Zalando, Europe’s leading online multi-brand fashion destination, has embarked on a transformative journey in the fashion industry to promote inclusivity across assortment, representation and user experience. These initiatives are fundamental pillars of its holistic diversity and inclusion strategy, which also extends to fostering a more inclusive workplace environment.

Zalando’s approach includes designing original stylish footwear and garments from the outset with Adaptive features integrated as core components, expanding its Adaptive assortment to over 600 styles in 2024, and ensuring its digital platform is user-friendly for customers with various disabilities through continuous enhancements. By collaborating with strategic partners and prioritising direct input from the disabled community, Zalando aims to become a fashion destination that welcomes everyone, demonstrating that investing in Adaptive fashion is not only inclusive, but also a significant business opportunity.

Problem Definition

Zalando addresses two significant challenges within the Adaptive fashion landscape. Firstly, there is a substantial gap in the market, as finding fashionable, functional, and affordable Adaptive clothing across categories remains a major obstacle for people with various disabilities.An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide experience significant disability, representing 16% of the global population, or 1 in 6 people. When purchasing fashion products, disabled people often have to compromise style for function, and they are largely underrepresented in the industry. From an industry perspective, only a limited number of medium-sized brands in Europe offer Adaptive fashion due to a lack of understanding of specific needs, an absence of design blueprints, and insufficient resources.

Secondly, as an online retailer, Zalando faces the critical task of ensuring its digital platform is accessible and user-friendly for customers with various disabilities. This goes beyond compliance and rather focuses on an inspirational and discoverable shopping experience for everyone. Features like enhanced color contrast, dark mode, and adjustable text sizes benefit not just disabled users but everyone, including people using their phone in bright sunlight, at night, or with temporary impairments. It’s about crafting an intuitive and helpful online experience.

Approach

Zalando has adopted a multifaceted approach, combining innovative solutions with strategic partnerships, to tackle these challenges. At the heart of the strategy is the principle of “Nothing about us, without us,” which underscores the crucial importance of asking and integrating direct input and feedback from the disabled community. Customer surveys among Adaptive fashion purchasers on Zalando revealed that 86%) were satisfied with their purchases, highlighting the effectiveness of this approach in meeting their needs.

Innovative solutions

Private Labels Pier One, Even&Odd, Anna Field, Friboo, Yourturn and ZIGN are leveraged as “incubators” for new ideas, allowing Zalando to test and learn from innovative designs towards different target audiences, each with their own needs. Insights and learnings are then shared with interested brand partners who want to enter this Adaptive fashion space.

The video below exemplifies how the company has evolved its Adaptive design process significantly over the years: initially, Adaptive features were simply added to existing ranges, but now original stylish footwear and garments are designed from the outset with Adaptive features integrated as core components. This design process is highly technical, demanding careful consideration of feature implementation for maximum customer benefit. Adaptive footwear features such as wider fits, extra-long zippers, removable soles, easy closures like hook-and-loops instead of buckles, and larger pull-up loops at the back of the shoe are examples of universal design that benefit a wider range of people, including those with physical, cognitive, or sensory disabilities.

Blonde woman showing adaptive footwear

Strategic partnerships

Zalando’s partnerships play a crucial role in their inclusive strategy. Their collaboration with Ottobock, a leader in prosthetics and orthotics, provides valuable insights into the specific needs of customers with physical disabilities, guiding the design and functionality of their adaptive products. Additionally, partnerships with organizations like the creative consultancy All is for All help gather feedback from a community of people with lived experiences of disabilities, further informing product design and strategic choices. The collaboration with The Valuable 500 assists in raising awareness among the Disabled community, addressing outreach and representation challenges and setting new disability inclusion reporting standards. As part of the longstanding collaboration with Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW), Zalando designed an Adaptive fashion trajectory over the AW25 and SS26 editions, including two CPHFW x Vogue Business Talks and a masterclass by Private Label designers for the wider CPHFW brand community.

The Zalando Adaptive Hub

The Adaptive hub provides a comprehensive overview of the Adaptive fashion offering, combining stylish and detailed pictures of the products on disabled models with a comprehensive search filters system (e.g., easy-to-remove-tag, magnets, one-hand zipper) that help customers find the specific Adaptive features they are looking for. The Hub is completed with inspirational content by influencers and partner brands that offer Adaptive fashion on Zalando like Nike, BOSS, Sketchers and others.

Next to bringing stories from disabled customers to life on the Adaptive hub, Zalando’s marketing and communications teams are committed to integrating Adaptive wear collections cohesively throughout their various local activations to reach disabled communities and journalists across markets organically.

Zalando Adaptive Hub

Digital accessibility

Regarding the second challenge of offering an accessible digital experience, Zalando aims to make its platforms more inclusive for customers both on app and web, while creating an organisation culture change to be inclusive by design. This means that Zalando is not only improving existing features, but also training designer and developer teams to consider inclusivity from the start for future projects. The ambition goes beyond the deadline of the European Accessibility Act.

As a first important milestone, the digital purchase journey has been made accessible to customers with vision and hand mobility disabilities in all 25 markets. This involved enhancements to apps and web platforms for screen readers and keyboard navigation and in the current phase, Zalando is scaling and expanding those different technical solutions, aiming to have all propositions WCAG AA compliant in 2025. Accessibility features (e.g. dark mode and dynamic text) are being developed behind the scenes and will be rolled out to customers across European member states once completed.

A key aspect of Zalando’s approach is the evolution of their Adaptive footwear design. Initially, Adaptive features like wider openings and pull-loops were added to existing shoe ranges. However, the focus has shifted to designing original, stylish footwear where Adaptive features are an integral part of the design from the outset. This “accessible design” philosophy ensures products can be worn by a wider range of people, including those with physical, cognitive, or sensory disabilities. Features such as extra-long zippers, removable soles, and easy closures like hook-and-loops instead of buckles are now seamlessly integrated. This evolution is driven by direct input and feedback from the disabled community, ensuring that functionality, comfort, and confidence are at the forefront of every design.

Impact

Zalando’s comprehensive approach to offer customers stylish Adaptive fashion across price and functionality in one place is refreshing. The company has observed in 2024 strong year-over-year growth in repeated engagement on the Adaptive Hub (+87% compared to 2023). Since its initial launch in October 2022, Zalando has doubled its adaptive fashion assortment to over 600 styles in 2024, covering categories such as foot-, sports-, adult- and kidswear with different Adaptive features such as:

Investing in Adaptive fashion is not only the right thing to do but also drives business value, as evidenced by the interest and attention received from media, industry, and customers since the launch. By highlighting the economic potential, Zalando aims to inspire other brands to cater to the disabled community as well.

Looking Ahead

Zalando is committed to continuously enhancing its range of Adaptive products, expanding its collections, and further improving the accessibility of its digital spaces in 2025. The first ever Adaptive underwear collection has just launched this Summer across all markets.

In general, the aim is to strike a balance between functionality and fashion appeal, ensuring products align with contemporary trends while remaining accessible and affordable. Through ongoing research, continuous customer feedback, and meaningful partnerships, Zalando is poised to redefine standards in inclusive fashion, creating a shopping experience that empowers style and accessibility for all individuals.