Primark’s adaptive clothing does more for disabled Britons than the government does
Clothing ranges made specifically to work alongside additional needs like stoma bags and wheelchair use are few and far between. But they are a godsend the government could only wish to emulate, writes James Moore
I generally try to avoid endorsing products – I’ve been in journalism long enough to get burned several times. But with Primark’s new range of adaptive clothing, I’m minded to break my own rules.
It isn’t the first time a company has recognised that, yes, there are people in this country for whom everyday clobber doesn’t always work so well. There is a market for clothes that takes account of that fact.
M&S has had an adaptive children’s range for kids for a while. Very and Tommy Hilfiger have offerings for adults but at a higher price point than Primark, a business which made its name through competitive pricing.
I’m happy to say the adaptive range lives up to its ethos. The zip-up hoody designed for wearing seated (I have one on as I write) goes for £18. Ditto the jeans with an elastic waistband and the gilet. Cargo pants with a drawstring are priced at £20.
Price matters in a bad economy that has endured a heavy bout of inflation, especially for disabled people. The costs of being disabled are simply ruinous. The charity Scope puts the average figure at over £1,000 a month. This is made worse by rip-offs. A friend of mine once complained that putting “adaptive” or “disabled” in front of any product added an immediate premium. He showed me a pair of gel-filled wheeling gloves costing nearly £20 which he’d wrecked within a week.
I put the cargo pants and hoody to the test on my equivalent of running, which involves wheeling myself around my local park. The sight of a wheelchair user attacking a hill seems to fry the brains of non-disabled people, and I’m frequently startled by people coming from behind to start putting their hands on me and pushing my chair without so much as a by your leave.
Mercifully, I was left alone while road-testing the clothing range. And it came through this test and the others I put it through with flying colours. The fabric is a particular plus. It’s soft. When you live in a body that hurts more or less constantly – I can’t tolerate socks for much more than an hour sometimes – that matters.
Another bonus: the deep pockets. These are particularly handy when you have to find space for the equivalent of a Tesco pharmacy counter every time you leave the house.
In my case, that’s two types of insulin (I’m a type one autoimmune diabetic), pens for its delivery, needles, three types of pain meds and Haribo sweets to ward off low blood sugar. It’s enough to leave your head spinning. It certainly does that to my obsessive-compulsive brain. I’m lucky that I have a partner who is calm, organised and able to run off a checklist in her head when I’m in a panic to ensure I have the necessary kit.
The zips on the hoody’s arms come in handy when you’ve got a sensor to monitor blood sugar. Its constant monitoring function is pretty good but it sometimes needs to be scanned with a mobile phone. This seems to work better without fabric getting in the way.
The magnetic zip fasteners take a bit of getting used to but, given the amount of grief I’ve had with the regular kind jamming and what have you, I found it was worth putting the work in. A visually impaired friend was particularly taken with the metal circles you use to move them up and down.
I can walk, although I don’t do it well, fall a lot and require a double crutch. The jeans felt odd when I stood up – perhaps because they’re designed for seated wear. I take this as evidence of how well the disabled designers and consultants employed on the project did their work.
The least successful piece was the seated T-shirt. The buttons at the shoulder are good, especially given one of my arms is shorter than the other which can make getting into regular tees a challenge. But I found that, despite its longer back, it hitched up just like a normal T-shirt when I was wearing it for a while. The hoody, with similar adaptations, seemed to work better.
But I’m quibbling. This range is good. I’m not a Primark regular – I’ve not bought clothes for a while, unless you count the over-priced band T-shirts I’m fatally addicted to. That might change. There are other pieces I would like to try.
Scope has said: “Disabled people should have access to fashion that meets their needs at affordable prices. And Primark is leading by example with a new range of accessible clothing.”
Preach. It would obviously be nice if others now picked up the cudgels but I’d still take this as a win. You could easily make the case that this range does more for disabled people than the British state has done for years.
I’m not one of those people who slavishly worship at the temple of the free market. However, while the current nominally progressive government continues with the mix of hectoring and neglect we’ve had to get used to – and don’t even get me started on the horror show of an assisted dying bill – capitalism is stepping up to make life better.
Of course, capitalism is driven by cash. So I hope the range is supported because if it sells, we’ll see more like it, including, potentially, from competitors.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
3Comments