Clothes Horse – The next evolution to finding good fits online?
Say I’m looking to buy this light blue dress shirt from Bonobos (sidenote: I’m not. $98 is too rich for me).
If I was left to my own devices, I’d buy one in my somewhat standard neck & sleeve size of 15.5×33.
But instead I see this “what size am I?” button. I click it.
A box pops up. It asks me a few questions, and after I answer, this box suggests that instead of my 15.5×33, I consider sizing up to a 16×34.
That fellas, is Clothes Horse.
Clothes Horse is the next step in trying to deliver clothing that consistently fits to customers who prefer to shop online. Key word is “trying.” They officially launched today, and so far they’ve got just a few retailers using their product. Bonobos is one of them. The new Modasuite product Frank & Oak is another.
We all know that a pair of Brooks Brothers pants won’t fit like a pair of Old Navy pants, which in turn won’t fit like a pair of Bonobos pants. Clothes Horse is attempting to cut out the trial and error of getting to know certain brands by providing us, the customers, with an easy to use pop-up interface that asks a few questions, then spits out a suggested size based on you responses.
Clothes Horse trying to help me pick a shirt size on Bonobos.
Initial reaction from this end is that the Clothes Horse questions are reminiscent of how Blank Label and ratio/clothing attempt to get you a perfect fit. Clothes Horse asks you some questions about your body type as well as what brand of shirt fits you best. According to them, they’ve got “Human body scan data across thousands of men and women” as well as “key measurement data across brands” which when combined with their algorithms, a suggested size is produced.
Welcome to the future. I know. Heavy.
But is it that simple? From the ten brands listed in the “favorite fitting brand” section, Banana Republic is the closest for me, but B.R. shirts aren’t spot on through the body. The arms seems right though, and short of a custom shirt, nothing really is going to be perfect. I leave B.R. as my favorite and says it “fits well.”
Clothes Horse suggests a 16×34 in the Bonobos shirt, which seems a little large & long in the arms. Clothes Horse reassures me that “The sizes run small, so you might see a larger size than expected” and that it should fit “just right” all around. We’ll see. Got the $98 (ouch) Clothes Horse suggested sized shirt on the way. More next week.
Thoughts on these guys? Do you depend on the comments of reviewers to determine if you should size up or down? Do you think Clothes Horse is fighting an uphill battle against too many individual body types? Leave it all below.