Welcome to Edition #7 of the Made For Us newsletter, back after a brief summer hiatus! One reason for the break is that I recently started recording for Season 2 of the podcast. I’ve been having some really cool conversations and in future editions of the newsletter I’ll be giving you a sneak preview of what to expect.

But today, I couldn’t resist an Olympics-themed post, given the Paris Games have been pretty hard to ignore these past few weeks. It got me thinking about inclusive design in sport and how rules and traditions around apparel have an impact who can and can’t participate at both the amateur and elite levels. 

Here are a couple of inclusivity-related stories that made the headlines in the run-up to and during the Games:

• For the first time at the Olympics, female hockey players were given the option of wearing a skirt, skort or shorts on the same team. The decision followed a campaign by England hockey player Tess Howard, who is also the founder of Inclusive Sportswear, which advocates for inclusive sports kit policies in schools, clubs and sport national governing bodies. Howard’s research identified a link between rigid sports kit rules and high dropout rates among teenage girls.

• France’s decision to ban French Olympians and Paralympians from wearing the hijab was criticised by Muslim athletes, human rights groups and the UN. France has strict rules on secularism and considers members of its Olympic team to be public servants, which means they can’t wear outwardly religious symbols. “It is sad. It's even shameful to be at this point in 2024, to block dreams just because of a piece of fabric,” said one woman interviewed by Amnesty International.

Who’s winning the inclusion game?

With debates around inclusion receiving more attention in recent years, sports apparel designers have taken notice, often inspired by entrepreneurs. Here are five products opening up sports to more people.

1. Bold Helmets

Tina Singh couldn’t find a bicycle helmet that worked for her three sons who keep their hair uncut because of their Sikh faith, so she invented her own. In her interview with Made For Us, Singh said she was motivated to start the company because she believes people shouldn’t “have to choose between sport participation and who they are, who they choose to be.”

2. Nike (M) Swoosh bra

One of Nike’s early forays into “innovating for motherhood,” the (M) Swoosh is a sports bra that accommodates a wearable breast pump and is aimed at new mothers returning to sports. Nike designer Fanny Ho and her team developed the bra after talking to elite athletes and active mothers who struggled to exercise while wearing traditional nursing bras. “I think a really powerful insight was realizing that both have the same needs,” Ho said. “Elite athletes are not immune to the challenges of balancing motherhood and sport.”

3. Burkini

Some people prefer to show less flesh on the beach and that’s where the burkini, a full-body swimsuit, comes in. Although its inventor, Aheda Zanetti, created it with Muslim women in mind, she said in an interview: “anyone can wear this, Christian, Jewish, Hindus. It’s just a garment to suit a modest person, or someone who has skin cancer, or a new mother who doesn’t want to wear a bikini, it’s not symbolising Islam..”

4. Soul Cap

Soul Cap founders Michael Chapman and Toks Ahmed, wanted to bring inclusivity to swimming so they designed a cap “for hair blessed with volume.” According to Swim England, less than 10% of regular swimmers are Black. Soul Cap research has identified 6 barriers preventing Black people from taking up swimming, including inherited fear, lack of representation in the sport and, for Black women especially, the cost of hair maintenance. Soul Caps were banned at the Tokyo Olympics after the water sport governing body ruled they didn’t fit “the natural form of the head,” but the ban was eventually overturned after a backlash.

5. Nike Reina EasyOn

This hands-free slip-on shoe is Nike’s first pregnancy and postpartum sneaker. Footwear designer Brenden McAleese was inspired to begin work on the shoe after the birth of his first child and tested prototypes on his wife during her second pregnancy. It’s designed to prevent foot fatigue and includes an adjustable sockliner to make room for swelling feet.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought of this edition and if you’d like more like this.

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