For people with a leg limb difference — whether from amputation, a congenital condition, or another cause — buying shoes has long been an irrational transaction: paying for two and throwing one away. Adidas is now addressing that routine indignity with its Single Shoe service, introduced in its own stores across 22 European countries. The idea is simple: customers can buy a single shoe at half the price of a pair. There's no separate range or special collection: the service applies across in-stock footwear.
Footwear has historically treated limb difference as an exception, if it's acknowledged at all. Adaptive fashion has gained ground, but often by creating parallel products: modified designs, separate lines, clearly demarcated categories. Adidas is taking a different approach. Instead of designing something new, it alters the terms under which the existing product is sold, turning an unfair transaction into an equitable one. (As for the leftover shoes, Adidas says they're "exploring options on how to share any surplus footwear to further support the community.")
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Millions of people live with limb loss or limb difference — not a niche, but a segment that has been consistently underserved by mainstream retail. For brands thinking about accessibility, it's often easier to launch something new than to rework the systems behind what already exists. But this is where exclusion tends to sit: in pricing models, in packaging assumptions, in the quiet, unquestioned logic of "this is how things are sold." So: which defaults should your brand start questioning?