Folk Clothing – Protest Jacket

  • Steve Fowler
  • cathal mcateer
  • Maggie Smart

A piece of wearable tech designed for the ‘modern protester’.

The Brief

Collaborating with Folk Clothing, we set out to reinvent the protest t-shirt by creating a piece of wearable tech designed for the ‘modern protester’.

The insight was that in an era of cultural protest, be that protesting about Trump, Climate Change, Brexit, etc there was no truly modern fashion garment to reflect this. The ideal protest wear for the modern day would need to be flexible enough to change the message depending on the cause.

The Approach

Helping to conceptualise and develop the proprietary technology to power this piece of wearable tech, five limited edition protest jackets were created and given to opinion formers to wear to protests and events.

I then travelled to many protests including an anti-facism march in New York against Donald Trump and Mike Pence, documenting the experience through on-the-ground and lifestyle photography.

The Result

The jacket was featured in multiple press titles including the Financial Times and major newspapers around the UK and US covering protests.