The Fashion Society at Richmond American University in London introduces a student led Fashion Society Podcast Series. This podcast is about spreading awareness and sharing topics that Richmond Fashion Students can become inspired by and want to be more involved with the fashion world going on around them. #DifferentlyEnabled #FashionPodcast #London #Fashion #Richmond #RichmondAmericanUniversityLondon #RAIUL #Podcast #StudentLed
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00:00Hello, everyone. Welcome to the first episode of the Fashion Society podcast series.
00:05I am your president, Kendall Hextrom.
00:07Today, we have a couple of themes we wanted to go over.
00:09So first, we're going to talk about social responsibility, inclusion, and brand purpose.
00:14And to help us kind of understand these themes, I have a very special guest here with me today, Craig
00:18Crawford.
00:19He is the founder of the luxury fashion brand Differently Enabled,
00:23which is a company that is made for people with disabilities.
00:26And he has a very impressive background working within the fashion industry.
00:30So, Craig, thank you so much for being here today. How are you?
00:34I'm doing very well, thank you, Kendall. How are you?
00:37Good, good. Lovely to hear.
00:40So, what was that specific moment that made you realize the luxury market wasn't really considerate with people, disabilities?
00:48I've had a 30-plus year career in fashion and been very fortunate to work for.
00:56Many different global luxury brands, including Burberry, The Gap, Old Navy.
01:02Well, I always thought the way the brand thought, which is, if you don't fit into our clothes, lose some
01:09weight.
01:09If you don't have enough money to buy them, don't buy so many inexpensive things.
01:14Save your money and buy something good.
01:18And it wasn't until I nearly died, I suffered from disability myself in 2020, when COVID-19 tried to kill
01:28me,
01:30that I couldn't get into the clothes that were sent for me and I couldn't get out of the clothes
01:35that were sent to me.
01:36And my occupational therapist said, well, this is perfectly normal.
01:40We've learned you need elastic weights.
01:42We've learned you can't handle a drawstring.
01:44We've learned, and I was like, what are you talking about?
01:46I've always been able to wear whatever I wanted to.
01:50It took me a while to realize that I had, within my own network and my own experience, an opportunity
01:59here to fix this.
02:00Because I've worked in this industry so long, and I have such a broad network across the supply chain, across
02:08design, customer experience, store,
02:12and certainly technology where I come from, because I moved from design to technology used to design,
02:19I realized I was uniquely positioned to fix the problem.
02:24So I left hospital in May.
02:27I was in the hospital for 48 days.
02:30I was in a coma for 21.
02:32So I had to learn how to walk again.
02:35So six years I've been recovering.
02:38That said, in that time, I formed a network of people we set up differently enabled in December of 2020.
02:46So it took me from May, when I left the hospital, until December to make sense of all this and
02:52figure out an action plan and pull together a group of people.
02:55And we've been in R&D mode.
02:58We had our first fashion show in 2022.
03:01We work very differently, so we don't have to put a collection out every season.
03:06We work very hard to include people who are living with disability in the design process.
03:11And we've been working very hard to automate this in some way so that we can manufacture on demand, regionally,
03:20and at price points that the majority of people living with disability can afford.
03:26And that's been the biggest driver, is making this available to a wider audience.
03:32We were very successful in launching bespoke sort of Savile Row type using technology, but still that price point.
03:42And that's not making fashion inclusive to people who've been left out of the industry.
03:48And so that's been our focus over the past, I would say, three years now, working to do that, in
03:54partnership actually with the University of Manchester.
03:56And you're still trying to run a business as well.
03:59Yeah, yeah.
04:00There are times that it's very frustrating, but as the doctors have said to me, when you are that sick,
04:06all of your systems are healing.
04:11So your skin, right, your respiratory, your circulatory, especially your muscles, but also your bones.
04:18So when you think about all the different, the nervous system, the circulatory system, the respiratory system, they're all under
04:24attack at the same time.
04:26And so if you cut yourself, you're dealing with one or two systems.
04:29But when everything is in recovery, it just takes longer.
