MISSION
Give back dignity and independent dressing to people living with lower body pain and stiffness.
VISION
Adaptive underwear that is safe, comfortable, and gives confidence in lower body dressing.
PROMISE
Feel secure, comfortable, and independent.
Satisfaction Guaranteed. Designed by orthopaedic hip surgeons.
Tested and approved by patients and allied health professionals.
EASYREACH STORY
EasyReach was born through shared values. It began with a conversation between two international hip surgeons whose patients had the same fears and challenges post-hip replacement surgery.
Patient's Fear
A common fear amongst patients is their loss of independence and dignity post-hip surgery. Patients often ask, ‘What underwear do I buy post-surgery if I can’t bend?’, ‘I don’t want anyone helping me put on and take off my underwear, what do I wear?’, ‘I live alone and don’t want to risk falling while dressing, what underwear do I wear?’
Not having a solution to an already stressful situation, we put our heads together and began thinking about designing underwear that gives patients back their dignity and independence while helping with their recovery and rehabilitation. It needed to solve their biggest fear – putting on and removing underwear without assistance. It had to make a difference in their lives and the burden put on their carers’.
The design had to be innovative and address patients’ key concerns:
• Inability to bend up and down to dress independently
• Fear of bending too far while dressing and dislocating their hip
• Fear of losing balance and falling while dressing
• How to regain the dignity of dressing without assistance
• Managing pain while moving
We interviewed patients, their carers, nurses, rehab specialists, allied health professionals, and doctors who validated our thinking – patients do not want assistance to put on and take off their underwear, they want dignity and independence in dressing.
The design
Our design needed to be functional, discreet, and practical to meet the needs of people living with lower body pain who had no easy solution to dressing independently.
We spent two years designing and testing different prototypes with patients in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia. Their insights were invaluable, and the look of relief on the patients wearing the designs was motivating. It was one trial that hip replacement patients did not want to miss – no more bending to put on underwear and no more assistance to dress.
Point of difference
EasyReach underwear today offers features like no other adaptive underwear. It’s stylish and modern. Individuals sit to put it on and take it off. It has tabs for easy zipping, side poppers for extra security, and cool gel inserts to soothe the pain. It removes the fear of falling or the loss of balance while dressing.
Value add feature
As testing progressed we also needed to address sore hips during rehabilitation. We enhanced the design to include side pockets to hold cool gel inserts. Patients could keep their hip iced when active or during rehabilitation sessions (instead of sitting/lying down with frozen peas). Not only was the design easy to put on but discreet and invisible under clothing. We solved their problem and delivered functional and practical adaptive underwear.
Giving back confidence
Patients now dress confidently and attend rehabilitation, social and work events with peace of mind. No one wants to ask for help with their underwear.
We are humbled knowing EasyReach underwear has made a significant difference to our patients and health professionals in many different ways.
Thank you to all
We thank our patients, their carers, rehabilitation team specialists, nurses, physiotherapists, doctors, and allied health professionals who helped us make EasyReach underwear a reality. We love hearing the stories and feedback on how it has changed people’s lives.