Someone emailed us today and said, "Would you consider making the elastic waist band optional on the women's clinician scrub pant? I like your description of the pants, but I do not like elastic waists." Sort of a flash from the past email. I had forgotten about our clinician scrub pants having elastic. There was a time when I thought this was the biggest risk we were taking in our medical scrubs introduction, back in 2008. We had really packed in the new, improved features for our introductory scrub set. A higher v-neck, darting at the bust, contoured waist and hip area, a contoured rise, side seam pockets, very slight shaping to the leg and hip area, and more coverage in the back v. front of the waist. But the elastic at the waist . . . that was a gamble. Or at least I thought it was at the time. Here is how elastic found it's way into our clinician scrub pants. At the very first stages of the business, when we were first starting to work with the patternmaker/fit specialist, I had thought that we would have a nursing style scrub pant with an elastic waist, and a clinician style scrub pant with a drawstring only.
All was going very well until I was test wearing in my own size. I first wore the nursing style, and then the next day the clinician style. It was terrible! I was eager to rip them off and put on the nursing style! Even though I had previously worn unisex scrubs all my life, the nursing style was supremely more comfortable. How could we make this huge leap from unisex to clinician style (plus elastic) . . . and have it be successful? So we went back to the drawing board. Our new goal was to be the first to introduce a clinician/female scrub pant, with a “subtle” elastic waist band – most similar to an athletic waist band. Something comfortable, professional, and acceptable amongst colleagues. We absolutely did not want for there to be a “bubble butt” appearance (as it’s known) with thin or cheap elastic.
We designed the waist as a separate piece, so that it would cause minimal puckering. We also sourced a rubber free, very soft and not thick elastic, to prevent the feeling of bulk at the waist. A tremendous amount of thought and energy went into ensuring that the clinician style waist/scrub pant in general were the very best, most comfortable it could be. The result? Our clinician scrub pants sell very well. So much so, that we cannot keep them in stock lately. Much to my surprise, no one (to my knowledge) has ever complained about the elastic in the waist. Not sure if this email today counts or not. I offered her free shipping and free returns on her order, to see if she'd be willing to try something a tad out of the box. Perhaps she'll like them, too.
