To celebrate Neurodiversity Celebration Week, George Mayfield-Dudley, a student currently enrolled in one of our Foundation Learning courses, has interviewed the creators of Comfa, a local brand making waves in the world of sensory-friendly clothing.
Comfa is a father-son duo on a mission to make clothing more inclusive and comfortable for neurodiverse individuals. Their innovative designs feature pop-its integrated into the hems, and they’ve worked to eliminate scratchy seams and labels, ensuring a better sensory experience for all.
George first applied for this project as part of our Sustainable Futures initiative, proposing an interview with a successful neurodiverse individual to explore both the "superpowers" and challenges neurodiverse people often navigate in their daily lives. Although George's application was strong, the competition was fierce, and he wasn’t shortlisted at the time. Undeterred by this, George felt so passionately about the project that he decided to take it on as an independent micro-project, using it as an opportunity to celebrate Neurodiversity Celebration Week.
The interview took place online today, 21st March 2025, and George was speaking with Matt Palfrey who founded Comfa with his family. Matt was diagnosed with autism last year and his son Max was diagnosed when he was 5. Keep reading to find out more about the insightful questions George asked and the responses he received!
Q. What prompted you to make your company Comfa an idea into a reality?
A. The idea came from Max, who is our 12 year old. He was diagnosed with autism when he was 5 and ADHD when he was 7. One day, he was playing with a pop-it in his room and found that it really helped him stim and regulate. He came downstairs and said, “Has anyone ever thought about putting these in clothing so you always have them with you? If you’re in an environment where you don’t know what to expect, and you feel anxious or overstimulated, you’ve got the fidget right there, and you can’t lose it.” This idea seemed particularly helpful for people with ADHD as well.
We thought it was a great idea and looked into whether anyone else was doing it, but no one was. Max has always struggled with clothing, especially with labels, seams, etc. We spent a lot of time researching and speaking to other families and people with similar issues with clothing and developed the concept from there. It all stemmed from our desire to help people who were struggling the same way we were.
I was diagnosed as autistic last year, and now that I look back, I realize there were many things I could have done differently, which might have made things easier for me. For example, I always wore jeans because that’s what everyone else wore, but now I realize that jeans were part of the reason I ended the day feeling overstimulated and on edge.
It's really about spreading awareness, educating people, and helping others. Some of the feedback we’ve received from families who’ve tried the T-shirts has been incredible. We've heard from people who couldn't even leave the house before because they couldn’t tolerate clothing. I always say that if it ended tomorrow, it would still be amazing what we've already done to help people.
Q. What advice would you give someone who is Neurodivergent?
A. I think the most important thing for us is understanding yourself. Understanding the reason you experience life the way you do is not a bad thing. You’re not broken; it’s just that your brain works differently, and that’s okay. Accept what your needs are and find ways to make them work. We always use the analogy that if you took a PlayStation disc and put it in an Xbox, it wouldn’t work. That doesn’t mean it’s broken; it just works differently. That’s the way we try to look at things.
It can be difficult, though, because society as a whole is set up for neurotypical people, and like you said, not everyone understands that. We’ve encountered a lot of misunderstanding on social media while promoting our clothing, with people saying things like, “Just cut the label out” or “Get a cheap T-shirt,” because they don’t understand that people experience the world differently.
I think the key thing for me is understanding what you find difficult and what you find easier, and trying to accept that. Then, put things in place to help yourself where you can. Try not to compare yourself to someone who is neurotypical. Just because you experience the world differently doesn’t mean one way is better than the other.
Q. If Comfa were to expand into different countries in the future, would that change anything about approaching you’re clothing brand such as cultural differences and personal preferences?
A. Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s something we’d have to look at, to understand how that would work. There are obviously different challenges, like language barriers, financial rules, and legal issues. Our patent covers us in the UK, Europe, and America, so those are the core markets we’re focusing on for the future, but we’d love to go worldwide.
