Protective clothing Protective clothing is clothing designed to protect either the wearer's body or other items of clothing from hazards such as heat, chemicals and infection. Also, special clothes may protect the working environment from pollutionand/or infection from the worker, for example in a microchip factory. The protection may also be important in both ways, as with the use of disposablegloves by surgeons and dentists. Protective clothing is also worn for contact sports, such as ice hockey andAmerican football. Baseball players wear sliding shorts and a cup under their pants. See baseball uniform, jockstrap. Protective clothing and other protective equipment are often referred to asPersonal Protective Equipment (PPE), a term which includes forms of protective equipment which are not strictly items of clothing (for example, eye and ear protection). Protective clothing extends to body armorsuch as bullet-proof vests. See alsoarmor. See also protective materials such as Nomex, Kevlar.