04:33I'm understanding better now, and therefore quite happy and motivated to continue doing what I'm doing.
04:40Because we're not just making adaptive wear.
04:42We want people to be able to express themselves.
04:46And one of the things that I find interesting when I talk about what we do, particularly people who aren't
04:52in the fashion industry, when I talk about having a relationship with fashion, they confuse brand with fashion.
05:00A brand does produce fashion, but a brand is not fashion.
05:04fashion, how you style yourself, how you see yourself, how you want people to see you.
05:10That's fashion, the expression of your personality.
05:14And that's what we want anyone to have the opportunity to do.
05:18So we're not just limited to people living with disability.
05:21We're looking at the petite market.
05:23We're looking at the plus size market.
05:25We're looking at the transgender market.
05:27Why not?
05:28But you should be able to express yourself.
05:30And you can choose from a brand if you like their look.
05:33And you can choose, and we all do, from multiple brands.
05:36But one brand doesn't dictate your personality.
05:39One brand should never dictate your personality.
05:41But one brand doesn't dictate your style either.
05:45Some people choose to wear only one brand, but that's rare.
05:48When we brought our clothing from the 2022 fashion show here to the University Fashion Society,
05:57and we did the fashion show with you, so many people said to me, this is so amazing.
06:04This clothing was designed for a different age group, different size people.
06:09And yet, it's all styled now for young college students.
06:15They've made it their own.
06:17It looks so cool.
06:19It's still relevant.
06:21I want to thank you for that, because I didn't take the time to pause and reflect to say,
06:26hey, this is all still really good universal design.
06:30This kind of leads into my next question.
06:32But I was wondering, how do you balance that luxury experience,
06:36like the aesthetic appeal and the emotional appeal,
06:39with the technical needs of the adaptive design that you have?
06:43When you put the customer first, and I think many brands have forgotten that.
06:50They put commercial profit first.
06:53Sometimes they put the brand aesthetic first.
06:56But when you're working with such a unique customer base,
06:59if we don't take into account their needs and their individual desires and their wishes,
07:06so there's function and wish, we'll miss the mark.
07:10I know it sounds very cliche to say customer first, customer centric.
07:16A lot of brands did that and still do that.
07:19But they have to balance the operation of the enterprise with servicing the customer.
07:26And sometimes they make rules for the enterprise and the facilitation of operation rather than the customer.
07:35They don't mean to, but they've got a business to run, so I get it.
07:38And so it is a good question because it's a delicate balance between understanding what your consumer wants.
07:45But because we design with you, because we create and allow you to be part of that process,
07:52and because we manufacture with you and for you,
07:55we don't have some of those constraints or challenges that bigger brands have
08:02in trying to produce 40,000 units of a blouse and make sure they have the sizing right
08:07and make sure they ship it to the right store
08:09and make sure that it's in the marketing campaign
08:11and make sure that the staff is trained and understand what that blouse means.
08:16If you think about that, all I've talked about is the minimum order on a blouse,
08:20how to make it, how to ship it, how to distribute all the logistics,
08:22whereas we offer a collection and then we engineer that for you.
08:28And that's a very different process than what's happening today.
08:31We're not made to measure.
08:32So we have three price points, bespoke, which is, consider that like Savile Row,
08:39tailor-made for you, done with measurements that are both physical and digital,
08:43and it's the engineered, the middle product that we've been spending our time working on.
08:48We also launch custom, which allows us to take existing garments and print those,
08:53and so we don't manufacture them for you, but we personalize those for you.
08:57And we can alter those as well, depending upon your needs from sizing and mobility.
09:03But at the end of the day, if you can have something that fits you and allows you to express
09:09yourself,
09:10I don't care if Grandma wants Hell's Angels and Grandpa wants Hello Kitty.
09:15I don't care.
09:15I'm not there to tell you what you're supposed to wear.
09:18I'm there to help you style yourself and understand how you look and what suits you
09:24and what helps you project the person you want people to see.
09:29And we all want to project a slightly different person depending upon the environment.
09:35If we go to the movies, we're probably not going to wear sequins.
