Growing up, Haley Schwartz never could find the right clothes to accommodate the heart monitor she had to wear all the time because of her abnormal heart rhythm. Now 22, Schwartz, who attended St. Charles East High School, is a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She was just awarded FIT’s first-ever PETE Prize for Entrepreneurs, which she plans to use to develop clothing for those people who have health conditions such as her own. (Jerry Speier)

Growing up, Haley Schwartz never could find the right clothes to accommodate the heart monitor she had to wear all the time because of her abnormal heart rhythm.

Now 22, Schwartz, who attended St. Charles East High School, is a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She was just awarded FIT’s first-ever PETE Prize for Entrepreneurs, which she plans to use to develop clothing for those people who have health conditions such as her own.

The award comes with $30,000 in seed money for her business, Vertige, which will make fashion-forward adaptive wear for people with various health conditions and disabilities. As part of the award, she will also receive office space for one year, in addition to marketing, legal, financial, creative and operational guidance on how to build and launch an innovative company.

At age 4, Schwartz was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia – a type of abnormal heart rhythm – and had to wear a heart monitor at all times. She attended St. Charles East until the beginning of her sophomore year and then wasn’t able to finish high school because of her condition. She later received her GED diploma.

Her health problems and the fact she had to wear a heart monitor made Schwartz realize the need for adaptive clothing for those with health conditions and disabilities.

“It was uncomfortable and obvious,” she said. “People could tell that I was wearing a heart monitor and it caused me to not want to go and do things. Wearing adaptive clothing kind of hides that and gives people more of a normal experience.”

Schwartz continues to wear a heart monitor. The PETE Prize is administered by the FIT DTech Lab as a jury-selected merit award competition that recognizes excellence in developing fresh, insightful and creative ideas that demonstrate design-oriented and innovative thinking.

She was chosen out of 40 applicants. Schwartz said she plans to get samples into production because she wants to get these tested by as many people as possible and have people with disabilities and health problems try them on.

“Just having this investment is really good because now I will be able to get other investors more easily,” she said. “I’ll be using this money to start to launch the company, but I’m still going to need like another $200,000.”

From left: FIT President Joyce F. Brown, PETE Prize winner Haley Schwartz, Edwin Goodman, and FIT DTech Lab Executive Director Michael Ferraro during the PETE Prize Award ceremony. (Jerry Speier)

The judges were Cathleen Sheehan, chair and professor, FIT Fashion Design MFA program; FIT alumnus (Accessories Design ‘10) Keith Kirkland, co-founder of Wear Works; Sara Griffin, a communications, creative, and business strategist working in design, art, and architecture; Kristine Pizzelanti, vice president of marketing, store experience and global licensing at Gap Inc. and Amber Allen, founder & CEO of Double A Labs, an enterprise Metaverse platform for people to learn, connect, and play with a purpose.

“What really impressed us was we were also told to look for things that were reflective of FIT’s vision to lead the creative industries with socially conscious solutions that have a positive impact on the world, and there is no doubt that what Haley is doing does that,” Sheehan said. “Personally I found that her own story and experience not only transformed how she felt about herself, it also impacted how people interacted with her. She felt like teachers and friends treated her differently, proving the transformative power of fashion. The world needs her product.”

Vertige will cater to people with heart monitors, colostomy bags, ports, feeding tubes, breast cancer and other health conditions. She decided to name her company Vertige because she continues to struggle with vertigo.

Vertige is vertigo in French.

“I suffer with vertigo a lot,” Schwartz said. “I can’t stand up for too long without passing out and it feels like the room is always spinning. I thought the name sounded kinda cool and that experience kind of shaped my life, so I kind of wanted to pay tribute to that a little bit.”

Schwartz is taking business classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In May, she received her associate in applied science in fashion design from the school.

She hopes for her company to be up and running by May. Schwartz initially plans to start as an e-commerce business and also do pop-up shops.

Schwartz, who has been working out of her apartment, is happy that she will have her own office to launch her company.

“It’s going to be really nice,” she said. “I’m real excited to have that space. It’s going to be really helpful, because my apartment is pretty small.”

Her mother, Lynne Schwartz, is proud of not only her daughter being awarded the prize, but for her wanting to launch such a business.

“She hasn’t had an easy road, so seeing her persevere through that and being able to win this award has been really, really special,” she said. “It’s really great to see that she’s taking something that’s been an adversity of hers and something that’s been a challenge of hers and has used her talents to try and help other people feel good about themselves.”

Her family also is proud that she has come so far given the challenges facing her.

“She still has challenges,” Lynne Schwartz said. “It’s not easy. She still has chronic illness. So the fact that she’s gotten to this point makes us proud of her and we also feel very blessed and fortunate that she’s been able to do all of this.”

Copyright © 2022 Shaw Local News Network

Copyright © 2022 Shaw Local News Network