Brief shared by Tommy Hilfinger. The brief was simple: Help us invent a new category of fashion. A brief that brought about disruption in the Fashion Industry.

1. One in five people on the planet have a disability.
But there’s never been a fashion line designed for them…until now.
This is a story of our partnership with Tommy Hilfiger to design, develop and
co-create an entirely new category of clothing for people with disabilities.
But we didn’t stop there. We didn’t do it alone.
Together with the help of 1500 people with disabilities (PWDs) we
reimagined the end-to-end clothes shopping experience:
• Creating a totally inclusive marketing and advertising campaign
• Ensuring accessibility across all stages of the customer journey
• Building the first Alexa shopping skill designed for PWDs
Our work has transformed our client’s internal team into the company’s
innovation engine, breathing new life into the Tommy Hilfiger brand.
All while helping make the world a more inclusive place.
INTRODUCING TOMMY HILFIGER ADAPTIVE,
THE CLOTHING LINE THAT CHANGED
FASHION FOREVER
I have firsthand experience with children with autism ... I couldn’t believe
(adaptive clothing) hadn’t been done before, so I said, ‘we have to do it.’

2. We all get dressed every day. Usually with ease.
For people with disabilities, simple closures like zippers and buttons, and narrow
necklines or pant legs make independent dressing torturous, if not impossible.
Despite $65B in spending power and a desire to be marketed to, just like any
other consumer group, people with disabilities were being ignored.
Our clients at Tommy Hilfiger were troubled by the realization they were leaving out
an entire group of people - counter to their identity as fashion innovators. So they
established a small task force to investigate the opportunity.
What started as a small passion project quickly became something more complex,
and they came to us with a question:
How do we do it?
They wanted to build an adaptive business, but were unsure where or how to start.
There was one little problem. Adaptive clothing for adults didn’t yet exist.
OUR BRIEF WAS SIMPLE: HELP US INVENT
A NEW CATEGORY OF FASHION
We needed an innovative creative partner to make this happen.

3. There were big, significant reasons adaptive clothing was not yet ‘a thing.’
Similar to the plus size industry ten years before, the traditional fashion business had
little appetite for challenging convention, especially when it came to notions of scarcity
and standards of beauty. We’d need to change how an exclusive industry thinks about
inclusion.
We saw three challenges standing in the way of Tommy’s success:
DISRUPTION IS DIFFICULT
Despite the fact that nearly 20% of people in the United States have a disability,
most brands in fashion ignore the community in their designs.
Financial/Structural
While there was a market for adaptive
clothing, there was little built-in demand.
We’d have to create a language and
educate customers.
R&D costs would be significant and new
machinery would have to be bought, while
keeping prices on par with non-adaptive
items.
Cultural
In the social media age, getting it wrong
could be worse than not trying at all; no
brand wants its own “Pepsi moment.”
We’d have to be humble and in a state of
constant learning. It meant leaving the
whole brand vulnerable to attack and
constantly having our motives questioned.
Organizational
Despite Tommy’s personal experience,
the company had little tolerance for risk or
changes to the status quo.
The use of outside resourcing for product
development was highly irregular, if not
frowned upon. And as with most fashion
brands, image making is a Tommy core
competency, run almost entirely in-house.

4. When we looked for inclusive marketing inspiration, we saw very little progress had
been made.
Celebrated marketing efforts to date had confused diverse casting (a good first step)
with truly inclusive marketing. We’d need people with disabilities (PWDs) to be part of
everything we’d do and at the center of our efforts.
When we viewed our marketing challenge through the lens of disability, we saw how
much work was ahead of us:
If we redesigned the clothes we’d need to fix the advertising - so PWDs could see it
If we fixed the advertising we’d have to fix the site - so PWDs could read it
If we fixed the site, we’d have to fix the ordering process - so PWDs could buy it
If we fixed the ordering process we’d have to fix shipping - so PWDs could open it
If we fixed shipping we’d have to fix customer service - so PWDs could return it
And so on.
Our Tommy clients agreed with our commitment to end-to-end inclusivity.
If we were going to do this, we were going to do it right.
A COMPLEX DESIGN CHALLENGE
My life is a triangle trying to fit into a circle.

5. What I loved about the project was that our feedback was solicited.
So often, we as PWDs are told what is best for us. I felt like Tommy
Hilfiger really wanted to hear what I had to say.
November 2017
We distributed care packages for
men, women and parents of children
with disabilities.
December 2017
We established an online community
with homework assignments and
video challenges on five core
themes, plus discussion forums.
If we were to have credibility in the space, we would need PWDs involved at every
stage of the design process, continually contributing to and evaluating our efforts.
RESEARCH GAVE US OUR MANTRA:
“NOTHING ABOUT US, WITHOUT US”
Our research wasn’t just about the clothes or the adaptations. It became a fully
integrated exploration of customer experience, from the use of technology and
AI to the use of social media and ecommerce.
We connected with consumers throughout 2017 and 2018, online and in person.
By end of 2018 our community had grown to over 1500 people across the United
States and around the world. We simply would not have permission or support for
this project without their input.

