What is adaptive clothing?

Louise Grimmer, University of Tasmania; Gary Mortimer, Queensland University of Technology; Jason Pallant, Swinburne University of Technology, and Jessica Pallant, Swinburne University of Technology

Adaptive clothes are specially designed for disabled people. This can mean providing one-handed zippers on shoes, replacing buttons with magnetic closures, or designing clothing and footwear so you can get dressed while in a seated position.

The key to effective adaptive clothing is catering for the vast array of needs different consumers have while maintaining style and fashionability. Recently, fashion brands have begun to provide on-trend clothing with new styles, combining fashion and technology for people with a variety of disabilities.

Different iterations of adaptive shoes also aim to make the process of tying laces easier or remove the need altogether. Zips can replace traditional laces, enabling shoes to be done up one-handed.

Another design is Nike’s Go FlyEase, a sneaker utilizing a hinge design. The wearer steps into the shoe and the hinge opens, holding the shoe in place.

The first FlyEase shoes proved popular with a wider audience, creating supply issues and a large resale market. This shoe is an example of Universal Design – a principle which proposes products should be designed in such a way that anybody can use them.

Many people with autism are sensitive to certain fabrics or to tags and clothing labels. Adaptive brands, such as JAM the Label, screen-print labels, avoid physical tags and offer a range of hypersensitive bamboo and linen fabrics.

Baby onesies and traditional bathers which cover the stomach are not always practical for everyone. Their design can be restrictive to people who are tube feed or use ostomy pouches.

Among other designs, Australian adaptive clothing manufacturer Wonsie sells garments with stomach access for both children and adults who require frequent access to the stomach, meaning medical devices need not be a barrier to fashion.

In the past, adaptive products were often designed to be unobtrusive, such as black wheelchairs or flesh-colored prostheses and hearing aids. But this is changing too.

3D printing and advanced manufacturing are allowing for great flexibility and customized designs of various devices and fashion items.Open Bionics used 3D printing to create the Hero Arm, a bionic arm powered by muscle movements. By using 3D printing to customize the arm to the user, the company is also able to provide users options around designs ranging from colors to branded content: a blend of function and fashion.

Read more: Tilly Lockey: the girl with bionic arms

The technology behind adaptive fashion is not limited to product design: it is also used in sales and marketing, too.

Every Human’s Unpaired system allows consumers to purchase single shoes while searching by size, width, and a range of adaptive features such as easy to put on, and friendly for those who are wearing ankle/foot orthosis.This can benefit people who have different sized or shaped feet or with prosthetics, where traditional shoes would not suit.

While it seems like a relatively simple idea, this requires brands to have more sophisticated ordering systems. Products must be itemized individually, rather than in traditional pairs, and tagged with additional features such as left or right shoe, and which adaptive features each side possesses, so consumers can search by their needs.

Like many consumers, disabled people simply want to be able to shop in physical or online stores and find the clothing they like and that fits. So while technology is helping retailers offer an increasing range of adaptive clothing, it is not the only solution.The next step is to not only think about the clothing itself but also about the wearer and how they want to shop.

All fashion brands should be embracing adaptive clothing and changing their items to the vast array of consumer needs: the technology is already here.