Sask. teen reclaiming disability symbol through clothing brand

A 19-year-old from Saskatoon is using a new clothing brand to reclaim a symbolthat often hangs over people with disabilities.

Bryson Bolianatz has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. After growing up seeing a lack of representation of persons with disabilities in the world of fashion, he decided to do something himself with his free time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I was like 'You know what? If nobody else has done this before me, I'm just going to be the guy to do it,'" Bolianatz said.

In Oct. 2020, Bolianatz launched the Best Legs Supply Company. Every piece of clothing featuresthe handicapped symbol shown on parking stalls or bathroom doors.

"The whole thing is centred around using disabilities as a pride thing rather than like something to look down on," he said. "Let's take that. Let's put it on my shirt. Let's get people excited about it."

John Loeppky is a disabled artist and freelance writer who often speaks about issues affecting people with disabilities. He saidit's Boliantz's idea is great.

"What Bryson is talking about in terms of reclaiming that symbol that has, sort of hangs over the community in some ways, and reclaiming it through a Saskatchewan clothing brand, I think that's a great millennial way of doing things," Loeppky said.

Bolianatz designs each piece of clothing himself as things he would like to wear out, he said. They often have bright colours.He likes to make sure 'Best Legs' is on each as well.

"A lot of people like when they hear the name 'Best Legs,' they kind of like laugh no doubt, there is like an element of comedy to it," Bolianatz said.

"The way I look at it is 'Best Legs' doesn't necessarily mean like our legs are the best. It just means thatwe as a community and as a group of people do the best we can with what we've been given."

The response has been more than expected, Bolianatz said.

"Actually a lot of my sales, and this is something that I'm actually really proud of, have come from able-bodied people, which I think is super important," he said.

He wanted to reach other people with disabilities and was glad to see able-bodied people get on board, he said. There was even an exciting collaboration with the music group Portugal. The Man.

"Their guitarist, Eric Howk is his name, he is a wheelchair user. When I was starting the company and trying to get stuff off the ground, I reached out to him on Instagram and I was like, 'Hey, man, I know this is kind of a shot in the dark, butthis is what I'm doing.'"

Harlock responded and said he was absolutely on board. Boliantz said he couldn't believe the famous musician was interested in a collaboration.

In the future, Bolianatz said he hopes to get Best Legs to be a mainstream company that people can recognize simply on the street.

"I wanted to get to a point where everybody is like, 'Oh yeah, I'll wear this," he said. "'This is cool clothing and a cool message.'"