T h e pe r f ect fit fo r sustainab il ity: an inter vi ew wi th Jess Flei sch er , Son of a Tai lor co -fou n d e r
HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT BUILDING AND TESTING YOUR IDEAL SIZE ALGORITHM?
HOW HAS COVID-19 CHANGED THAT? WHAT WILL BE ITS IMPACT ON THE FASHION INDUSTRY?
Besides that, there are substantial
I don’t really know. It was one of
In relation to COVID-19, traditional
those magic start-up epiphanies. We
pre-pandemic levels. Many studies
fashion brands have experienced
were annoyed how much trouble
indicate that this won’t be the case,
sudden changes in demand, many
customers had measuring themselves
so fashion brands will be forced
with a steep decline. This is painful
with a measuring tape. So we started
to provide a better online service,
for any business as there are fixed
acquiring torso measurement
including better representation of
costs that need to be covered. But for
data and after a month, our Lead
their products, better sizing options
fashion companies, it hurts all the
Developer, Jakob, suddenly said,
and a much better understanding and
more because they will have a ton
“I think I am on to something”.
service of the online customer. Take
of money bound in inventory that’s
He had found some initial unique
Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren for
season-dependent. This is really
relationships in the data. After
example. Both have Trustpilot Scores
bad for both their economy and the
six months of iterating with our
of 1.9/5 - and they don’t even seem to
environment, as a lot of resources
customers, we had an algorithm
care.
go into producing this inventory.
that worked better than manual
Considering that many of these
measurements. Today you just need
companies have already had problems
to fill in your height, weight, age, and
with overproduction, their rule of
shoe size - for 96% of our customers,
thumb is often “we better produce
that provides a great fit.
one item too many, than one item too few”. This leads to large amounts of
THE SUCCESS OF THE KICKSTARTER THAT HELPED LAUNCH SON OF A TAILOR PROVES THAT PEOPLE ARE READY TO INVEST IN SUSTAINABLE CLOTHING. HOW DO YOU SEE THE FASHION SECTOR TRANSFORMING TO MEET CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS?
The customer has come a long way in the last couple of years in terms of sustainability and they are demanding a change. We can actually see it in our marketing and customer support data! Unfortunately, the sector is not changing very quickly.
resources going to waste, negatively affecting the environment.
offline retail will ever go back to
Consumer fashion has been shifting towards sustainability for quite some time, in the sense that brands are increasingly focusing on essentials that last longer as well as meeting the expectations of people who want to consume less. These are trends that, I am sure, will be further accelerated by COVID-19.
COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for many of the big brands. This inventory insanity needs to stop. In 2018, H&M needed to liquidate $4 billion worth of stock - and that was in a year of economic growth! Supply chains have become too long and the topline growth targets too greedy. Still, many brands order their apparel more than six months before they will sell them. And they would commit to fabric long before that.
Most brands still think that if they have sustainable cotton in some of their collections, they are fine. It’s sad.
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doubts about whether classic
I N T E R N AT I ON AL INVE STO R MAGAZ INE
NOW YOU ARE EXPANDING TO JUMPERS AND LONG-SLEEVES. WHAT’S NEXT? DO YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC LONG-TERM VISION OR ANY EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PIPELINE YOU CAN SHARE?
Let’s see. The Son of a Tailor product pipeline is not expanding super fast. We want to make sure that every launch is perfect and provides the perfect fit. But there are indeed many subcategories within t-shirts, jumpers and knitwear to come!