Since we first featured them on bespoken, CAPR-Style have continued to grow, recently winning the title of Scotland’s most innovative small business in the “Face of British businesses” competition in association with BT. Having won this award, founder Claudia Romero and her small team in Edinburgh are now up for the national prize, competing with other small business across Britain.

We decided to catch up with the team over at CAPR-Style to find out more about their recent success.

Just to remind ourselves how this company came about, CAPR-Style are based in Edinburgh and designs clothes specifically for people with disabilities who perhaps struggle to wear conventional clothing. When her third son Christian was born severely disabled CAPR-Styles founder Claudia Romero became frustrated that her son’s condition was prohibiting him from wearing both comfortable and fashionable clothing, as he got older dressing her son became far more difficult. Discovering that his condition restricted him to hoodies and baggy t-shirts Claudia decided to design and create her own clothes that could combine both function and fashion for the severely disabled. Leading to the creation of CAPR-Style.

Following their award CAPR-Style head of marketing Ross Lindsay discussed how the attention they received from the awards have helped to boost CAPR-Style’s visibility and reach a wider audience. “It’s been a great start to the year for us, the awards have helped promote our business to a wider audience, and since we’ve been announced as nominees for the award we’ve also received various request from designers around Edinburgh asking if they could design clothes for us”.

With the nationwide winner being announced on the 3^rd of March and an award ceremony taking place in London where many businesses and potential partners will be in attendance CAPR-Style believe that while winning the award would be fantastic simply being nominated for the award can help CAPR-Style push on.

“When we applied for the best innovative small business in Scotland we didn’t really think we were going to get anywhere. Now we are able to attend the event in London, gain further exposure for our business and network with other businesses attending the event”. 

Innovation is key to success.

 The award for most innovative small business in Scotland is not the only award CAPR-Style has won; they’ve also managed to land the Bronze product award from Mumtrepreneurs for their recently released Arran Trousers, the trousers provide extra padding around the knees to allow for soft landings for individuals whose condition mans they have poor balance as well as containing zips on the side of the leg so that the trousers can be put on from the side to allow carers or individual an easier means of putting on the trouser if traditional means are difficult because of their disability. 

It’s these kinds of small and creatively practical innovations which have helped CAPR-Style achieve the success they have achieved so far. The team will not stop there though, they will continue to expand their line to further help disabled people find clothes that are not only practical, but boost their confidence by creating fashionable designs within their clothing lines.

Some of the new ideas currently in the work from Scotland’s most innovative small business include anti-strip clothing for people high on the autistic spectrum so that they can’t remove their clothing while out in public; a not uncommon problem. The needs of wheelchair users are also being looked at by the design team with a line coming out which allows for more comfortable pockets, which are normally uncomfortable and inconveniently located.

CAPR-Style will continue to grow  

Despite scepticism from the majority of the retail sector,  the success enjoyed by CAPR-Style has shown that there is a strong demand among for functional and fashionable clothing within the disability market. With CAPR-Style’s continued dedication and hard work, this demand will surely be met for a long time yet.

A link to the voting section for the Great British Business: http://www.greatbusinesscompetition.com/

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