Madison startup adapts clothes for people with disabilities, differences

When you pick out what to wear each morning, chances are you think about the weather, your plans for the day, maybe even your mood.

But what about how many buttons you’ll need to button, or how hard it might be to pull up a tiny zipper? 

For people who’ve lost dexterity due to aging or have all kinds of other physical, sensory or intellectual differences, those buttons or zippers can be so tricky that putting on button-up shirts or jeans becomes difficult or impossible. 

That’s the problem Hilary Pham set out to solve when she started Equability, a startup that moved to Madison last November when Pham relocated from Champaign, Illinois. Customers mail in or drop off their clothes, and a professional sewist replaces zippers and buttons with closures like Velcro, magnets and snaps for around $12 to $30 per item. 

“We change clothes, so people can too,” the company’s website says. “We adapt clothes to match your lifestyle and clothing style, no matter what phase of life you’re in.” 

The idea for the company came in 2020, when Pham, then an undergrad at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, was in Brazil for a 10-day international business plan competition designed to foster new projects to serve people with disabilities. There, Pham and the other participants spent an hour interviewing a wheelchair rugby player about bad city infrastructure and how hard it can be to reach things since his accident. 

“I just remember, at the very end, he said, ‘You know, my favorite outfit used to be a T-shirt and jeans, and I can’t wear that anymore,’” said Pham, now 26. “I think that really resonated with me. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I didn’t realize that.’”

Back in her hotel room, Pham watched TED Talk after TED Talk on the field she’d just learned was called “adaptive fashion.” Her team, which included college students from four countries, pitched a company that would alter attire to fit clients’ abilities. They even created a prototype by gluing magnets to one teammate’s shirt. 

After the competition, Pham decided to try to turn the idea into reality. She convinced her mom, a health care case manager who’d suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis for years, to let Pham adapt some of her work clothes. 

“My mom is very fiercely independent, and never asks for help, so I was like, ‘Just let me do this.’ And she was like, ‘Fine,’” Pham said. 

The only problem: Pham didn’t know how to sew. 

So she turned to her childhood friend Myia Esper, a fashion school student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, who until recently led design and operations for Equability. When Pham showed her mom the clothes Esper had altered, the response was muted. 

“She was like, ‘Oh, OK,’ which, for an immigrant mother, is the pinnacle of anything (she) could ever say,” Pham laughed. “If she’s satisfied with it,” Pham figured, “I think this is pretty decent.”

‘Why do I have to dress like a patient in a hospital?’

It’s not that there aren’t any premade easy-to-use clothes, said Pham, who has surveyed more than 60 people with disabilities about the clothes they want to wear. The problem, they told her, is that most of the available options are things like nylon balloon pants and sweats. “They’re definitely not fashionable,” Pham said. 

“Why do I have to dress like a patient in a hospital?” one woman asked her.

At the Disability Resource Center, Pham met another young woman who was getting ready to start a new job. “I want to wear the cute Zara floral button-down shirt that everyone else gets to wear to work,’” she told Pham.

That’s why Equability tries to alter clothes so seamlessly that no one but the wearer is the wiser. For button-up shirts, for example, that means leaving the buttons in place even after adding Velcro or snap closures.

“I think people just don’t want to stand out in a crowd,” she said. “They’re like, ‘I just want to keep on wearing the same clothes that I’ve worn, and I don’t want anyone to know that anything has changed.’”

In recent years, some designer brands have added their own adaptive clothing lines. Tommy Hilfiger launched Tommy Adaptive in 2016, offering clothing for children and later for adults. Victoria’s Secret now offers underwear with side closures and bras with magnets.

Meanwhile, some people with disabilities or differences have turned to family members for help. “People have been hacking this together on their own,” Pham said, recalling one person whose aunt sewed a zipper into the inseam of her pants so she could place and remove her catheter more easily, and others whose relatives sewed a zippers in the backs of their shirts. 

Tiny business, big plans

Pham, who has a full-time job as a data analyst for a logistics company, runs Equability from her bedroom in the Atwood house she shares with three roommates. 

In February, she completed the MadWorks Seed Accelerator hosted by co-working center Starting Block and hired her first contract sewist. Now she’s looking to hire another. Business is slow but picking up, she said, with four orders since November.

Customers can ship clothes from across the country or save on shipping fees by dropping them off at Common Threads Family Resource Center at 1717 N. Stoughton Rd. Pham is currently trying to find more local organizations willing to serve as drop-off spots in exchange for 5% of Equability’s fee. 

She’s also started building a collection of pre-adapted secondhand clothes to sell, after realizing that some potential clients are hesitant to send off their favorite clothes without knowing how the fix will work. Others gave up wearing the kinds of clothes they’d need to alter years ago. 

“People have lived without access to these clothes for so long that it’s been a little difficult to try to convince them that this is an option,” Pham said. 

Though her business is still tiny, Pham has a huge dream. She’d like to one day work directly with major retailers like H&M that may never offer their own adaptive clothing lines, so that customers who need adaptations could have their online orders sent straight to Equability. 

“Then you can shop literally wherever you want,” Pham said. “The adaptive clothing market is enormous. It’s like a $300 billion market … because people with disabilities are like the largest minority in the world. And I think a lot of clothing companies want to access these people and want to access the market, but there are such high barriers.”

The four questions

What are the most important values driving your work?

Access and equality. (For the people I serve), clothes are so difficult that it’s not really a source of happiness. I hate that people who have disabilities have to jump through so many extra hoops for everything. With (Equability), you can shop at the same stores as other people. You can shop at thrift stores. You can wear your favorite clothes that you’ve worn for decades. 

How are you creating the kind of community that you want to live in?

Clothes are really important for me. When I dress in the morning, I want to feel empowered, I want to feel colorful. I think clothes can really impact your day. So I want to live in a world where everyone can just wear whatever they want and not worry about their abilities when they’re doing so.

What advice do you have for other would-be entrepreneurs?

Really understand the reason why you’re doing it. Especially as a solo entrepreneur, it’s very lonely and it’s so much work. I Google constantly and just have to try things. And I think the reason why I’ve stayed in it for so long is because I know the mission. I know the impact that clothes can have on people. I’ve done enough interviews to realize this is actually a need.

Are you hiring?

Yes, we’re looking for sewists or seamstresses who have experience sewing and want to work for a mission.