6. I would really enjoy the opportunity to continue to help this project grow and evolve and really involve
everyone who can benefit from it. I hope you consider keeping me on board for more input!
The core insight behind all our efforts is simple.
Inclusive design is better design.
New, diverse voices make designs more innovative.
Innovative designs encourage new and diverse voices.
We recognized three truths rooted in our use of inclusive design:
OUR BELIEF:
INCLUSION SPARKS INNOVATION
The Original Design Thinkers
People with disabilities have had to ‘hack’
a world not designed for them and solve
problems we never would have considered.
Edge Cases → Universal Application
Innovations like Velcro, Siri and the
typewriter, were originally designed and
used to address specific needs, but quickly
found additional mainstream uses.
Innovations, Not Adaptations
The word ‘adapt’ means to ‘modify’ but
we were improving on the status quo,
not trying to adhere to it.

7. When I saw the picture with the pants that open at the bottom for people who use
AFOs I teared up. The pictures made me realize how much of a struggle getting
dressed can be.
WE CO-CREATED 7 INNOVATIONS, WHICH ARE
INCLUDED IN ALMOST 1,500 GARMENTS
1. Adjustable hems to accommodate limb differences
2. Double plackets in pants to assist a seated wearer with opening and closing
3. Easy open necklines for pulling shirts over head - especially important for caregivers
4. Magnetic buttons that replace traditional buttons; they are small, strong and secure
5. One-handed zippers that ‘click’ together at the base and can be pulled apart
6. Seated wear back openings which bring comfort and ease of dressing
7. Wide leg openings that accommodate leg braces and make jeans wearable
We addressed dexterity/mobility issues and then developed solutions for seated
(wheelchair) users and people with medical devices.
Customer input helped us improve in-market designs (button placement, quieter velcro,
smaller magnets) and identify new innovations for the pipeline (bras and underwear).
The best measure of an innovation is the desire for broader use. We plan to launch our
most popular innovations, such as the magnetic zipper, in ‘non adaptive’ items as well.

8. FIRSTS: INCLUSIVE MARKETING AND
SHOPPING FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
In our line of work, everyone claims to be the first at something.
Beyond the clothes, we were the first at five things:
One, the most inclusive advertising campaign in fashion history.
• Our (blind) director, James Rath, built a crew with personal experience with disability.
• Our talent was cast by passion, not disability, through organizations like dance
companies and surf therapists.
• Our script was filmed, then thrown out in favor of our cast’s own words.
• Our content was totally accessible via closed caption and audio description,
setting a new standard for social content like Instagram posts.
Two, a site designed to the highest standards of online accessibility.
Three, retrained customer service reps who could address specific audience needs.
Four, partnerships with Amazon and macys.com as the first adaptive fashion brand.
Five, the first Alexa voice skill allowing people to easily sort and shop by their disability.
It made me realize that something that is material can promote positive emotions
as independence is so important. Looking good makes you feel good

9. Many do not take the time to listen about my condition. Sometimes I feel that
if the world was more empathetic and made the decision to work WITH the
Awareness
Tommy Adaptive has 1B+ impressions, 700M+ Press impressions, 30M+ social
impressions, 250M+ Paid media impressions, engagement with emails 70% higher
than Tommy Now - the brand’s prior record-setter for innovation.
Purchase
85% of Adaptive households are totally new to the Tommy brand and nearly half of
customers who bought adaptive also purchased non-adaptive product.
Beyond Adaptive
Our research shows our effort having greater impact on the Tommy brand overall:
2 out of 3 able-bodied people engaged with Tommy Hilfiger or talked about the brand
after learning about Tommy Adaptive.
Our social posts featuring adaptive designs are the most liked within the Tommy
franchise. And 1/3 of customer service calls are from people saying, ‘thank you.’
WE’RE HAVING IMPACT ACROSS THE
ENTIRE TOMMY HILFIGER BRAND

10. One, to those making these clothes, thank you for taking a bold leap into this
space. Two, to the other fashion companies, it’s time to get in the adaptive
game—we’ll thank you with our loyalty…and our wallets. And three, if any of you
are unsure about the next step, just ask one of us.
We’ve brought inclusion to an industry that prides itself on exclusion,
with an ambition for inclusive design to become the next must-have in fashion.
As we’ve learned with Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive, inclusive design isn’t just a product,
it’s a process that takes us from diverse casting to true co-creation.
Through our efforts with Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive, we’ve given the organization
greater permission to take risks. Our Adaptive team is now regarded as a center of
excellence for innovation within the company, and has created new standards for
customer-centric design.
We’ve reinterpreted the Tommy Hilfiger DNA for a new generation, celebrating
individuality, optimism, and breaking conventions.
Our Adaptive collection is now in its 7th season with no sign of slowing down.
But while we’re the first to change the game, we hope we won’t be the last.
A DEFINING MOMENT FOR THE
FASHION INDUSTRY