Welcome to FirstLine, LLC, a wholesaler of medical gloves and hand protection accessories to the EMS and medical markets. If you are new to FirstLine, LLC and The GloveGirls, or our website, let us start by sharing our Company Mission Statement with you:

FirstLine was founded in March of 1997 by Colette R. Perches. Her previous career in purchasing clean room gloves for IBM and Applied Magnetics facilitated her meeting several key players in the glove industry. She was recruited by a start up glove company, Absolute Quality Leadership, to manage all day to day operations in support of the clean room glove market. In her capacity as Vice President of Operations, she met both customers and suppliers key to growing the business.

During her tenure at this company, a customer approached her, who was utilizing the company's clean room gloves in an EMS application. Possessing limited knowledge of the medical glove industry, she began research to determine the difference in the quality of a medical glove and a glove manufactured for the clean room industry.

What she learned was that clean room gloves were manufactured in a more stringent quality controlled environment, also undergoing additional processing for cleanliness required to meet tough particle and extractable standards of the Electronics industry. In addition, these gloves met much higher quality standards, resulting in fewer failures in the field for the end user.

Her goal was to provide the quality of a clean room glove, approved for a medical application by the FDA, to the EMS market. The challenge truly was how to provide a higher quality glove that was costly to manufacture, to the EMS market at a savings. The decision was made to sell direct to the end user, thereby providing improved quality along with savings realized by eliminating the middle man distribution channel.

At this juncture, Colette Perches started FirstLine, LLC in support of the EMS market. Today, 9 years later, FirstLine designs all gloves with paramedic field input for support of the EMS industry. Manufactured with state of the art technology, FirstLine gloves are double polymer coated to increase shelf life. In addition, all FirstLine gloves are low in protein and low in chemicals, reducing exposure to latex proteins and chemicals attributed to the rise in allergies now confronting all users wearing latex and latex free gloves.

Always committed to cutting edge technology for the EMS market, FirstLine developed RezTak™, a non stick surface for our nitrile glove line. This custom formulation eliminates the adherence of all tape adhesives, including veniguards, EKG patches, even duct tape, critical to improving dexterity in a field application.

In July of 2002, Colette Perches was appointed to sit on the on the NFPA Committee that oversees the NFPA 1999 Standard for Emergency Medical Services Protective Clothing and Equipment. In 2004, Colette Perches was published in the Journal of Long Term Effects of Medical Implants, co-authoring an article with Dr. Richard Edlich, along with other esteemed EMS colleagues, entitled “Scientific Basis for Selection of Emergency Medical Examination Gloves for the Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics, Firefighters, and Emergency Department Personnel.” In 2005, in a subsequent article published in the journal, FirstLine was recommended by EMS professionals, as the preferred medical glove supplier to the EMS industry recognizing our superior quality and outstanding commitment to end user education.

Today, our glove team supports 11 of the top 25 Fire/ EMS Departments, as well as hundreds of other departments nationwide. Colette’s long standing reputation in the glove industry for being dedicated to providing glove wearers with detailed insider industry information on allergies, glove quality standards, and the glove manufacturing process, earned her the nicknames “glove girl” and “glove guru.” After time, it was determined that GloveGirls was the preferred terminology for FirstLine employees by our customers, thus we decided our website would support that theme.

It is our sincere hope that you find our website educational, informative, and entertaining. For more information on FirstLine, LLC or our products, we may be contacted Pacific Standard Time at 805-688-6768 between the hours of 7:30 and 5:00.

Thank you for your support.

The Glove Team at FirstLine, LLC