Planning a better layer for people who work outside

The question

A workwear maker wanted to improve the garment people wear between a base layer and a coat, in jobs that keep them moving outdoors.

Its product and innovation team had to choose what to develop and test next. That meant knowing how workers dress for a shift and for a season, what they ask of the layer in the middle, and what would make a new one worth paying more for.

Our approach

Workers recorded their own working days on their phones, so we saw how they layered through real shifts and changing weather, then talked us through their gear at home.

A co-creation session brought workers together with people from the company, so early garment ideas were shaped by the people who would wear them, with the company’s own team building alongside.

What the team came away with

The team left with opportunity areas for innovation, each grounded in what workers recorded and framed by what a layer has to do through a working day.

The areas were offered as directional guidance, a way to choose what to develop and test next, and were set against the ways a new layer could add value, so options could be compared on more than features alone, including what each could be worth to the person wearing it.

The early garment ideas had already been through workers’ hands, and the company’s own people had helped build them. That gave the team a starting point it had shaped itself, close to the realities of a long working day outdoors in all kinds of weather.