Change of Base
In Technical Design, my team and I were tasked with developing a user-focused adaptable brand. This brand was designed to create clothes that helped our user and his care takers have clothes that fit properly on him and met his needs. Our user was a 5 year old boy with Spina Bifida. He loves to play baseball, sled hockey, and he loves the St. Louis Blues hockey team. Shane and his mother Kelly expressed many different struggles they faced with his clothing. Most of his pants did not fit correctly on him because of his diaper and leg braces. Kelly struggled to find pants other than sweatpants that would meet Shane's needs. Because of their problems, I decided to create an adaptable pair of jeans fit with a sweatpants panel on the back to keep him warm and double separating zippers on each side seam to allow for easier changing.
Design Problem Statement
Based on primary and secondary consumer research, the main objective of this design line is to create functional and need based baseball apparel for Shane, with Spina Bifida. The target consumer is Shane, a five year old boy with Spina Bifida, who plays baseball and sled hockey. Our attention will also be towards Shane's caregiver, Kelly, who struggles to find accessible and affordable apparel that can suit all of Shane's needs. There is an overwhelming need for fashionable and functional apparel among those who are in a wheelchair. Many adaptable designs are not affordable or adaptable enough- often not suited for colder weather or the functions a caregiver has to provide for one with spina bifida. The goal of this design line is to provide adaptive innovations focusing on improving the dressing challenges of Spina Bifida including adjustable waistbands, use of elastic, adaptable closures, catheter or diaper openings, protective foot coverings, pant cuffs that are expandable, and warm materials. To understand the apparel challenges Shane faces with Spina Bifida, our design process will employ user-focused authenticity to ensure Shane's functional needs and Kelly’s parental worries are at the center of the design process, while balancing general aesthetic needs. Because of Shane’s age, a unique challenge to this design will be creating size inclusive clothing that he can grow with.
Competitor Product Research
Adaptive apparel are textile designs that are specifically made to help the needs of people with physical and non-physical disabilities. It is important to recognize these needs and to create them more represented in apparel designs.
This presentation is comparing non-adaptive brands and adaptive brands in aspects of things such as price point, target market, key attributes, and product categories. Gathering this information will aide in our journey to create our own adaptive apparel line.
BRAND CONCEPT & LOGO
Our brand name is Change of Base. It is a play on words of the phrase “change of pace” while incorporating the user's love for baseball. This is perfect for our line because our team is designing adaptive and inclusive garments that are user centered. This is a change of pace from the user's everyday clothing options because he struggles to find inclusive clothing that accommodates his needs.
FLATS
Our 5 flats we created included Adaptable Baseball Pants, Adaptable Feet Coverings, Wheelchair Baseball Backpack, Adaptable Dress Pants, and Adaptable Jeans. We created these based upon our needs and wants of our user. The flats appear in the order as listed to the right.
DESIGN PROCESS
My group and I met with our user and his caregiver a total of four times, twice on zoom and twice in person. For the first zoom meeting, it was important for us to learn about the users disability, what they are seeking in adaptable clothing, and what their specific aesthetic tastes were. For there, we chose to focus on the idea that he needed pants that fit around his braces and that were able to be taken on/off easily for diaper changes. From there, Shane’s caregiver sent our team many pictures and videos of him, his wheelchair, his braces, and him playing baseball. This gave our team an opportunity to visualize the user over the phone.
For the second zoom meeting, we needed to talk about sizing and final design choices before garment construction began. We had the opportunity to present flat sketches and receive feedback from the user's caregiver. We also received a list of measurements and had sizing questions answered.
After constructing prototypes, we had the opportunity to do a first fitting in-person with Shane and his mother. This was amazing because it gave us a much better understanding of his measurements and what needed to be fixed for the future. This was also the first time my group and I had the opportunity to talk to the user directly. Therefore, he had the chance to speak to what he wanted out of this project. After taking notes and pictures, we left with aspects that needed to be improved in each garment.
Once the final garment was done, we had one last in-person fitting. This was crucial to the design process. This allowed our group to make last minute fit changes to the garment. It was also rewarding to see how much the user liked the product, and was excited for the new clothing. Overall, working directly with a user for garment construction was very beneficial for my team and I’s design work, but also being able to be a more open minded designer.
For this design, I decided to challenge myself by creating my pattern in CLO. I first found a CLO render of a pair of men’s jeans on WGSN. After multiple attempts trying to reduce the pattern to scale it to the size of my avatar, I gave up and decided I would transfer the patterns to Illustrator. I adjusted the measurements of each line and then transferred my Illustrator file into CLO as a pattern. After the first fitting, I had to add around one to three inches to each of my patterns so that it could properly fit around the legs of our user. During our second fitting, we noticed that the back waistband of the jeans was hitting low on his rear and back so we increased the rise on the back fleece panel of the jeans.
For the fabric selection, I knew I wanted denim and when looking at the selection I noticed a lot of low quality denim fabrics that did not have the best visual or hand appeal. Luckily, JoAnn was carrying a few bolts of Lucky Brand premium denim and once I saw them I knew I could not chose a lower quality denim over this. I went with a medium wash because I felt like it was the more versatile and common wash for children’s denim. When deciding on a fleece fabric, I decided on mine because it was the thickest and softest combination of sweatpants and I wanted to make sure he would be as warm and comfortable as possible.
For my first prototype, I had functional front pockets on my jeans to make them look “normal” to make him feel like he was fitting in. Kelly did like the idea but they were not fitting well and not functional for him so I sewed them up and made a fake pocket that gave the aesthetic “look” of front pockets while still making it more functional for my user. I also was going to add welt pockets on the thighs of my design but after further discussion I decided against it because at his age he would not necessarily use them. I also had to shorten the jeans, which were initially far too long for the user. For the final garment, I shortened the double separating zippers on either side and left an inch and a half at the bottom underneath the end of the zipper, due to the user’s personal preference.
After a few sizing issues were fixed I was overall satisfied with my final design. I feel that the jeans are well suited for my user and bridge the gap between a normal pair of pants like the user’s peers and a pair of pants that are adaptable and meet the unique needs of the user. I am very proud of the back of the jeans, I think that it was a really smart design choice to add a panel of sweatpants on the rear for comfort and warmth. In the future, I would like to have more accurate measurements of the user from the very start. I think this would have made the CLO pattern making process a lot easier, because at times it felt like I had to do a lot of guesswork on what might work.
CLO Renders & Tech Pack
FINAL GARMENTS
