Palta was born in late 2018 with a coherent purpose of making the fashion world more inclusive towards people with disabilities. Shay Senior, the founder of Palta says, “Different brands were doing adaptive clothing, but we have arrived at the fashion tech business from paying attention to our own experiences”. He got injured in his military service, which led to his hand wrist surgery that made him realize the huge gap existing between people with disabilities and the rest of society. The lack of options in the fashion world was high above all other challenges for him since he felt judged because of what he wore; a polo shirt instead of a buttoned one in meetings, avoiding buttoned long sleeves; all of this because he could not put these items on independently.

More than a billion individuals are living with some sort of disability nowadays and after a deep research with included questionnaires and focus groups we have approved once again how clothes improve our appearance which in turn makes us feel better and keeps us in a good mood.

In our world in which human diversity is not celebrated but threatened, inclusive fashion design more directly states a commitment to not only acknowledge but celebrate diversity.

First came the Community

After drill-down and widen research over the global opportunities in fashion, Shay realized something more than the clothes themselves were missing. Afterward, he met Netanel Yehuda Halevi, a social activist and copywriter that was born with muscular dystrophy, which became part of the team right after that meeting. We have created questionnaires in various languages, and thousands of people worldwide started sharing with us their knowledge, personal experience, and their wardrobe of dreams. Rapidly, we ensured the challenge is global, and we must study the cultures and buying attitudes of many different kinds of individuals to bring the ultimate solution.

We involve our community members in our everyday activities, providing jobs, inviting to focus groups, offering space for discussions and debates, and mostly to dream about the garment of tomorrow. Our solutions are presenting the wide variety of needs of our community members who bring inspiration and are the most realistic models to represent our philosophy and line of inclusive lifestyle. 

Our A-Team represents our community, a group of vigorous, creative, and unstoppable individuals who overcome new obstacles every day. We chose these members because they have shown True resilience in their lives.

Also, social media is helping propel diverse body types into the mainstream and empowering people with disabilities to ask for clothing that works for them. Not for nothing, the searches for adaptive clothing saw an increase of 80% over 2019.

How technology is involved

Palta works hand in hand with international brands designing and manufacturing more inclusive products to meet the needs of the world’s largest minority- an estimated 1 billion people with disabilities.

At the same time, we have based up a methodology, understanding the best innovators are the people with disabilities themselves. Palta is developing new and existing technologies to simplify the process of buying and wearing clothes by implementing the different personal needs of thousands of people worldwide into our funnel of inclusivity to generate the new thing- inclusive garment. Starting with braille tags to digital labels, through an accessible chatbot and 3D printed braille catalog, smart fabrics, and multifunctional clothes. We have discovered many existing technologies and elements that were not used for people with disabilities or thought to fit their daily needs because of designing to the “norm” audience.

While there are adaptive brands that will customize garments for their customers’ individual needs, some of the final customers say the cost of those clothes is more than they can afford.

 

Furthermore, we have created the first web platform that offers services to fashion brands to become more inclusive towards people with disabilities. We have designed a system to evaluate, expose, and offer these companies the next steps towards inclusivity. As a result, we are managing a brand directory where the users can find the leading inclusive fashion brands in the industry. Our mission is for more brands to join the Palta movement, so we can all work together in reducing the existing gap in the fashion world.

Palta is changing the fashion world

While sharing and studying our community members, we are pushing design thinkers to show the next creation in the fashion industry. By providing global fashion brands to become inclusive and answer the daily needs of people with disabilities while keeping their style and modernism, we are changing lives.

At this time, Palta got selected to create the official outfit of the Israeli Paralympic Delegation to the Tokyo Games 2021, developing a unique collection that matches the daily needs of each one of the athletes. 

Besides, the other team members merging technological elements and new sizing chart based on data studies. 

Following our educational progress of the market, we are involved not only in communities of designers and fashion technology forums but mainly in shaping the new generation of designers. Leading a few academic courses exposing future designers to the community of people with disabilities throughout inclusive fashion design, letting them experience the shopping and dressing process of a person with special needs.

Moreover, presenting skills of recognition towards the human that is future to wear their clothes, and most above all, feeling comfortable with designing for someone different than them.

Our Inclusive Design Certificate, which applies to the brands after applying to our predefined criteria, will ensure the brand can sell its products for over 486 million people that nowadays are not attended by the brands.

Only once brands and their directors will become aware of different disabilities, understanding the various challenges that disabled individuals face besides the benefits of designing inclusively for the existing audience and the team, and impactful change will occur.