We're taking UN[PARA]LD to the winter Paralympics. And, we're hosting a screening of the UN[PARA]LD film, alongside a talk, a demonstration of the possibilities of adapting clothing and focus groups.

This event has been self-funded by the core team working on this project, Sarisher Mann, Michael Shaw, Alice Sainsbury and Gavin Fernie-Jones. With the space donated to us by Patagonia.

This is the message we're sharing.

"Milano-Cortina, Italy, March 2026 - As the 2026 Winter Paralympics approach, a new initiative is drawing attention to a little-known reality: many Paralympic athletes are still required to adapt, alter, or retrofit their own outdoor and alpine clothing in order to train and compete.

Despite competing at the highest level, athletes often rely on rolled sleeves, altered fastenings, custom padding, or personal sewing to make standard outdoor clothing work for their bodies. For athletes whose performance depends on precision, comfort, and safety, poorly designed clothing is not a minor inconvenience but a fundamental barrier the industry has left individuals to solve themselves.

“People assume that by the time you reach the Paralympics, the equipment must already work. The truth is many of us are still adapting our own kit just to make it usable. When clothing doesn’t fit your body, it affects performance, safety, and whether you can take part at all. Access to the outdoors shouldn’t depend on how much personal work you’re willing or able to do to make things function.” says former Paralympian Sean Rose.

This failure extends far beyond elite sport. At least 1.3 billion people globally, nearly a quarter of the population, live with a disability, and many are excluded from outdoor activity because technical clothing is not designed for their bodies. While adaptive fashion is growing, innovation has largely focused on everyday wear, leaving outdoor and alpine sports behind.

UN[PARA]LD is a collaborative initiative backed by former Team GB Winter Paralympians and launched by design consultant Alice Sainsbury, who was diagnosed with transverse myelitis in 2015.

“When I became disabled, I realised just how little the outdoor industry had considered people like me,” says Sainsbury. “Clothing that doesn’t work for your body stops you from taking part. You’re not choosing to opt out - you’re being excluded.”

Rather than designing new products from scratch, UN[PARA]LD works with disabled people, athletes, designers, and makers to adapt existing outdoor clothing, creating practical solutions that enable access. Early work includes adaptive snowsports prototypes and an open-source toolkit sharing design insights and methods. Operating across a global network, the project focuses on practical, real-world changes, recognising that vast amounts of high-quality outdoor gear already exist but remain unusable for many bodies.

The initiative will officially launch at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics, using the global platform to highlight a simple truth: design that includes disabled people benefits everyone."