09:38We don't care, and it might be a little weird to have glitter going on
09:42while everyone's trying to watch something in the cinema, right?
09:44Unless it's the Barbie movie.
09:47In that case, yes, of course.
09:49But, you know, and when you're going to present at work at a meeting,
09:54you want to look smart, you want to look presentable, you want to look credible, right?
09:58When you're going on a date, you want to be flirty, you want to feel sexy, you want to...
10:02So you're going to project a different version of yourself,
10:06and so your wardrobe helps you do that.
10:09Yes.
10:09Oh, I definitely think Differently Enabled does step away from a lot of these luxury brands.
10:14A lot of your clothes have a story behind them.
10:17Yes.
10:17Can you talk a little bit about some of your clothing that kind of shows a little bit of a
10:21story?
10:22You know, our tagline is when you look good, you feel good, and when you feel good, you do good.
10:27And basically, that's just a way of saying when you can get up in the morning
10:30and put on your best self, you're confident, right?
10:34And when you're confident, you get through whatever is in front of you.
10:37It's interesting being an American in London, and I've been here for 20 years now.
10:42I grew up in Virginia, but living in New York, all of my professional life, half my life before I
10:48came here.
10:49New York's not about looking back.
10:50New York's about go, go, go, go, go, get it done, get it done fast.
10:53How efficient can we be?
10:54What else can we do?
10:55And I love the energy of it.
10:56Don't get me wrong.
10:57I consider myself a New Yorker in London.
10:59However, moving here, there's another pace.
11:02And at the end of the day, people do stop and pause and reflect.
11:06And at the end of the week, people will get together at the pub and talk about the successes of
11:11the week,
11:11what could we have done better, what's happening in the week ahead, and just sort of set yourself for it.
11:17And I love that because it gives you time.
11:20I call it pause and reflect.
11:22It gives you time, just very short.
11:24You don't have to spend hours doing this, but let's take stock of where we are and what are our
11:30priorities.
11:31Because, as you know, as we all know, and I hope everyone listening here understands that, you have a plan.
11:37You start with a plan.
11:38But as you start working through that plan, things change.
11:41And the plan improves.
11:42Some of the things that you thought you were going to do aren't a good idea anymore or maybe just
11:47the wrong things.
11:48And so you change the plan.
11:50And you do that in New York or you do that in London.
11:52But in New York, you kind of don't look back to see how did we sort of wiggle our way
11:57here.
11:57And in London, we do.
11:59When we started Differently Enabled, we talked to our customers and our brand champions about their lifestyle, their ambitions, what
12:09they're proud of.
12:10Out of that came their individual stories.
12:14And those stories were and are quite inspiring, quite beautiful.
12:20Sometimes the story is to create awareness and make a point.
12:26Sometimes the story is just about love, which is not making a point.
12:32So to give you an example, we worked with, and we're still working with, Adam Morris.
12:38And Adam is the first blind man to walk London Fashion Week.
12:45And he did that for us.
12:46He is a blind film director, an award-winning film director.
12:51He's also an actor.
12:52He has a degenerative genetic deterioration of his sight called L-H-O-N.
13:01And he explained to us that when that started happening and as it continues to happen, his vision is covered
13:08with sort of like pinpoints of light just all over everything.
13:12And the only time he doesn't see that is when he sleeps.
13:16Even when his eyes are closed, it's always there.
13:19It's always there.
13:20Because he's a film director and successful, and he was the first blind director to direct a Super Bowl commercial,
13:31not this year, but I think last year.
13:33And he did that for Google, their accessibility feature where you can take a selfie, where the camera talks to
13:40you and tells you there are two people in the picture.
13:42There's only one.
13:43And I can only see two, so that someone who has sight impairment can take a selfie.
13:49As he told us about his condition, his disability, he said that when he goes on television programs, he's actually
13:59been accused of pretending to be blind.
14:03Now, I just find this incredulous.
14:05And he said to me, why would I pretend to be blind?
14:08Where?
14:09What is the benefit in that?
14:10Like, it's a gimmick.
