The Best Hi Vis Shirts in Australia (2026): Picked on Compliance, Not Reviews

Short version: if you work day and night shifts and need one shirt that covers both, the Bisley 3M Taped Hi Vis Cool Lightweight Shirt (BS6696T) is the one we stock deepest and the one most sites will accept without an argument. Everything below explains why, and where a different shirt beats it.

How we chose these (really)

We are a Bisley specialist, so this is a list of Bisley shirts. We are not going to pretend otherwise, and you should read it knowing that.

What we did not do is rank on customer reviews. Of the 86 hi vis shirts we carry, only 21 have any reviews at all, and the most-reviewed has five. Ordering a "best of" list on five reviews would look authoritative and mean nothing.

Instead each pick below is justified by something you can check yourself on the product page:

• Compliance class — whether the garment is rated day-only or day and night. This is the difference that gets people sent home from site.
• Taping — whether the retroreflective tape is 3M branded.
• Anti-static — required on a lot of fuel, mining and electrical sites.
• Fabric weight — the GSM figure, which is what actually decides whether a shirt is bearable in February.
• Depth of stock — how many units we hold across every size and colour. It is an honest proxy for what our customers reorder, and unlike a review count we cannot massage it.

1. Bisley 3M Taped Hi Vis Cool Lightweight Shirt (BS6696T) — our pick for day and night shift work

Day and night rated, 3M retroreflective tape, and anti-static. The body is 155gsm preshrunk cotton drill with 200gsm cotton mesh knit through the back and underarms, which is the combination that makes a long sleeve survivable in summer without giving up sleeve coverage.

This is far and away the deepest-stocked hi vis shirt we hold — roughly a third of our entire hi vis shirt inventory sits in this one style. That is not an accident of purchasing; it is reordering.

See the BS6696T

2. Bisley TenCate Tecasafe Plus Taped Two Tone Hi Vis FR Vented Long Sleeve Shirt (BS8082T) — our pick for flame resistant work

If you need FR, nothing above is a substitute and price is the wrong thing to optimise. This one is day and night rated, 3M taped, and built from TenCate Tecasafe Plus, which is an inherently flame-resistant fabric rather than a treated one — the protection does not wash out over the life of the garment.

Worth being blunt: buy FR because your site requires it or your job involves arc or flash risk. If it does not, you are paying roughly three times the price of a standard taped shirt for protection you will not use.

See the BS8082T · All flame resistant workwear

3. Bisley 3M Lightweight Gusset Cuff Hi Vis Shirt (BS6897) — our pick for anti-static sites

Same 155gsm cotton drill and cotton mesh ventilation as our first pick, same 3M tape, same anti-static rating, but with a gusset cuff rather than the cool-lightweight cut. Pick this one if you prefer the cuff or you want the orange rather than the yellow.

Note what it is not: this style is hi vis material and taped, but it is not carried as a day-and-night rated garment the way the BS6696T is. If your site specifies day/night, go back to pick one.

See the BS6897

4. Bisley 3M Taped Hi Vis Cotton T-Shirt (BK1017T) — our pick for summer

A day and night rated, 3M taped shirt in 190gsm cotton jersey. A taped tee is the compromise most people actually want in January: you keep the compliance, you lose the sleeves and the drill.

Check your site rules before you rely on it. Plenty of sites require sleeves regardless of the garment's rating.

See the BK1017T

5. Bisley 2 Tone Hi Vis Polo Shirt (BK1234) — our pick for hot, humid work

Treated with Fresche, Bisley's antibacterial finish, which is aimed squarely at the smell problem rather than at protection. If you are in a humid climate or you cannot wash gear daily, that matters more than it sounds.

This one is day use only — no retroreflective tape. It is the cheapest shirt on this list and the most restricted. Do not buy it for night work.

See the BK1234

How to choose between them

Almost every disagreement about hi vis shirts comes down to one question: day, or day and night?

• Day use garments rely on fluorescent fabric. They work while there is daylight and stop working when there is not. AS/NZS 4602.1 calls this Class D.
• Night use relies on retroreflective tape bouncing headlights back at the driver. Class N.
• Day and night combines both, and it is Class D/N. If you do not know which your site requires, this is the safe answer.

After that, in rough order of how much difference it makes: whether you need FR, whether you need anti-static, fabric weight, and then cut and colour.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Class D, Class N and Class D/N?

Class D is fluorescent fabric for daytime visibility. Class N is retroreflective tape for night. Class D/N is both in one garment, and it is what most Australian sites specify when they say "day/night".

Do I need taped shirts on every site?

No, but you need them on any site where work continues into low light, and the requirement is normally written into the site's PPE rules rather than left to the worker. If in doubt, a D/N garment is accepted where a day-only garment is not — the reverse is never true.

Does washing wear out the reflective tape?

Yes, eventually. Tape degrades with abrasion and with high heat far faster than the fabric around it. Wash inside out, keep the temperature down, and skip the tumble dryer. A shirt whose tape has gone dull is no longer a night garment even if it still looks like one.

What does GSM mean and what should I look for?

Grams per square metre — the fabric's weight. Lower is cooler and wears out sooner; higher is tougher and hotter. Around 155gsm cotton drill is the usual Australian workwear middle ground, and the ventilated styles above pair that with a lighter mesh where you sweat most.

Is flame resistant the same as fire retardant?

Not quite, and the distinction is worth money. Inherently flame-resistant fabrics like TenCate Tecasafe are protective because of what the fibre is, so the protection lasts as long as the garment. Treated fabrics are given a finish that can wash out over time.

What size should I order?

Bisley runs generous by fashion standards. Traditional Fit shirts carry 23cm of ease, Modern Fit 19cm, Active Fit 15cm — so an Active Fit shirt is about one size smaller than a Traditional Fit in the same nominal size. Full measurements are on our size guide.

Keep looking

All men's hi vis shirts · Women's hi vis shirts · All men's hi vis · Flame resistant · Size guide