To acquire business from UAE’s growing construction sector, Emirates NBD, a leading bank, didn’t just push products like other banks had done unsuccessfully. Instead, we helped construction firms be more efficient during the very hot summer months, by solving a problem faced by their labourers.

Every day, many labourers toil away tirelessly in the UAE’s heat, even during the very hot summer. The conditions in the UAE get really hot and humid during the summer, as temperatures soar across the UAE anywhere between 40 degrees to 50+ degrees centigrade, and people move indoors into their air-conditioned environments. However, the labourers continue working.

Therefore, the one way to be distinctive was to offer construction companies a solution that no bank had given them – something useful for their labourers and outdoor workforce in the summer heat.

“The AC vests” are unique vests made of a special cooling fabric, different from the typical safety vests that labourers wear during the summer heat, and from cooling jackets worn by athletes that were available in the market.

With cooling mechanisms and refrigeration facilities being non-existent on construction sites and the relentless hot weather not allowing for cooling material or jackets to remain cool, these vests are designed to work with something that is easily available at every site: Water.  

All that needs to be done is to submerge the vests in water. And the special polymer-blend fabric absorbs up to 340% of its weight in water, distributes it uniformly for around 8 hours of cooling (a typical working shift for a labourer in the UAE) and reduces body temperature by 5-7 degrees (centigrade). The lining contains the water within the vests, keeping them dry on the outside.