It’s kind of tough to hide a $60 billion global category.

That’s the reported size of the global market for medical scrubs, of which $10 billion is said to be done in the U.S. As is the case in many categories, a once-stable – some might even say sleepy – business has been transformed over the past few years by the entry of  direct-to-consumer (DTR) brands such as Figs and Jaanuu – offering premium features and stylish looks – i.e. yoga pants or jogging silhouettes, extra pockets — in a sea of lookalike one-size-fits-all suppliers that offered little innovation.

Increased attention

It’s also a business that has been attracting steadily increasing attention from the licensing community. To be sure, longtime supplier Barco has had a Grey’s Anatomy license for 14 years. But many of today’s licenses in the category are of a more recent vintage.

Charismatic Brands – which claims a 40% share of the medical uniform business, and until last month was known as Strategic Partners – has added characters to its licensed Cherokee Uniforms brand; the “Tooniforms” are a line of scrubs festooned with characters from Disney, Marvel, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Sanrio, Warner Bros., DC, Peanuts and Sesame, among others.

Beyond characters

The licensing goes well beyond characters. Charismatic has a license for the Elle brand, and CID Resources sells medical uniforms under the Vera Bradley and Carhartt brands. And Barco signed for a Skechers license in 2018, pairing its scrubs with a footwear brand that has been seeking to expand its presence in the medical market.

The scrubs business dates back to the late ‘80s, when hospitals stopped buying scrubs for nurses, techs and other medical personnel as a cost-cutting measure. And with U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, for example, indicating that there will be more than 3.4 million registered nurses in the U.S. by 2028 (up from three million in a decade), branding in the business can only grow.

And in totally unrelated uniform news, chicken chain Popeye’s is selling versions of its burgundy-and-orange employee uniforms online to take advantage of the apparel’s resemblance to Beyonce’s recently launched Ivy Park x adidas collection.