We’re proud to announce the launch today of a Thomas & Friends™ clothing range designed to be autism friendly. We’ve been working closely with the Thomas & Friends™ brand team in the UK and Character.com to develop the range, which is aimed at autistic children and young people aged 5 to 16.

They are also kindly donating 20% of all sales from this range to our charity, to help us continue our vital work providing information and advice and campaigning for a society that works for autistic people. You can view the whole range on Character.com.

Some autistic people are highly sensitive to the feel and colour of certain materials, to the extent that some clothing is unpleasant or even painful to wear. So we were keen to support the idea of a sensory clothing range, by conducting research with families of autistic children and running focus groups at the our Helen Allison School in Kent.

Parents involved in the focus groups said that their children preferred softer fabric. Over half of parents who responded to our survey said that there are fabrics their children will not wear, as well as specific colour preferences and ease of dressing requirements and needs.

In April 2021 we surveyed over 1,500 parents whose autistic children are under the age of 16. According to the results of the survey, the biggest considerations in choosing clothing are:

• Pull on clothing
• Easy dressing clothing
• No labels
• No buttons
• Velcro fastenings

The clothing range has been designed with these insights in mind - with soft fabric and includes items such as loose-fitting t-shirts, jumpers, and tracksuits, all designed for ease of dressing. We then ran two focus groups at our Helen Allison School in October 2021, where autistic pupils tried the clothes over the weekend and shared their feedback. Mattel has heard from fans of the Thomas  & Friends brand that they ‘retain the love for the brand beyond the core age’, which is why the range has been specially designed for fans aged from 5 to 16 years.

Peter Watt, Director of National Programmes at the National Autistic Society, said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Thomas & Friends™ and Character.com to create such an important range of clothing for autistic children and teens.

“Parents and autistic young people often tell us how sensory sensitivities can mean that children on the autism spectrum struggle with certain clothes. For some, a label on a t-shirt, a prominent seam, or certain fabrics could be incredibly itchy, distracting or even physically painful. Finding the right clothing can make shopping difficult, time consuming, and stressful. So, it’s really great to have the chance to develop this autism friendly collection.”

Claudia Caron, Thomas & Friends™ Marketing Manager, said: “Thomas & Friends™ is an inclusive brand who invites all of our fans to celebrate friendship. We are very proud to be supporting our Thomas & Friends™ community of autistic fans through our partnership with our friends at the National Autistic Society to offer more choices and accessible clothing based on what mums and dads of autistic children have told us they want to see.”

Karen Hewitt, Co-Founder of Character.com said: “We are thrilled to introduce this Thomas & Friends™ range which has been developed in collaboration with the National Autistic Society. The Character.com team is excited to launch a range that is so unique to the industry and to provide our consumers with exactly what they need."

The Range is available at Character.com from 1 April 2022.