Team Canada’s Paralympians Embrace Adaptive Fashion in Paris Games

Three years ago, at the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Team Canada’s athletes donned sleek white jeans. While they may have appeared fashionable, these jeans posed a significant challenge for some Paralympians, including Alison Levine. Levine, a boccia athlete, found the jeans particularly uncomfortable, as they dug into her skin while seated in her wheelchair. “There was no way I was getting those on,” Levine recalled, explaining how the jeans’ lack of an elastic waistband made them difficult to wear. Instead, she had to find alternative attire that wouldn’t make her look out of place. “You don’t want to look different because of your disability. You don’t want it to be, ‘Team Canada plus you guys,’” she explained.

Fast forward to this year’s Paralympic Games in Paris, and things have significantly improved. Levine and her teammates wore bright red jackets with adaptive features, such as magnetic closures, making the clothing easier to use for everyone, disabled or not. In addition, a special seated carpenter pant option, designed with Levine’s specific needs in mind, was available. Aptly named the “Alison pant,” this innovation represented a breakthrough in adaptive fashion, a sector in which fashion brands are slowly beginning to address the needs of disabled individuals.

Levine views the progress as not only a positive step for Olympic attire but also for the broader adaptive fashion movement. Lululemon, the apparel company that designed the outfits, began consulting with Levine and other Paralympians three years ago. “Listen, people want to look good,” Levine, 34, said. She has a degenerative neuromuscular disorder and expressed how frustrating it can be for disabled people to sacrifice style for comfort. “A lot of the time when you’re disabled, you have to sacrifice your looks for what works for you or for comfort. But the disability movement is getting bolder and stronger and saying that we’re not going to accept these things anymore.”

Levine acknowledges the privileged position she and her Canadian teammates are in, as not all athletes are fortunate enough to have a major brand like Lululemon designing their attire. Lululemon, with a four-Games partnership with Team Canada, designed outfits for Olympians and Paralympians to wear outside of competition, including at opening and closing ceremonies, for travel, and during media appearances.

Audrey Reilly, Lululemon’s creative director for Team Canada, was taken aback when she learned that Levine typically wore medical scrubs for training and competing because they were the most comfortable option available. This realization inspired Lululemon to create designs that catered to both seated and standing athletes. “All the athletes want to look the same,” Reilly said. “They want to feel the same.”

The “Alison pant,” named after Levine, includes features such as shin-level pockets, making them more accessible for athletes in wheelchairs. Levine was surprised but delighted by the recognition. “It was insane to hear that a garment was named after me,” she said, but more importantly, she was thrilled to be able to wear something that her teammates were also wearing: “You feel like you’re really part of the team.”

The focus on adaptive fashion for the Paralympics has not gone unnoticed by Olympic commentators. Alison Brown, a podcaster who has been covering the Olympics for years, remarked that this Olympic cycle marks the first time she has seen adaptive fashion make a significant impact. Both Lululemon’s unveiling of Team Canada’s kits and Nike’s kit reveal for Team USA, which featured models in wheelchairs and with prosthetics, caught her attention. “It’s so simple, yet so impactful,” Brown said. She also noted that most national teams don’t have the financial resources or structural setup, like Team USA and Team Canada, where Paralympians and Olympians share a unified organizational framework.

Mindy Scheier, a long-time advocate for adaptive fashion, is not surprised that 2024 is the year when the issue became visible on the global Olympic stage. Scheier, who has been championing the cause for over a decade, believes this is a natural progression. “The paradigm has shifted, and brands are really starting to see this as a business opportunity,” Scheier said. “The momentum has absolutely trickled down to the Olympics and Paralympics, because there has been such a breakthrough in the industry.”

Scheier’s advocacy began when her son, born with muscular dystrophy, wanted to wear jeans to school instead of sweatpants. Unable to find suitable options, she started a foundation and consulting agency to push fashion designers and retailers toward more inclusive fashion choices. A decade ago, she had no corporate partners, but today, major brands like Tommy Hilfiger, which launched its Tommy Adaptive line, and retailers such as Target and Victoria’s Secret have embraced adaptive fashion. Scheier’s foundation, Runway of Dreams, will showcase its work at this year’s New York Fashion Week with 60 models, all of whom have various disabilities. “This is a vocal population, and it wants to be considered a consumer,” Scheier emphasized.

For Jessica Long, a decorated para swimmer for Team USA, adaptive fashion holds personal significance. Long, 32, is competing in her sixth Paralympics, having started winning gold medals at just 12 years old. As a double amputee, one of the hardest things she faced growing up was finding shoes that worked with her prosthetics. “There’s not many things in my life that make me feel very disabled, but shoe shopping, and clothes shopping in general, has always been the hardest,” Long shared.

Although shopping has become easier as Long has grown more confident, finding suitable shoes remains a challenge. “What people might not think about is that shoes can completely throw off my walking … if they’re too heavy,” she explained.

Like Levine, Long appreciates the improvements made by brands like Ralph Lauren, which, in collaboration with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, surveyed para athletes a year ago to better understand their needs. Ralph Lauren’s designs for Team USA’s opening and closing ceremony outfits reflect this input. “I’ve seen so much improvement in the mobility for us,” Long noted in an interview before the Paralympics. “It’s those little pieces that mean the most, I think, to the para athletes. I think it’s going to be really exciting when we all dress up.”

For athletes like Levine and Long, the 2024 Paralympics mark a turning point, not just for their personal experiences but also for the broader visibility of adaptive fashion on the global stage.