Clo 3D x Special Olympics

Izzy Wu
Apparel Designer

Lululemon FW27
Lululemon SS27
Lululemon FW26
Reebok SP24
Clo 3D x Special Olympics
Knit Experiments

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Parsons x Special Olympics
Custome Powerlifting Capsule
in collaboration w/ Clo3D and TrueToForm
May, 2023

Rethinking the Powerlifting Uniform for Athlete’s with Cognitive Disabilites
This project was a year-long collaboration as a student representing Parsons School of Design with three powerlifting athletes from the Special Olympics New York Division: Jessica, Heather, and Teddy.

The collaboration began with six weeks of getting to know the athletes through Zoom, learning about their daily lives, training programs, and interests both in and outside of their sport. One theme emerged consistently: they felt underrepresented as athletes with disabilities and struggled to find sportswear that truly resonated with them. This became the foundation for the collaboration—from closures designed to support limited dexterity to graphics and colors that helped them feel seen and heard.

For the second part of the collaboration we scanned our athlete’s bodies with TrueTo Form technology that gave us a realistic idea of our athelet’s dimension, and then input the realistic avatars into Clo3D to begin the process of visually drafting designs for our athletes. This portion of the work relied heavy on 3D renderings, building color palettes and graphics placements that we shared and discussed with our athletes

By the last six weeks of the project we had finished prototyping and selected the winning graphics and designs along with color variations for the final products. Although physical samples were made for the athletes, the final presentation celebrated the process of idating on realistic forms in Clo3D and how it made possible the continued collaboration between athlete and designer.

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