At Halara, customer feedback is not just part of the process—it is central to shaping the brand’s product design and strategy.
Jessica Thompson, Halara’s global brand president, highlighted how direct shopper feedback has driven the activewear brand’s innovation, expanded its collections, and strengthened customer trust.
In an interview, Thompson revealed that customer insights directly inspired the creation of the Easy Peezy dress, which features front-attached shorts and an elasticised back waist for easy bathroom access.
“Initially, we created a viral activewear dress with built-in shorts; while the dress was well-received, we found through customer feedback there was a very common pain point – the dress had to be completely taken off to go to the bathroom. In some settings, this was inconvenient, or could even make women feel vulnerable,” Thompson told RetailBiz.
“Our product team spent months prototyping and testing solutions and eventually landed on a semi-detachable short as a solution to this problem…This was a real defining moment for the active dress, and it’s a functionality that our customers love and appreciate, which has led to us extending this innovation to other product categories, like jumpsuits.”
Thompson emphasised that listening to customers is key to building trust.
“It really builds trust. When customers get to see and experience the ways in which their feedback is taken into account, they feel seen and heard. When they know we’re actively using their feedback to consistently make our products better, they keep coming back for more.”
Creative vision meets customer input
Moreover, listening to customers also extends to the creative process, where Thompson sees feedback as essential to driving innovation and ensuring the brand resonates with its audience.
“Well, if creative vision exists on its own, without any feedback, it’s pure ego. It’s like screaming into the void. What makes creativity fun is the conversation it can spark with the customer and the challenges that are presented when something doesn’t quite land and needs to be reassessed.”
She believes that successful branding and creative strategies stem from these ongoing conversations, where feedback shapes and refines ideas to make them more meaningful to the customer.
In today’s highly competitive market, where consumers are constantly exposed to a barrage of marketing messages and advertising, Thompson warned that brands that fail to listen to their customers risk becoming irrelevant.
“If you aren’t listening to what your customer wants and acting on it, you cannot survive. Today’s customers have endless choices and can find what they want or need with near immediacy.”
As Halara continues to expand its reach, Thompson sees global scaling as an opportunity to deepen its connection with customers.
She noted that what the brand learns from one market can often be applied to others, making consumer insights even more valuable.
Moreover, despite the advantages of digital engagement, Thompson acknowledged the importance of face-to-face interaction.
“That being said, human interaction and interfacing in person with the customer is still critical. We are doing this more and more at Halara via offline events and activations as well as pop-ups. Being able to hear from our customers as they’re trying and testing products and experiencing our brand in real life is invaluable.”
Shaping Halara’s hero products through feedback
Thompson emphasised that customer feedback has been instrumental in shaping many of Halara’s flagship products.
“Virtually all of our hero products have been shaped by customer feedback, from the Easy Peezy dress that I mentioned earlier, to our Flex Denim, our Flex Pants, our activewear and more. We have a team of over 20 fabric scientists who leverage feedback to continually upgrade our fabric.”
As customer demand grew for a broader range of denim options, Halara developed an ultra-stretch denim fabric now featured in dresses and tops.
“Our denim is incredibly light, soft, ultra-stretchy and is even cooling, all based on past learnings from what our customers liked and didn’t like from the first version of the fabric.”
“We also saw more demand for an expansion of our denim categories and developed an ultra-stretch denim fabric that we’re now using for some dresses and tops. Our customers are enjoying the denim-on-denim trend, so we’ve introduced more tops, shorts, and skirts so that they can complete the look.”
Similarly, the Flex Pants category continues to expand, offering new fabrics and styles that are crease-proof, sweat-wicking, and cooling, all tailored to customer input.
Thompson also highlighted the latest version of the UltraSculpt fabric, which was upgraded to meet customer requests for a more pronounced butt-lifting and sculpting effect.
“Our customer wanted an even more pronounced butt-lifting and sculpting effect, so we got to work and upgraded the fabric for them.”
When asked about specific design decisions influenced by customer feedback, Thompson pointed to several key features.
“Adjustable straps, differentiated lengths, design features to create lifting and sculpting effects are just a few. All design decisions that come to life are ultimately customer-approved as we only produce what the customer is adding to cart. “
Looking ahead, Thompson predicts that customer feedback will become even more integral to the fashion industry.
“I think it is going to go from a nice-to-have to a need-to-have; customers are already growing to expect this.”
The future of fashion: democratising design through customer input
With the rise of tools like AI and real-time data, she believes fashion will become more democratic.
“Brands won’t be able to simply dictate to or convince consumers of what they want, or what they should wear. I also think it will challenge brands to actually be more creative and to come up with more differentiated products that address specific consumer requests or pain points,” Thompson added.