I know there are lots of cultural differences— for example, in the Far East, the color of things can have very different meanings in other cultures, and that would be another aspect to consider. We only have experience within our own culture, so we would need to bring someone in who could help us and advise us on that.
From a neurodiversity point of view, different countries would also have varying levels of knowledge and experience. We’ve had a lot of people from America contact us, saying that the knowledge and experience their doctors and healthcare professionals have seem to be a lot less than what we have in the UK. We’ve had many parents come across our content— we started off just talking about our experience as parents and Max’s experience as a child who is neurodivergent. A lot of parents have said, "Oh, I’ve never heard of this, but it sounds like my child," especially with PDA, which is Max’s specific diagnosis within the autism spectrum.
Lots of people have commented saying they wish they had more resources. So, yes, there would be a whole range of things to look into before approaching a new market. If there isn’t awareness in other countries, is it going to be as accessible or as easy to grow a business in that market, especially if the framework of awareness isn't already there?
Q. Are you going to make more items with a popit fidget toy in such as, hats, gloves, trousers, water bottle, phone cases or perhaps use a new fabric for preferences?
A. We’ve got an adult size that we currently have a Kickstarter campaign for, and we’re trying to get that funded. We’ve also just received a polo shirt prototype for school uniforms. We want to expand as much as we can— jumpers, trousers, formal wear. We’ve even had the idea of looking into hospital gowns for people who are having operations. My wife wants to tackle underwear and the sensory aspect of that. Our patent covers the implementation of fidgets into any kind of clothing, so the big challenge for us is the funding side of things.
As a small business, we’ve put a lot of our own money into this, and now we need to get a return on the stock we’ve got so we can reinvest it into more products and build from there. That’s where the media coverage we’ve had has been instrumental. We were featured on This Morning when we first launched in March, and that was an incredible experience. Our website even crashed from the traffic generated by that appearance. I was on the way back from the studio, on the phone to the website company trying to get it sorted because there were so many people visiting the site.
There’s a big demand for these products, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to reach people and let them know that our product exists. We also need to figure out how to get them made at a price that people can afford. Businesses often double or triple the price for products designed for additional needs, but as a business, we don’t want to do that. We’d rather have a lower profit margin and help more people. There are lots of challenges to overcome in order to grow and create more products, but hopefully, in the future, we’ll have a full outfit and a complete range.
Q. What has helped you in your struggles of Neurodiversity? – How have you overcome your challenges?
A. It’s about knowing your limitations and understanding the things you’re going to find difficult. For instance, one of the things I really struggle with is task paralysis, so I get overwhelmed really easily. If I have lots of emails to answer and meetings to attend, it can feel very overwhelming.
I did a master’s degree before I knew I was neurodivergent, and I used to beat myself up mentally because I kept thinking, "Why am I sitting here, trying to work, and feeling like I constantly need to procrastinate and do something else?" My brain felt like it needed to avoid the task. Now that I understand more about how my brain works and why I am the way I am, it has given me— not relief, because it’s still a challenge— but at least I can say, “I know I’m only going to manage 20-30 minutes at a time, and then I need a break,” and I try to plan things around that.
Connecting with other people, sharing experiences, exchanging advice and tips, and finding common ground has been really helpful. We say to a lot of people, whether or not you have a formal diagnosis of being neurodivergent, if you recognize through research that this may be the case for you, you don’t have to wait until you have a diagnosis to put strategies in place. You can research techniques that help others and use them for yourself.
Just because you don’t have a piece of paper that says, “Yes, I am autistic,” or “No, I’m not,” doesn’t make a difference to what’s going to help you. If you find something that works for you, then do it. A lot of this is a learning curve and an ongoing educational process for ourselves, and I’m sure there are things we’ll learn as we get older as well.
It’s also good to not feel alone and to feel part of a community, and that’s where the positive side of social media comes in. You can feel very isolated, but when people share that they feel the same way or offer advice on how they deal with something, it can feel validating and help you feel less lonely.
