Bodyworx & Paint Professional is repositioning its publication to unite the collision repair and refinishing industry's workforce initiatives, promote skilled careers to younger audiences, and give technicians, painters, educators, companies and organizations a stronger, consistent voice across multiple media platforms.
- Publication relaunch: Bodyworx & Paint Professional has adopted a new name and logo, putting painters alongside collision repair professionals at the center of the publication.
- Workforce focus: The publication is making attracting and retaining technicians and painters its central mission, rather than treating workforce development as a secondary industry priority.
- Broader audience: Content will target young people, students, parents, teachers and guidance counsellors to update perceptions of collision repair careers.
- Industry collaboration: Apprenticeship programs, school partnerships and successful workforce initiatives from shops, MSOs, suppliers, insurers, OEMs and associations will be brought together and shared.
- Editorial expansion: The publication will use magazines, digital platforms, social media, video, events and schools, supported by a new Editorial Advisory Board representing industry stakeholders.
It’s time to stop talking about our people problem and start fixing it.
Bodyworx & Paint Professional is taking on one job: make collision repair and refinishing a career young people want to join, a career skilled people want to stay in and a career they’re proud to talk about. We’re going after it with everything we have.
For years, this industry has poured time, money and good intentions into attracting and retaining people. Suppliers have programs. Associations have programs. Repair networks, schools, OEMs, insurers and individual shops have programs.
There is some great work being done, but it’s scattered across the industry, reaching different audiences with different messages at different times. We don’t need more fragments. We need to bring the best of what this industry is already doing to one place, give it a clear and consistent voice and then send it everywhere modern media allows us to go. That’s what the new Bodyworx & Paint Professional is built to do.
You’ll notice the change right on the cover. We have a new name and a new logo, and painters are now right there with Bodyworx. Painters have always been part of this publication, but we’re putting them front and centre because this is their industry and their publication too.
We want technicians and painters to see themselves in these pages. We want to celebrate their skills, accomplishments and careers. We want them sharing our stories because they’re proud of what they do and want other people to know about it.
But talking to the people already inside collision repair isn’t enough. We need to reach the 16-year-old who has never considered becoming a painter. The student who loves cars and technology but doesn’t know where that interest could take them. The parent who still believes university is the only route to a successful career. The teacher or guidance counsellor who may know very little about the collision repair industry of 2026. We have to show them what we see.
This is an industry working with ADAS, EVs, computerized measuring, diagnostics, sophisticated refinishing systems and vehicles that become more complex every year. It offers skilled careers, advancement and the opportunity to build a business. Yet much of the public perception of collision repair is stuck decades in the past. The industry has changed. The story being told about it hasn’t kept up. We’re going to tell that story, and we want the entire industry telling it with us.
If you have a great apprenticeship program, we want it. If you’re doing something successful with a high school or college, share it. If you have a young painter doing remarkable work, introduce us. If you have a technician whose career could change a parent’s perception of the trades, we want to tell that story. It doesn’t matter whether it comes from an independent shop, MSO, banner, supplier, insurer, OEM, school or association. A strong tide lifts all boats.
Bodyworx & Paint Professional will be the place where those efforts come together and the media engine that takes them beyond our industry. Magazine. Website. Digital. Social. Video. Events. Schools. And whatever comes next.
We’re also establishing an Editorial Advisory Board so the people who live this industry can help guide where we take it. Technicians and painters need a strong voice in this effort, alongside educators and the companies and organizations that depend on them.
Attracting and retaining people can no longer be a “want to have,” something we agree is important and get around to when there’s time or money left in the budget. For Bodyworx & Paint Professional, it is the reason we exist.
One focus. One gathering point. One industry putting its weight behind a message we should have been shouting for years:
This is a great industry. These are great careers. And we need to make damn sure people
know it.