14:11I'm going to get a better directing job if I'm blind.
14:15People are like, how can he even do that?
14:17There's no way.
14:17There's no way he's blind.
14:18He couldn't.
14:19Well, exactly.
14:20And in one of the TV programs, when someone spoke and asked him a question, he turned and faced her.
14:26And then one of the reporters said, see, you just turned.
14:28And he's like, I'm not deaf.
14:30He doesn't wear dark glasses.
14:31He doesn't carry a white cane.
14:34And in fact, when I first met him, I met him at Cannes Film Festival.
14:37And someone said to me, you've got to talk to Adam.
14:39You've got to meet Adam.
14:39I thought, well, he's so popular and he's so important, I'll never get to him.
14:43And at one point, he had two seconds, and he was standing.
14:45And I went over and said, I just want to introduce myself.
14:48I know you're so busy and you're promoting the work that you've done here, so I don't want to take
14:52your time.
14:53I would like to hand you my phone, and if you would input your details for me, then we can
14:58have a follow-up conversation.
14:59And this is who I am, and this is what I do.
15:01And then I thrust my phone into his hand, and he looked me straight in the face and said, dude,
15:06I'm blind.
15:07And I burst out laughing because I didn't know because my stereotype of someone blind, they've got someone with them,
15:14they have a dog, they have a cane.
15:15And so I realized that I was also falling into my own stereotype of what a blind person looks like
15:24or is or should behave like.
15:26He shattered that entirely.
15:28So when we were talking about his style and his needs for the red carpet and all of that, we
15:35said, would you be interested in us creating some textile designs that help create awareness of our own personal stereotypes?
15:45And so the Can You See print, which you can get on T-shirts or hoodies or our caftan in
15:53multiple colors, we worked very closely to design that with him.
15:58And actually, I worked with a former colleague from Burberry who did the actual design, but also worked with a
16:05young lady who created Burberry's tone of voice.
16:08And her name is Allison, and Allison actually is now also blind.
16:14So it was quite incredible to work with this group and talk about, can you see, first of all, are
16:23you blind?
16:23Are you blind to your own stereotypes?
16:25Can you see the person in front of you?
16:27Are you looking at the disability?
16:29What are your expectations for that person now that you know they are blind?
16:33So all of this sort of question around that.
16:36And then because we were so fascinated on the sparkle, the constant sparkle, we created what we call the day
16:43vision print.
16:44So you can go onto our website, you can load a picture of yourself, and then we created a filter
16:48that you put over that.
16:50And so you see yourself the way Adam sees you.
16:54But he only sees you that way when he's awake, so that's why we called it day vision.
16:57So because look good, feel good, do good, we want to also do good.
17:02A percentage of the sale from those products goes to Adam's Crystal Vision Foundation, where he is fostering creativity in
17:11people who are blind.
17:13And I also want to point out, I've been very careful not to say vision impaired.
17:19And the reason why I've been very careful to not use the word vision is because of Adam.
17:24Because Adam says everyone has a vision, whether you're blind or not.
17:28It's whether you can see, and that's your sight.
17:32It's not your vision.
17:34So I don't use the word vision impairment.
17:36I say blind.
17:37And this is another thing that we learn from all of our customers.
17:41How do you want to talk about your disability?
17:43How do you want?
17:44We interviewed someone who said, I don't like to hear little people.
17:47I have dwarfism.
17:49I'm a dwarf.
17:50People may think that's politically incorrect, but that's what I am.
17:53And so that's how I want this to be referred to.
17:58At the end of the day, when I start reflecting on all of these different experiences that we've had, people
18:05are people.
18:06You have red hair.
18:07I have brown hair.
18:09Some people don't have hair.
18:11Some people have green hair.
18:12They die.
18:13Some people are in a wheelchair.
18:15Some people are blind.
18:16It's just another trait to that person.
18:19It doesn't define the person.
18:21And so if we can help express that, and Adam's story is one that we're actually quite excited to do
18:28a little more.
18:28I'll sneak peek here a little more.
18:31We'll be sharing a little more about that and being a little more public about it as this foundation continues
18:37to grow.
