Primark continues to drive inclusive fashion changes with kidswear updates

Fashion retailer Primark is making kids' clothing more inclusive with design updates targeting sensory challenges, following its pledge in 2024 to make fashion and everyday essentials more accessible and affordable to as many people as possible.

Primark has announced design changes to its core kidswear range to make it more inclusive and considered by introducing small changes to address sensory challenges facing many children with clothing, such as removing neck labels to make more kids feel comfortable in their clothes.

As a first step, Primark will be moving away from neck labels across its kids' clothing and nightwear, removing neck labels from the backs of T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and pyjamas. This means that than 50 percent of Primark’s kids' clothing will now be neck label free, including almost 70 percent of pyjamas, “with an ambition to keep increasing this further,” explained the retailer.

In addition, the fashion chain will be introducing seamless sock options, after parents and carers of children with sensory challenges identified socks as a common source of discomfort. The new range of seamless and flat seam socks have been designed to make it easy to have a whole week of comfortable options to hand.

Commenting on the changes, Ann Marie Cregan, trading director at Primark, said in a statement: “We want all kids to feel great in their clothes, so they can focus on what matters - being themselves. This isn’t about creating a new and special range, it’s about improving our kids’ clothes, thinking about inclusive design from the very start and removing or sometimes adding features, so that they work harder for more children and families.

“We’ve started with removing neck labels and introducing more seamless socks – small changes that we heard from parents could make a big difference. Our kids clothing already represents the best value on the high street and we know how important this is right now. We will continue to listen to parents to understand what more we can do.”

Primark makes changes to its kids' clothing to be more inclusive

The move builds on the retailer’s wider commitment to becoming a more accessible place to shop and work, following the launch of its adaptive men’s and women’s fashion range earlier this year, and working with award-winning adaptive designer and disability advocate, Victoria Jenkins, to bring adaptive fashion to the high street.

Primark states it has focused on these changes on some of its most-loved products “to deliver maximum comfort where it matters” by selecting styles made from soft fabrics like 100 percent cotton T-shirts and tops, as well as sweatshirts and joggers, “to make everyday dressing that little bit simpler”.

In addition, Primark is introducing ‘Extra Comfort’ signage in store, which includes symbols to show whether the product has no neck label to help customers easily identify the changes. The retailer will also be making it easier to browse online by rolling out a filter for ‘sensory friendly’ kidswear options when browsing the Primark website.

This is the latest initiative from the high street retailer to address sensory concerns, joining the rollout of sensory-friendly shopping hours in selected stores across Great Britain. The pilot will be available in 26 locations across the East and West Midlands and North East, where stores will operate with reduced noise, no till sounds or in-store announcements for the first hour of opening every Saturday. The retailer aims to roll out the shopping hour to further stores in the UK early next year.