The paper addresses the research question: What new skills and capabilities do textile designers need to promote sustainable design innovation in large fashion corporations? Using a framework of traditional textile design practice (Gale & Kaur, 2002) and a vision of practice for sustainable fashion/textile designers (Fletcher & Grose, 2012), the paper argues that skills outside of the field are needed if researchers are to fully contribute to industry change. The authors reflect upon the experiences of the TED team, and the programme that aimed to prepare them to design and deliver the ‘Sustainable Design Inspiration’ (SDI) project at H&M. The up skilling series included consultancy, facilitation, and webinar skills, and ‘Brilliant Thinking’, by Idenk. This was supplemented with a less formal internal programme of mindfulness, meditation, and career coaching.