18:38And we're working with other charities and other awareness groups in that space.
18:43So that's just one story.
18:44There's many of them on the website, and they continue, and that's part of our DNA is sharing the journey
18:50we're on, but sharing the journey our customers are on.
18:52And hopefully that will inspire people to think about themselves and that they can do whatever they want to do
19:00as long as they put on the clothes they want.
19:03Okay, well, we might take a little bit of a turn here, but how are you kind of reframing social
19:09sustainability to be just as important as like environmentally consciousness?
19:15That's a great question, and I feel like almost everything that we're doing addresses this.
19:22We approach design as universal design.
19:24If we design for everybody, the product is better.
19:30When you start to exclude people and only design for this group or that group, you're not taking into consideration
19:37all of it.
19:38And I know that sounds silly.
19:39So I've worked in many different corporations with lots of different corporate culture.
19:43Too much of one thing is not good.
19:46All men running a company, not good.
19:48All women running a company, not good.
19:50All straight people running a company, not good.
19:52All gay people running a company, not good.
19:55It can't be all white.
19:56It can't be all black.
19:57It needs to be everything.
20:00And the best places that I've ever worked in, the most work that I'm proud of has come through working
20:07with groups of people who are diverse.
20:11So that's very important for us, but we don't hire people or we don't engage with people just because of
20:16their color or their ethnic background or their disability.
20:19I will say this, if two candidates are in front of me right now for something for differently enabled and
20:24one is living with disability and one is not, I will choose the person who's living with disability because I
20:29want the people around me who are not living with disability to see what it's like and how the world
20:35is different for them.
20:37But we want everyone to be able to express themselves and we want, through the stories, the world to understand
20:43that people are people and we just learn from one another and we should learn from one another.
20:49No one type of person is better than the other.
20:52And I know all this sounds very, oh, lovely to say and then, you know, you walk out of the
20:57door and do you really practice it?
20:58But I think we do.
21:00We bake sustainability in, all the environmental stuff, right?
21:03And I can go through all that.
21:04You can also see that on the website.
21:06But when we started, I told the team, we are not a charity.
21:11We are a for-profit organization.
21:14And the very first meeting we had, I also said, we are not an advocacy group.
21:20And the next week, I said, I have a correction to make.
21:24We are for-profit.
21:26We are not a charity.
21:29However, because of who our customers are, because of what we're learning,
21:33because we understand the social implications, the challenges the environment poses, the pressures, the unfairness that happens in employment,
21:42all of these things that we learn, we have an opportunity to repeat those stories.
21:48And therefore, we are an advocacy group.
21:50It's not our mission.
21:52But how can we not share what we learn?
21:55So that is part of our DNA.
21:57That is what we do.
21:58For example, the latest technology we've been piloting on mobile app, I had two individuals who were blind, who tried
22:07it and couldn't use it because they're blind.
22:10And I got on stage and talked about that.
22:12I didn't pretend it worked.
22:14I made it very clear it didn't.
22:16And what we were doing to fix that.
22:20And so we're very honest about the challenges that we face, and we're very transparent about that.
22:25And as long as people want us to share the stories, if they say they don't want this talked about
22:29or they don't want, then we don't, obviously.
22:31But so far, people want their stories heard.
22:35I lecture, as you know, at university periodically.
22:38And when we start talking about customers and marketing seminars and things, my dear friend, Kate Nightingale, who is a
22:46consumer psychologist, said to me, and it stuck with me, and I teach this to students all the time, everybody
22:53wants to be seen, they want to be heard, and they want to belong.
22:57We choose our schools, we choose our neighborhoods, we choose our jobs.
23:01We choose things because we want to be part of a community.
23:03And so we're building that community, and we want our consumers to be seen, to be heard, and to feel
23:09like they belong.
23:11I think that's the best thing you can do to promote social diversity and inclusion.
23:17We're in a very strange point in time where governments are trying to pretend that these initiatives aren't beneficial.
23:25And forget the initiatives, forget the government.
