When international experts on nuclear security studied the problem this year of "casual theft" of bomb-making materials from nuclear facilities, they came up with an unusual recommendation: Eliminate pockets on the workers' uniforms.
Despite hundreds of billions spent on sophisticated theft-detection systems both here and in Russia, "pockets are definitely an issue," says Matthew Bunn, co-principal investigator for the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "I can think of at least one case in which the nuclear material was carried out in a guy's pockets."
Mr. Bunn co-wrote a report that appeared in the spring 2013 issue of the Journal of Nuclear Materials Management that blamed insiders for "nearly all of the documented thefts of highly enriched uranium or separated plutonium…Like the casino industry, both pharmaceutical producers and distributors require pocketless uniforms."
A pocketless uniform. VF Imagewear
Over the past couple of years, high-tech, electronics and automotive industries have been banning pockets on certain production lines. The trend is called "cleanroom style." Casino workers who handle money can't have pockets. Neither can tollbooth operators and transit workers who handle cash.
The state of Connecticut's new medical-marijuana law, by way of Sec. 21a-408-53, requires "pocketless clothing for all production-facility employees working in an area containing marijuana."
Pocketless uniforms are "a really nice area of growth" in an otherwise static industry, says David Crace, vice president of marketing at VF Imagewear Inc., a Nashville, Tenn., uniform manufacturer with $600 million in annual sales.
When placing pockets, "we start with the demands of the job," Mr. Crace says. Mechanics who spend a good chunk of their workday on their backs under machinery still get front pockets. Workers on sensitive, computerized assembly lines mostly get none. Anyone who has ever secreted cash in an underwear waistband, threaded a house key onto running-shoe laces, or stowed a credit card in a brassiere knows the problems posed by pocketlessness.
Universal Overall Co., a custom uniform manufacturer in Chicago, boasts that it can quickly crank out custom pocket-free pants in waist sizes 26 to 64, and no-pocket shirts from small to XXXXXXXXXXL, in just about any color.
Pocket-free garments protect both worker and employer, says Allen Farkas, the company's sales director. Workers in a munitions plant don't want to collect gunpowder in their clothes. Meat processors would prefer not to bring home an apron full of offal, or to lose their phones in vats of sausage meat. Even microscopic pocket lint can cause costly damage to computer components. And possession of a pocketful of pot remains problematic.
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Pockets, however, in one form or another, have been a continuous feature of the world's clothing for centuries, and every effort to eliminate them draws pockets of resistance. The first pockets were typically pouches attached to belts. One variant is the Scottish sporran, the purse that hangs in front of men's kilts. The modern pocket appeared in the 1700s, in jackets for Europeans who wanted easier access to stashed cash, according to a history compiled by Britain's Victoria and Albert Museum.
Ever since, people and pockets have gone hand-in-glove. Except maybe in certain Brooks Brothers dress shirts famously lacking breast pockets in which nerds might be tempted to put plastic pocket protectors for their many pens. Among the fashion industry's most frequently heard consumer complaints is that women's suit jackets don't have inside pockets, and men's pants don't have enough pockets.
In traditional men's haberdashery, "the fewer pockets on a shirt, the more formal it becomes," says Max Wastler, a men's fashion commentator and founder of the blog allplaidout.com. "But pocketless trousers I can't even fathom…not a good look."
In the 1970s, some European designers, aiming for a slimming effect, introduced pocketless men's slacks. They were immediately rejected by American males of the era with nowhere to put their breath spray and plastic combs.
Bob Michals of the Palm Beach Post branded the foreign designers "sartorial sadists…who if given the final word, would see built-in storage bins banished from our bodies forever." But now we have the man purse.
One of the most famous pocketless uniforms debuted on the original "Star Trek" television series. The inhabitants of the Starship Enterprise couldn't stand them, either. And they still can't.
"I hated my uniform…it was skintight, it made you sweat and…why were there no pockets? How do you work with no pockets in the 24th century?" Jonathan Frakes, the actor who played Commander William T. Riker on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," groused on NPR this month.
On the show, he said, "You stood around the whole time with no pockets…You couldn't put your hands in your pockets, which is a great acting choice, tried and true for 100 years."
Erik Williams wants a Connecticut medical marijuana license, so he is learning to grow pot without pockets. The chief executive of Biltin Advanced Propagation says workers in its high-tech, indoor "grove" in Colorado wear "performance scrubs," with room for tools, gloves, water gauge, pens, paper and a walkie-talkie. But Connecticut's new medical marijuana regulations require everyone who works near weed—growers, processors, security guards, even the receptionist—to go pocketless.
In an April hearing, company representatives had suggested that pocketless clothing be worn only "from the point of harvest on," since growers have so much to carry. But the rule stands, so "We're figuring out ways to best work within those parameters," Mr. Williams said. Among the ideas: utility belts, such as Batman has. Or buckets.
At Honda's U.S. plants, workers have gone far beyond pocketless: Painters wear long pocketless smocks, fuel lines on Honda's natural gas-powered car are installed by workers in lint-free gloves and welders wear Kevlar sleeves and gloves. "We're uniform in the way we approach this," says Honda North America spokesman Ron Lietzke, who enjoys puns. Individual employees make suggestions on changes that will avoid damage to the vehicles without totally inconveniencing workers, and the workforce "follows suit," he added.
Some casino employers are considering removable or clear plastic pouches, said Tom Swoik, spokesman for the Illinois Casino Gaming Association. But in most counting rooms these days "you can't even bring a Coke can in," he said.
"We could put pocketless scrubs on sale for 99% off and I still don't think they would move," says Kate LeCompte, who owns Freedom Uniforms, a medical uniform retailer in Lakewood, N.J. The newest thing among hospital workers, she said, is "cargo" scrubs, which have even more pockets—one on each thigh.
Write to Elizabeth Williamson at elizabeth.williamson@wsj.com