First Freedom Wear Meetup held in New York City

We held our first Freedom Wear Meetup in New York City on June 25th, 2014.

Who came:

We had 6 highly engaged participants, including: the founder / inventor of Quikiks (the patented, hand-free, step in step out shoe); a founder of a soon-to-be-released clothing line targeted to the aging population; a Fashion / Design Professor interested in teaching a class / detailing a syllabus for a ‘Freedom Wear’ class around a very specific need/situation; a fashion / entrepreneur who has personal experience looking for / adapting existing clothes because of her disabilities, and a marketing professional interested in the aging market. 

What we talked about:

We had a lively discussion sharing our backgrounds, experiences and visions, and touched on a number of opportunity areas that might warrant further discussion and exploration. For example:

Problems:

We began to discuss the full range of problems vis a vis dressing / undressing: Clinical (MS, Parkinson’s, Spinal injury etc.) as well as functional (difficulty flexing joints, tremors, stiffness, lack of coordination, etc.). In our next session we plan to take a more structured approach to mapping out all of these need states / problem areas.

• Feel free to add clinical / functional need states / problem areas in the comments below.

Workarounds:

We talked about current workarounds which are adopted by the various targets (aging, limited motion, disabilities etc) and also existing products (ie wrap around skirts) that are currently being adopted / adapted by this target. We plan to flesh out both a comprehensive list of workarounds, as well as existing clothing products that are being adopted / adapted by this target. In addition we plan to review current products being marketed for this target / use-case.

• Feel free to add workarounds, as well as existing products being adopted / adapted in the comments section below.

Responsive clothing:

In addition to talking about ways clothing can be designed to accommodate mobility / dexterity limitations, we had a lively discussion about the concept of ‘Responsive Clothing’: clothing which, whether through structural design or embedded technology, provides feedback that improves posture, or balance, for example.  (see  B-Shoe) 

• Feel free to add ideas from ways clothing can provide feedback in the comments section below.

Clothing types:

We discussed a range of clothing items, from shoes & socks to dresses, skirts, pants etc.  Underwear / Bras came up quite a bit as ‘pain points.’ In the future we plan to explore all types of clothing in order to prioritize opportunity areas.

• Feel free to add your clothing pet peeves in the comments section below.  What one item of clothing should we be focusing on?

Design students:

We talked about ways to engage Design Students in designing for this cohort / need state. How to get designers to put themselves in the place of people with ‘Freedom Wear” problems / issues?  Designers tend to design for themselves. How to get a designer to experience what it feels to sit in a wheelchair all day?

Fabrics:

In addition to design / function we discussed fabrics, for example the fabric that NEVER needs to be washed!  We plan to explore fabric pro / cons vis a vis this cohort / need state in the future.

• Feel free to add any experience you have had with different fabrics (positive and negative) in the comments section below.

Future steps:

As this was our first meeting, we focused primarily on getting to know each other. We plan to support each other in any way possible, join forces to collect information / research about the Freedom Wear target and need state, and possibly, in the future collaborate to address the needs of a very specific population, for example people living with MS.  

• If you have MS, or know anyone with MS, feel free to add your Freedom Wear / MS story, problem, solution, work-around or “I wish….” in the comments section below.