The Problem with Boring Scrubs...

The fabric and shape of scrubs does not warrant, in my opinion, patterns such as plaid, stripes, checks, etc that men typically wear. Going beyond that to include camouflage (which exists on scrubs), western themes like horses, lightning, wolves, and such, paisley, and other patterns that subcultures of men wear as a gender norm would look equally goofy on scrubs. I've seen sports-themed scrubs. I haven't seen cartoon-themed ones. Branding to include movies, rock bands, and so forth probably wouldn't work. The market is limited. I'm not sure if you can screen print your own scrubs to include whatever you want on them due to the fabric, but that's easily researched. You could probably embroider anything on them.

Personally, I think scrubs are crap in general. Women can get away with wearing a lot more in a variety of situations so as a culture I'd say it's ok for women to wear floral print, solids, angels, and similar patterns on their scrubs if not just solids as they also wear.

I'm seeing men nurses slowly adopt clothing from other professions that greatly befit the hospital setting, i.e. tactical pants worn by law enforcement, EMS, etc., embroidered polos similar to what you'd see on business casual day in a corporate tower, any kind of pants that actually have a fly, etc.

I don't work directly with patients as a RN anymore once admitted (thank the Lord!), and even now I'm wearing the 5.11 Taclite pants and a casual shirt as I sit in my office waiting for the next person to come to intake. Come on 0600! I typically dress business casual now for work as a dictum from upper management. When I worked in the hospital I wore some manlier scrubs but began adopting the 5.11s described above.

The Art of Manliness

Maybe patterns is the wrong word. Themes might work better. I agree that scrubs are horrific. THey are definitely designed more for women- who have these things called "hips" apparently that hold them up pretty well. On that note, what's wrong with plaid scrubs? I think those would rock!

You Menz - always fussing about your appearance -

This actually has an easy solution. There are plenty of commercially available patterns for scrubs. Find a 'dressmaker' or 'seamstress' - sorry those terms are so (um, er) girlie.... I would say 'tailor', but they charge a lot more. At any rate, if you have one of those - you can have all the original designs you want. You could also make sure that they actually fit the way you want them to.

Be courageous... venture in to a fabric store & take a look at all the fabric selections you have to choose from. You could have scrubs that look like brick or wood planks - srsly. You may even end up launching a nice side business.

OK ... I am female ... but I appreciate the OP's point of view. When my younger brother was about 10 years old, he fantasized about someday owning a black corvetter with flames on the side ... So that it would "look like he was going fast even when he was standing still."

Anyway, one of the units in my hospital adoptdc a jungle theme for its new decor a few years ago. (It's a children's hospital.) Some of the nurses who sewed offered to make everyone scrub tops out of a jungle themed fabric for the grand opening of the new space. The jungle theme worked reasonably well for both women and men. Perhaps other "geographic" themed prints would also work -- "Outer Space" ... "Desert" ... "Beach" ... "Under the Sea" ... etc

Exactly. Anyone want to loan me about $250,000 so I can start a men's scrub business?

I'm female, too. Hope you don't mind me posting in here. I think the male nurses would look really cool in scrubs that looked like what the NASCAR drivers wear.

Solids of certain colors are required in our hospital for each role, so prints are out for me. However, I do agree that there needs to be some companies doing a lot mroe market research for male scrubs. Women have so many cut/trim/shape options compared to the standard v-neck BORING for men. Pockets or no pockets? Wow - what choices!

I always thought a Kung-fu tunic style would be cool for a scrub top (complete with toggle buttons). Might even help deter some of the violent patients.

Why scrubs then? Why not another uniform akin to what the maintenance guys wear? Or EMS? Anything? I'm not sure why we're stuck in a "scrubs box." They're the least functional apparel I've owned. I view them as surgery attire to be worn over or in place of whatever you were wearing before surg

That is a very good point PsychGuy. Why not cargo pants of a certain color and polo shirts? Jackets? Personally I do think the scrubs are handy...I always make sure I have at least 9 pockets. But, like most guys, my scrubs do tend to slide downwards on a regular basis. They are unwieldy in that respect, for sure.