Adaptive clothing company sews up top US Chamber of Commerce award
Designs aim to ease getting dressed for older adults, those with Parkinson's
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(Image from iStock)
- A U.S.-based company is being recognized for creating adaptive clothing that can be easily put on by people with Parkinson's and other conditions.
- Joe & Bella, founded by a father-son duo six years ago, was named a top awardee of the US Chamber of Commerce's 2026 CO-100 competition.
- Its designs use magnetic snaps and side zippers to assist patients with limited mobility and reduced dexterity.
Joe & Bella, a company that makes stylish adaptive clothing for older adults and those with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, has been granted the top spot in the Disruptors category of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 CO-100 competition.
For Jimmy Zollo, the CEO of Joe & Bella — who cofounded the company with his father six years ago — receiving this award was “a deeply personal moment,” he told Parkinson’s News Today in an interview.
Zollo was inspired to start the company, which sells its products online, after helping to care for his aging grandparents. The goal: Fulfilling a need for “families who desperately needed easier-dressing clothing.”
“Being recognized by the U.S. Chamber as the Top Honoree in the Disruptors category was incredibly validating,” Zollo said. “It tells us that adaptive apparel isn’t a niche idea on the sidelines of fashion anymore. There is a much broader recognition that clothing should be designed for people whose bodies or abilities change over time.”
Inspiration for Joe & Bella specifically came from Zollo’s grandmother. Like many people who live to a certain age, she started having trouble putting on the items in her closet after she moved into memory care.
“Getting dressed is something most of us take for granted until one part of the process becomes difficult,” Zollo said. “For someone living with Parkinson’s, arthritis, limited mobility or reduced dexterity, small buttons, traditional zippers, bending down to pull on pants or raising arms overhead can turn a simple routine into a frustrating one.”
Founder’s grandmother inspired the drive for adaptive clothing
Seeking to help his grandmother, Zollo sought out adaptive clothing — that is, clothing that’s designed to be easier to put on for individuals with disabilities. But when his grandmother saw the adaptive clothing that was available, she essentially refused to wear it. “And I understood why,” Zolo said. “A lot of it looked institutional or clinical, dated and cheap.”
He wanted to do better by his grandmother.
“Getting older doesn’t mean you suddenly stop caring about how you look. If you’ve spent your whole life dressing a certain way, you still want to recognize yourself in the mirror. You still want to feel put together going to dinner, seeing your friends or attending a family event,” Zollo said. “And when my grandmother moved into senior living, after giving up most of her possessions and her life as she knew it, how she looked mattered even more. She was meeting new people, in a new place, and wanted to show everyone who she was and who she is.”
As such, clinical-looking adaptive clothing “solved a physical problem by asking her to give up part of her identity,” he said.
Need is ease, goal is fashion
Joe & Bella’s mission is to provide adaptive clothing that’s easy to put on, but that also looks fashionable. For example, the company offers shirts that look like a traditional button-down, but instead of actual buttons, they are clasped with magnetic snaps that are easier to handle.
Zollo said his personal favorite is the Everyday Side-Zip pants, which have a zipper on the side that can open to make them easier to put on, but aren’t visible once the pants are on. The item is noted on the website as a bestseller for both men and women, with a regular price of $108.
“Pants are one of the most difficult garments to redesign because there are so many movements involved in putting them on. You have to get your feet through the openings, pull the fabric over the legs and hips, and often stand or balance while finishing the process,” Zollo said.
What matters most to us is that the adaptive feature disappears once the garment is on. We want the clothing to solve a real problem without making someone ever feel like they’re wearing a medical product.
Key in their design was making them not look like adaptive clothing, according to Zollo.
“The side zippers fundamentally change how the pants can be put on, but when they’re zipped up, they look like a favorite pair of pants,” he said.
Zollo adds: “What matters most to us is that the adaptive feature disappears once the garment is on. We want the clothing to solve a real problem without making someone ever feel like they’re wearing a medical product. As we like to say, the function is hidden; the style is not.”
For Zollo and his dad, the new recognition from the Chamber of Commerce is “something neither of us takes for granted.” But for father and son, the best part of the company’s journey has been the feedback from the community.
“We hear from customers, adult children, caregivers, nurses and occupational therapists who immediately understand the problem we’re working to solve. They’ll tell us about a parent who was able to button a shirt again, someone who could get dressed with less assistance, or a caregiver whose morning routine became easier and safer,” he said. “Those stories have always meant more to us than any award.”
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