How Primark is opening doors for disabled people on the High Street through its new adaptive clothing range
Today is the day when Primark’s latest venture into adaptive clothing hits its stores. Its adaptive fashion range includes 49-pieces for men and women, based on its best-seller items and designed with needs of disabled people in mind. Through the collection, Primark aims to create affordable fashion which quite literally works for every body.
Fashion designer and disability campaigner, Victoria Jenkins, created the collection with feedback from a range of disabled people about their experiences of putting on and wearing the clothing. Primark has also partnered with a number of experts and organisations like Dr. Shani Dhanda, AccessAble, Purple Tuesday and Business Disability Forum as it works to become a more inclusive retailer.
Business Disability Forum Business Partner, Rebecca Elliott (Becky), was a member of the focus group for the new adaptive clothing range and attended the official launch of the new range last week.
Opening doors
Primark has been working with Business Disability Forum since 2023 and won BDF’s Disability Smart Inclusive Design Award 2024 for its adaptive lingerie range. Becky has worked closely with the fashion retailer, offering advice on accessibility for both customers and employees. Becky said:
“When I first met Primark, I was immediately impressed by the depth of thought and strategic approach to ensure all areas of their internal and external focus were addressing disability inclusion – from shops to warehouses and customer service to their own employees. They were extremely proactive and wanted to learn to make the experiences for their teams and their customers even better. They were focused on opening doors and making genuine space for conversations about disability and for people with disability to shop with them and work with them.”
As a wheelchair user herself, Becky is very aware of the barriers that some disabled people face when shopping for clothes. Becky said:
“As a customer, I have already experienced the Primark inclusion in action when being shuffled from the back of a long queue to the front to use their dedicated accessible checkout. As a disabled person in a wheelchair this was appreciated. Back when I was on my crutches, the ability to know I wouldn’t have to queue would have been utterly life changing for me. I have set down many baskets/trollies in shops because I simply couldn’t wait and stand in a queue to buy the purchases I wanted to make. Primark don’t make you wait and in fact, they part the waves of people to let you get in and get out which quite literally removes the barrier for me as a disabled person where mobility and pain are my biggest challenges.”
Becky welcomed the opportunity to be part of the focus group who got to trial the new clothes. Becky said:
“I was so pleased to hear that the new range would include clothes for everyone, and adaptations for so many disabilities and health conditions.
“I was sent a selection of the products to try out including the much-envied cropped trench coat – designed for seated wheelchair users – the perfect length, its style belies the additional functionality of the adaptations.
“I also tested the green pyjamas (and dressing gown set). Some of the adaptations were so well thought out, I had to attend the focus group to fully grasp how beneficial those particular features would be to me! For example, the dressing gown has pockets which have a popper inside to seal the opening and prevent things falling out when you are seated or lying down.
Walking the catwalk
BDF’s Customer Taskforce Manager, Lucy Ruck, was asked to model items from the new range at an internal launch for the new collection. Lucy, who recently modelled for BDF’s Disability Smart Image Bank, is an amputee and knows how challenging it can be to find clothes to fit over her prosthetic limb.
Lucy said:
“I remember watching Victoria Jenkins from Unhidden on Dragons Den, some years ago, and thinking about how more clothes are made for dogs, than disabled people. I love my dog, but this just doesn’t make sense!
“Skip forward to January 2025, and here I am being whisked off to a prelaunch of Primark’s adaptive clothing range created in partnership with Victoria Jenkins. I was invited to walk the catwalk, with a range of other disabled individuals, some of whom work for Primark.
“The whole experience, from being invited, the event itself and the interactions I’ve had with them since have been just joyous. They were considerate about everyone’s accessibility needs for transport, accommodation for those who needed to stay overnight, and just generally, anything they could help with. This comes from a culture of kindness, and that shouldn’t be underestimated.”
Leading the way
Primark is one of several clothing retailers which are leading the way on adaptive clothing. Becky and Lucy are hopeful that many more retailers will follow their example.
Becky said:
“The launch of this new adaptive clothing range has undoubtedly raised awareness of the competitive edge that inclusion can bring to businesses and started many more conversations about disability – in design and production teams, in the retail world and in general about how inclusive design can actually benefit everyone. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Lucy said:
“When one company does something, others realise they are missing out on a market here… We’ve seen this a lot in the banking sector, where they’re competitive around accessibility. And it’s going to be great to see the other high street retailers do the same thing.”
Go to Primark’s website to read more about their adaptive clothing range.
Read BDF’s consumer research to find out more about how accessibility impacts the purchasing decisions of disabled customers.