • Wendy May

    President and COO

    Wendy May is the President and COO of Design Collective by Cintas. She was promoted to the role in June 2022 after five years as the Senior Vice President of Field Sales for the company’s Rental Division, and 16 years as a Cintas employee-partner.

    In her new role leading Design Collective, May is the company’s highest ranking female employee-partner, and she remains involved in Cintas’ corporate growth and profitability strategies.  May attended Cumberland College and pursued a degree in communications before entering the workforce. May and her husband Matt have three children.

  • Christine Hoffner

    Christine Hoffner

    VP, Hospitality, National Accounts
    Christine Hoffner has been with Cintas for 9+ years holding a variety of business development and sales leadership roles.  Beginning her journey as a Rental Facility Services & Uniform Representative, she established and maintained valuable relationships. This, along with her impeccable work ethic and positive attitude led to a promotion as Hospitality Major Account Manager and soon after into the roles of Direct Sale Global Account Manager and Director of National Accounts.  In her most recent promotion to Vice President of Sales for National Accounts, Hospitality, and Gaming, Christine leads a team of partners who are responsible for building and maintaining strategic business relationships with Design Collective’s largest clients. 

  • Chris Duffy

    VP, Global Supply Chain

    Chris served as the Senior Director of Operations from 2009 – 2016 until promoted to Vice President Sales – Rental, North Central / Northern Plains where she was responsible for over 200 passionate sales professionals.  In June 2018, Chris was then promoted to VP of Global Supply Chain for the Design Collective Division. Chris is responsible for aligning the key functions of Distribution, Global Sourcing, Production Planning, and Product Development to the long-term growth strategy of the Design Collective Sales division. She has a passion for developing young talent and actively mentors several protégés at any given time.

  • Kristin Sharp

    Director of Design Collective

    Kristin provides the over-arching creative vision, not just for the design team, but for the entire Design Collective. It is her leadership that articulates our collective design vision and guides us through the ongoing refinement and evolution of all our creative initiatives, applying her insightful sense of business and fashion to all our product lines.

  • Caroline Bartek

    Creative Director

    Caroline's belief that design work should be creative, collaborative, and client-focused is fundamental to the innovative work she does leading our National Accounts design team. These customers are large, complex accounts, many with a global footprint. Caroline has the rare ability to collaborate on multiple organization levels, capturing the many perspectives of the end users, thus guiding our clients into successful programs.

Impact considered.

As part of a company-wide embrace of sustainability, every decision we make considers the environmental impact on our employee-partners, customers and communities. 

One example of our sustainability commitment is apparel recycling. To make sure your old apparel does not end up in a landfill, we've collaborated with vendors to recycle used apparel.

Additionally, we’re always exploring ways to utilize more eco-friendly materials in our garments, including use of recycled materials and textiles created from plastic bottles.

Environmental Recognition (awarded to Cintas)

Received the Environmental Excellence Award from the Association of Washington Business for resource conservation and pollution prevention.

Ranked among the Top 500 Greenest Companies in America by Newsweek magazine.

Recognized by Matthew 25:Ministries for Environmental Stewardship.

Request a Consultation

Ready to explore what’s possible when you’re Working with Style? Tell us a little about yourself and someone from the Design Collective team will be in touch.

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