Veronica Legg won this year’s Innov-Ex prize for her development of a prototype of climbing pants specifically designed for women. Innov-Ex, which stands for Innovation for Extremes, is a conference held since 2003 at the University of Lancaster in the U.K. by a professor of management, Mary Rose, and Mike Parson, the well-known founder of Karrimor. One of the highlights of this year’s conference was a television relay with Hitotsubashi University in Japan where Uniqlo and Toray explained some of the benefits of vertical integration in the development and sale of functional products.