By: Sylvia Stein | Posted: October 14, 2014 | Updated: April 5, 2023
As part of our FreedomWear Circle project, we have been looking for good solutions for clothing for arthritis sufferers.
It turns out there are a number of arthritis clothing solutions out there, ranging from various special shoes for arthritis to a special type of arthritis bra. These products and more seem to be lumped together into the category of “adaptive clothing“.
This article uses videos from around the web to demonstrate some of those solutions, and we add our comments and questions.
We would love your comments and feedback about these solutions, and others you may have found.
Arthritis makes dressing and undressing challenging
We have heard a lot from older adults about the difficulty in finding attractive and comfortable clothes that they can easily put on and take off by themselves. Mobility and dexterity limitations can make this everyday process a nightmare. We’ve been told that it sometimes feel like the arthritis sufferer is a prisoner in their own clothes. Others have told us that this obstacle is often reason older adults need to move to assisted living situations.
Adaptive Clothing that works(?) for arthritis sufferers
When we investigated this topic, we found that there are quite a few Adaptive Clothing solutions being marketed today on sites such as Silverts, and Buck & Buck. In addition to the material on the websites of those companies, we found the videos below to be particularly relevant to arthritis sufferers in search of better clothing options.
Here are some videos that demonstrate some of the Adaptive Clothing innovations that have been developed to make dressing and undressing easier. Under each video we have noted some issues and questions for that solution. Please feel free to add your issues, comments or questions to the comment section at the end of this article.
An arthritis bra
Our comments:
While this seems like a clever solution, we heard from many women that bras were uncomfortable, or rather that it was impossible to find bras that fit properly with the right amount of support. In addition many report that bras pinch and add pressure to sensitive joints or other areas.
Velcro pants for seniors. Really?
Our comments:
While velcro seems to be the easy ‘go to’ solution that many manufacturers gravitate to when designing clothes for people with arthritis, we also heard that for many it is not always the perfect solution. Some find Velcro difficult to pull open, while others report that the Velcro gets stuck on other materials, or that it is difficult to connect the correct Velcro patches. Finally the Velcro strips are usually ether white or black, and can be unattractive / unsightly.
Tips for getting dressed with arthritis
Our comments:
This third video demonstrates some useful tools and techniques for getting dressed with arthritis. Are there other products or tips that you have discovered or invented? Please feel free to share your work-arounds in the comment section below.
More tips for arthritis and getting dressed
Our comments:
Yet another video with more tips and suggestions for getting dressed / undressed with arthritis. Are they leaving out something that you struggle with every day?
Tools to help arthritis sufferers with activities of daily living
Our comments:
This final video demonstrates additional ADL (Activities of Daily Living) tools that are useful for people with arthritis. Are these the right ones? Do they really work? Are there tools or aides that you are looking for but cannot find?
What do you think?
We are looking forward to hearing from you about your experience getting dressed / undressed with arthritis. Feel free to use the comment section below to add your voice and share your experiences and frustrations getting dressed and undressed with arthritis.
*Disclosure: The research and opinions in this article are those of the author, and may or may not reflect the official views of Tech-enhanced Life.
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Sylvia Stein is an experienced veteran of brand consulting with an emphasis on ideation and innovation; as such she brings a fresh perspective to every project and client engagement. Building on her solid, 25-year background in developing new concepts and products, she reinvents processes and crafts ideas that inspire transformative innovation. Sylvia is currently an independent consultant and founder of Venture Concepts, which brings breakthrough ideas together with visionary teams to launch new product concepts in a wide range of product categories. From 1991 to 2004, Sylvia served as President and Founding Partner of Consumer Eyes, Inc., a New York–based new product/innovation consulting company specializing in identifying consumer insights and trends and leveraging them into strategic, yet innovative new product concepts. At Consumer Eyes, Sylvia spearheaded a Consumer Immersion model of concept development. Partial list of Consumer Eyes Clients: Coca Cola, Unilever, The Campbell’s Soup Company, Kraft, Pfizer (Warner Lambert), Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Clorox, Hasbro, Schering-Plough Corporation, Motorola. Sylvia is also a founding partner of BuzzBack, an online market research platform and service that engages the consumer in novel ways and utilizes the full potential of Web-based interaction (data collection, data mining, and data delivery) to reveal new levels of insight and learning for its clients. Earlier in her career, Sylvia was Creative Director at Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve, and a project executive with Gerald Schoenfeld, Inc. in Tarrytown. She is a graduate of Harvard University.
