PODCAST TAKEOVER EDITION

This is a SPECIAL EDITION of the AwareGiver podcast featuring a rebroadcast of the "COLD CALL" podcast from Harvard Business School.  i thought the content was important enough to bring it to you unedited.

In 2017, Tommy Hilfiger launched its adaptive fashion line to provide fashion apparel that aims to make dressing easier. By 2020, it was still a relatively unknown line in the U.S. and the Tommy Hilfiger team was continuing to learn more about how to serve these new customers. Should the team make adaptive clothing available beyond the U.S., or is a global expansion premature? Assistant Professor Elizabeth Keenan discusses the opportunities and challenges that accompanied the introduction of a new product line that effectively serves an entirely new customer while simultaneously starting a movement to provide fashion for all in the case, “Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive: Fashion for All.”

For most people, the hardest thing about getting dressed in the morning is deciding what to wear. Putting on the clothes is pretty much an afterthought, but anyone who's broken an arm or even a finger can tell you that getting dressed becomes a much bigger challenge when you try to button a shirt or buckle a belt. Just imagine how difficult it would be from the seat of a wheelchair or without fine motor control. Yet, that is a challenge faced by millions of people with physical disabilities each and every day.What we wear affects our psychological state as well as our performance. The journal ScienceDirect introduced the term enclothed cognition to describe this phenomenon. And for those with physical disabilities, it's a problem that until very recently was in search of a solution. Today on Cold Call, we've invited Professor Elizabeth Keenan to discuss her case titled, “Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive: Fashion For All.” I'm your host, Brian Kenny, and you're listening to Cold Call on the HBR Podcast Network. 

To subscribe to the COLD CALL podcast on the HBR Podcast network, visit https://hbswk.hbs.edu/Pages/browse.aspx?HBSContentType=Cold+Call