For Two Years Running, ESAB Sponsors 2026 “Blue Collar Tour”
As part of the ESAB Future Fabricators program, ESAB announced that it will again sponsor the “Blue Collar Tour” featuring Western Welding Academy, continuing their shared mission to increase interest and awareness among high school students in the skilled trades. The 2026 tour starts in January in Stratton, Colorado, and includes 31 total stops in 21 states before concluding in mid-March.
More than 4,000 students directly participated in 31 Blue Collar Tour events last year, and social media content generated during the tour earned millions of views, further expanding its reach. The ESAB Blue Collar Tour stops at high schools across the country and engages students through welding demonstrations, product and swag giveaways, Q&A sessions with professional welders, and best bead student welding contests.
ESAB supports the Blue Collar Tour with application engineers and sales representatives who share their own career experiences and assist with welding demonstrations. Student engagement activities at each stop include opportunities to TIG or Stick weld using ESAB’s Renegade VOLT™ ES 200i battery-powered welder. ESAB also provides more than $50,000 in products and swag, including t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, and welding posters. Every participating school receives a Victor® oxy-acetylene outfit, and winners of student welding contests can earn an automatic welding helmet.
“ESAB is proud to be returning as a sponsor of this year’s Blue Collar Tour and expanding the impact of its Future Fabricators Program,” says Albert Miller, U.S. Vice President of Distribution Sales, ESAB. “Through the excitement and education of tour events, we help students, parents and school counselors understand that welding is a great career with many avenues for progressional growth.”
“If we’re ever going to have a chance at influencing the youth and really shaping their desire to be successful in life, we’re going to have to get down on their level, eye to eye with them, and reach them through social media and the Blue Collar Tour,” says Tyler Sasse, founder of Western Welding Academy. “Organizing a tour of this magnitude takes a team, and the love that ESAB puts into promoting and supporting the tour multiplies the impact of Western Welding Academy’s efforts.”
The Blue Collar Tour will feature an expanded celebration of the skilled trades on February 13 at ESAB’s manufacturing and distribution facility in Denton, Texas. The event will bring together students and instructors from high schools in the Denton and greater Dallas–Ft. Worth area, welding influencers, tours of the ESAB facility, along with food and entertainment.
Road Trip for the Future
For five years, the Blue Collar Tour has traveled across the country with representatives from Western Welding Academy, a widely recognized trade school based in Gillette, Wyoming. Founded by pipe welders, the school offers a 960-hour pipe welding course and maintains a strong social media presence among young people interested in learning a trade. In 2025, the tour generated more than 3.3 million social media impressions in just 60 days, while 56 media outlets and news stations provided coverage (see story in the Chicago Tribune). ESAB reached an additional 500,000 viewers through its own social media channels.
“I have found that I can teach for years and still not excite my students about joining the trades as much as this event does,” said Luis Guerrero, WWA instructor at School District U-46 in Elgin, Illinois. “Without skilled tradespeople, many professions would not exist. The Blue Collar Tour helps students internalize this message, showing them the potential they possess, and high school is the best place to start.”
“I love the passion of the Blue Collar Tour,” said Lou Jensen, who won an ESAB Savage A41 automatic helmet in 2025 for making the best weld bead at the Elgin stop. “It’s neat to see people getting back into the trades, and it’s great to be a part of it. I am good with my hands, so welding just made sense.”
About ESAB
ESAB is a world leader in fabrication technology. For more than 100 years ESAB has transformed industries built by fabricators, providing complete workflow solutions through a diverse portfolio of products from more than 40 trusted brands in welding and cutting. From industrial demands to repair and maintenance, innovators around the world rely on ESAB’s portfolio to shape the future of fabrication.