23:28The reality is, the more we talk about our challenges and our successes and share them, the more we help
23:35others with whatever it is they're facing.
23:37At least that's my philosophy.
23:39I did an article for an American Trade publication, and I interviewed Samantha Bullock, who runs Bullock Inclusion.
23:46And she said to me, in medieval times, they used to throw us in the river.
23:51If we were born with disability, they killed us.
23:53And then some of the Renaissance came about, I guess, and then we were wards of the church, so they'd
23:59leave us at the church doorstep.
24:01And then the church, I guess, got fed up and said, take them to the hospital.
24:05And so we were a ward of the medical world until recently.
24:09And now society is shifting and realizing human beings with just different traits, that's all.
24:16And therefore, why wouldn't we not embrace their inclusion?
24:19Why would we not embrace their input?
24:21And I say this all the time, and you've probably heard this story before.
24:26The electric toothbrush was invented for people with Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, people who shake, who couldn't hold a regular
24:33toothbrush.
24:34What does your dentist tell you to brush your teeth with?
24:38The electric toothbrush.
24:39So if we all work together, we actually get something that benefits everybody, you see.
24:45And that's why the concept of universal design, and I know this is a buzzword right now, but if you
24:52really embrace it, all of a sudden, incredible things happen for everyone.
24:58We're only one T-tiny company.
25:02But it's platforms like this that allow us to share what we're doing.
25:07And if everybody gets up in the morning and does their piece of the puzzle the best they can, what
25:16a great picture we put together as human beings.
25:20We all can't do this individually.
25:21We have to work together.
25:23And secretly, we're programmed to work together, but we spend a lot of time not.
25:30And structuring ourselves to be competitive and to combat with one another rather than just going, hey, how can I
25:36help?
25:37It actually melts my heart when someone turns to me and says, hang on a minute, how can I help?
25:41How often do you hear that in your day-to-day?
25:45Coming here today, I saw a young lady trip going up the stairs, and I went, and before I could
25:51say, how can I help?
25:51She was embarrassed and obviously very quick to get somewhere, and she wasn't hurt.
25:56So she kind of gave me, you know, the jaundiced eye, like, how dare you?
26:00And I thought, oh, I just want to make sure you're okay.
26:05Is asking if you're okay a bad thing?
26:09We don't sometimes just take that moment to say, how are you?
26:12In this country, they're better than New York, trust me.
26:16Much better.
26:17Yeah, yeah.
26:18Yeah, because we're so efficient, we have to get things done in New York, right?
26:21There's no time to ask how you are.
26:22We don't care.
26:23This is a business.
26:24Well, you do care.
26:25Because if someone isn't doing well, they're not going to contribute to that meeting.
26:28If someone has got something else on their mind and needs to get that off their chest, let that happen.
26:33Because then we can all contribute in the moment that we're there to be there.
26:37But otherwise, you're living in your head.
26:38They're living in their head.
26:40And they're not going to contribute.
26:42That's just something we all should strive to do, in my humble opinion.
26:46No, and you're right.
26:47We are actually just very disconnected.
26:50I mean, even on, yeah, the tube, everyone's just on their phones or just saying nothing.
26:56But when you do talk to people, you just be outgoing.
26:59People will talk to you.
27:01It's not as scary as we make it seem.
27:03No, it's not.
27:04No, it's not.
27:05Back to the advocacy thing.
27:07As a child, if you saw someone your age in a wheelchair, you probably pointed and said,
27:13Mommy, why is she in that chair?
27:15And the response would probably have been, Darling, it's not polite to point.
27:20Don't do that.
27:21We'll talk about this later.
27:23And then you went home, and you probably never talked about it because you forgot,
27:27and your parents went, shoo, because I really don't know what that child was in a chair,
27:30and I don't really know what to say.
27:31Like, we have an opportunity to amplify the stories of our consumers, and so we very much
27:37are doing that because if we talk about it, then we get the language right.
27:41If we talk about it, then we understand what's needed and how to improve.
27:45And if we don't, it's not mean-spirited to not talk about it.
27:49It's just not terribly efficient.
