This is the most common complaint about pinnies and it is entirely predictable before anything is ordered.

Hue is what you notice indoors

Held at arm’s length in good light, two swatches are separated by their hue — red is not orange, navy is not black. That is a real difference and it is easy to see when the light is good and the distance is short.

It is also the first thing you lose.

Value is what survives

At distance, in poor light, and especially wet, the eye stops resolving hue and works almost entirely on light and dark. A soaked garment darkens, so both of your colours move down the scale at once.

Two mid-tones that were clearly different now sit on top of each other. A light and a dark stay a light and a dark.

The shirt underneath is part of the problem

An open mesh over a dark shirt takes on the shirt. A pale pinnie can read several steps darker on the pitch than it did as a swatch, which quietly removes the contrast you chose it for.

So the pair has to work over the kit that will actually be worn under it, not against a white background.

The test that costs nothing

Photograph both swatches together. Turn the picture black and white. Look at it.

If they separate, order. If they do not, no amount of naming the colours will help. We run this before quoting and send you the image.

What to do when your palette is fixed

Brand colours are often two mid-tones, and you may not be able to change them. Use them on the branding panel, which is read close up, and put the garment colours where they have to be readable at distance.

A contrast hoop or a panel is also a legitimate way to separate two groups when the two base colours have to stay.