27:51We don't change anything.
27:52And it continues to keep us unaware, and so we exclude groups or we exclude people out
28:00of sheer ignorance, and that's just silly.
28:03If you can put something on that says something about yourself, and someone says, hey, I like
28:08that shirt, or hey, what does that mean, or where did you get that, there's a conversation
28:12right there, you know, for the first time to be able to talk about what you're wearing
28:17as something you helped create that makes you look nice, that makes you, when I say
28:21nice, it makes you feel good.
28:23You don't have to be a pretty feminine lady, and you don't have to be a, you know, very
28:29conservative, tailored man, whatever it is you want to be.
28:34But when you're recognized for that, it makes you feel good as well.
28:37And so you open up and you talk.
28:39Fashion's important.
28:40Clothing's important.
28:42Yes.
28:42And what is special about your brand is you can build a loyal customer base because you
28:49guys are so transparent, and you also are caring, tailoring towards people.
28:53Oh, thank you.
28:55Yeah, of course.
28:56With your brand, like when you look at the fashion industry 10 years from now, what does
29:00successfully look like for differently enabled?
29:03That's a very good question.
29:04And we do have a vision for that.
29:08We are building a technology slash AI empowered pipeline, and our vision is to allow other
29:17brands to use our methodology because every person has some brand affinity, some badge, brand
29:29badge value.
29:30Oh, these jeans that you made for me are great, says the wheelchair user, but I really wanted
29:36Levi's.
29:37And so I think we are paving the way for all brands to be able to engage with everybody.
29:45Now, every brand may not want to.
29:47Every brand may want to still remain narrow in their vision of who the consumer is and produce
29:52a collection of clothes.
29:53But we work off of dead stock fabric at the moment and coming from the industry.
29:59I am creating a turnkey solution for global brands to be able to engage with anybody and
30:08engineer product for anybody.
30:10And so 10 years from now, my vision is that many brands will be using the differently enabled
30:17platform.
30:18Nobody needs to know that.
30:19Nobody needs to know that.
30:21And I am talking to brands now about at what point in our journey would you like to engage
30:26with us?
30:27And some say, perfect it a bit more.
30:29We'll be a fast follower.
30:31Some say, let's see how it works with a few of the brands first.
30:35We'll be a late adopter.
30:36But I have a few who say, right now, we want to talk and we want to track with this
30:42right
30:43now because we see how this can solve our raw material excess inventory problem.
30:49There is a massive industry crisis around excess raw material that no one talks about.
30:56I'm an industry insider.
30:58I know.
30:58And those of us that are working off of dead stock fabric, we know.
31:02And then it also solves the finished good excess inventory problem because we don't need to
31:08make so much and we can alter it to fit other people, but we can also start manufacturing on
31:16demand and engineering product to fit.
31:19The industry is plagued with a lot of problems that we've all tried to fix.
31:26The sizing in industry is just a mess, as any consumer.
31:31A Calvin Klein medium is not a Ralph Lauren medium, is not a Burberry medium, is not a
31:35Hugo Boss medium, is not a George Ormone medium, is not a Primark medium, is not a River Island
31:41medium.
31:43It comes from, our sizing comes from the military world because we had to figure out how to put
31:49soldiers into uniforms.
31:51And then we've just continued to say, well, my brand looks at it like this or my customer
31:56wants to feel like she's a size two.
31:58So this is really a size six, but I'll call it a size two.
32:01Or I'll give it a Greek name or I'll give it a, okay, great.
32:05That's wonderful for those of you in that brand.
32:07But it doesn't make sense.
32:10And the technology is biased.
32:12Technology looks for symmetry, mirrors things.
32:16The cool thing about this is the industry, because I come from it and because I've been
32:21instrumental in helping to build a lot of this tech, the industry is very interested in
32:26hearing about this and changing.
32:27And so I am starting to see the ability to create.
32:31We couldn't create avatars of our amputees.
32:35We can now.
32:36Not easily, by the way, but I mean still.
32:38And it's improving.
32:39And some of the work that we've done has impacted industry standardization.
32:44So for example, the IEEE is an organization that creates the standards for measurements,
32:49primarily in the world of engineering and electrical.
32:53However, because people use these things, they have what they call body landmarks, right?
32:59So what's the definition of your head circumference?
33:01What's the definition of your neck circumference?
33:03And all these things, by the way, are interpreted slightly differently by every brand.
33:07I know it sounds silly, but they are.
33:09But the IEEE works to create these standards.
33:12And because of our work, they've added a standard in for a seated waist measurement.
33:17And that's because someone who is using a wheelchair has a very underdeveloped core.
33:23And they tend to develop a pot belly.
33:27And so the waist is different than someone who stands.
33:30And they've embraced that and put that into their global standards based on the work we've done.
33:36That's very humbling when you think we haven't been around and most people don't know about us.
33:40But we're behind the scenes, chipping away.
33:42So in 10 years, I hope a lot of what we've done is cascaded out to help everybody and fix
33:50things in the industry.
33:52It's not easy to do.
33:53And when we did digital transformation at Burberry, you know, you don't stop your business and change your behaviors.
33:59You have to do all this at the same time, which is why, as a consultant, I've continued to work
34:04with brands
34:05and helping them figure out what it is they're going to change, how to embrace that,
34:08what levers to pull when, to continue to be better.
34:13But to just turn around and flip the industry is very hard.
34:16And that's why sustainability has not been cracked.
34:19And that's why regulation and things are coming into play that are making brands very nervous.
34:23Well, we have the luxury of starting from scratch.
34:27And so we can address these things from the beginning.
34:30Unfortunately, these brands, they won't really adopt these standards until it's a demand.
34:36And so if your brand, like you guys, you stay so true to your core beliefs.
34:43And in 10 years from now, if you guys are the leader of that standard, then, yeah, I definitely think
34:48that brands would follow.
34:50Oh, thank you.
34:51Thank you for that vote of confidence.
34:52I mean, this is what people want.
34:54They want the sustainability.
34:55It's now becoming like we want more inclusion.
34:58And so, well, I just have one more question for you, but what would be some advice that you would
35:04give to a disabled entrepreneur?
35:06I think it would be the same advice I'd give to an entrepreneur or anybody.
35:13You know, sometimes being an entrepreneur, you feel like you're pushing water uphill, but you're not.
35:17You got to have a plan and don't give up.
35:21Well, my mother hated cursing, but there was one thing that she would say, and she would say, I'll be
35:27goddamned if I let the world ruin my naturally good disposition.
35:31When things seem insurmountable or just so unfair or hard to cope with, you just have to take a moment
35:42to recognize that that's a moment in time, reflect on what you've done to get where you are, sort of
35:49regroup yourself, take a break, and just go back into it.
35:54I've had people say to me, aren't you considering retirement?
35:57Why would I do that?
35:59I just don't want to sit back and do nothing, but I've always been very curious.
36:05I've always loved learning.
36:08I've always loved doing things and thinking about things differently.
36:13If I had a job that was very routine, I'd learn what that was, and then I'd be quickly trying
36:19to figure out how can we make to do this more efficiently, more easily, better, so I could do something
36:25that's more interesting.
36:25Like, it's just, not everybody's that way, and it's okay.
36:28We don't need everybody to be that way.
36:30But don't forget, as a human being, you are so valuable to the rest of the puzzle.
36:38And so, yeah, sometimes you don't want to do your piece, then don't, but get back on it.
36:44There's a lot of hurdles for disabled entrepreneurs, but don't let that get in the way, because society is shifting,
36:54and the more you help others understand what you need, the more you're going to get.
36:59I'll leave you with two things.
37:01One, you don't get what you don't ask for, and number two, careful what you wish for.
37:10Okay, well, thank you so much for being here.
37:14You gave a lot of information.
37:15This is good.
37:17Oh, thank you.
37:18Thank you guys for joining the podcast, and thank you, Craig, for being here.
37:22This was amazing, and it's really awesome to learn more about your brand and also just social sustainability in general.
37:30Yeah.
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