Everyone’s been sort of been using this term loosely for the last decade or more, but what does it really mean ? Virtual fitting simply put means the ability to predict fit of a particular garment or footwear over the user body. In reality, this system is meant to help you simulate different fits – as if you were trying out an item.

Why is this so key ?

Given that several new brands launch every quarter and almost most them have never have physical shop – the only way you can try out their garments or shoe is by making the first purchase. Even if you get the first one right – every time there is a new style, new fabric there is size adjustment required. In the pre-online era, for each item manufactured, it was assumed – it will be tried out in the store. In fact the whole sizing system was made about 350 years ago ( 1647 according to SATRA website ) for batch manufacturing and not really intended for online shopping.

How does Virtual fitting work ?

For virtual fitting to be successful it essential for the user’s body profile in some measured along with clothing or footwear measurement. Several virtual fitting companies are building technologies to capture a consumer’s body profile in the simplest and fastest way possible , which will definitely help in solving the issues. However – just knowing that the garment is   “Medium” is not very useful as this provides no indication to the actual measurement. The key will be to build a smarter database off the actual products and help a standardization of the inventory.

Why is the problem acute in footwear ?

Unlike apparel- where wearing one size big or small in many cases maybe only an antithetical compromise- with footwear it functionally impossible. Either wearing a shoe too small or too big can a fair bit of trouble starting with blisters to sever back pain. How do we hope to solve the problem?

We at www.shoesize.tech have a quick and easy technology to measure your foot length and capture few other critical dimensions and shapes. We also work with footwear brands to help standardize the shoe sizing. Our system provides a fairly accurate simulation of how the shoe would fit on your feet

What ‘s coming next ?

As more and more brands and retailers take their business online – virtual fitting rooms are expected to become a norm and who knows  might even become the default version in physical stores also.

Who doesn’t love having beautiful packages come home to try out new things?

 Keep what you like and return the rest at leisure. This seems like a dream to most consumers and that’s what retailers have been feeding into. Order as many items/combinations of sizes as required- they will be shipped to you and then you can ship back whatever you don’t like.

But, this model is extremely hard to sustain, especially for smaller retailers and brands – who don’t have the muscle power to hedge the cost against other categories or fast-fashion retailers wherein the inventory depth remains shallow. This model has become a norm to the point that even Made to measure products are returnable.

Consumers have been slowest to adopt online footwear shopping primarily on account of fitting issues.  Initially, there was even a concept called “Show-rooming” – where you tried out the shoe in the physical retail format and then ordered it online for the benefit of the deep discount typically offered in the early days of eCommerce. Today, the model has matured and merged to provide an Omni-channel experience to the consumer.

What is the real cost of returns? :

Apart from the actual transportation cost their several other factors that count towards to cost

• Quality control resources
• Re-packing cost
• Damaged pieces
• Cost of blocked inventory as in some cases consumer can hold the shoes up to 365 days before the consumer can call a return.

Left oversizes sold in the sale at discounted rates.

For a lot of shoes the distribution of sizes is not uniform- e.g: sizes 8 & 9 run true to size but other sizes run differently. It is likely that at the end of the season a few specific sizes are leftover putting the retailer in a position to discount the product in order to clear the inventory.

Shopping time & Experience?

 While the entire premise of online shopping is based on quick turnaround time – the process of getting a return/exchange or refund could run anywhere between 2 days to 2 weeks or more. This often compromises the quality of the shopping experience.

Sustainability

Storing, delivering & retailing shoes is not definitely not the greenest process as the volume for e-commerce products. Right from production to returns the every bit of wastage only adds to the problem and in the end annually there is a fair bit of wastage:

Here is a conservative math for the footwear industry, 50% of shoes sold online are returned, and nearly 20% of shoes manufactured are unsold or marked down predominantly due to sizing.  Together, these inefficiencies contribute to a 15 billion dollar loss annually to the entire industry. (Data is for USA & Eupore alone)

We believe this is the key reason for standalone footwear retailers to struggle as the cost of logistics is way too high and there are no combination products such as apparel or accessories to offset it. Even at the peak of the boom of the e-commerce cycle in India- footwear only retailers never survived, they deep discounts, low quality seller ecosystem and returns totally destroyed the viability of the business model.  Not a single e-commerce player selling only footwear survived the initial boom.

How do we propose to help make this more sustainable?

Solutions built by Find Me A Shoe help digitizing and optimizing the entire shoe design process from manufacturing to returns. Right from last design to predicting returns we can help optimize the entire supply space.

Want to know more how we can help your brand? Drop us a note a shabari@ findmeashoe.com

 

While the correlation between size and foot length is linear and studied in detail. We often forgot that the foot is a 3D object and cannot be defined in one measurement. Our conservative estimate is that for footwear fit to be accessed correctly, you will need at least 6 dimensions measured accurately.

In contrast- if you go to a good custom shoe manufacturer he will take close to 18 measurements of your foot in order to deliver the perfect fit.   When you walk into the store, you typically try out 3 or 4 different models to access your fit, you may even walk around the store. In essence, you are testing out other measurements which define the fitting of the shoe, such as arch length, width, toebox shape, etc.   

While buying a shoe online, this luxury is missing hence it becomes harder to buy footwear or you have  rely on services such as try and buy.       

Our suggestions while trying out shoes:

• Try the shoe on both feet. 90% of the time – fitting will differ between your right and left leg.
• Make sure you stand and walk a few steps in order to ensure that shoes are tested in a weight-bearing position.
• Try out shoes in the evening as your feet are likely to be most spread out at that time of the day.
• Most shoe fabrics don’t expand much- so if it feels tight while trying out its going to remain tight.
• While buying shoes for any athletic activity – make sure you have enough room in the front as your feet will expand.

In process of our research, we have scanned over 50,000 feet all over the world to build the best in the class fitting browser-based foot scanner.  Our research has shown 27 different types of shapes as the minimum baseline for all humans, but of course, we continue to grow our database and learn new things each day.

If you would like to help us out on this journey to simplify foot sizing, do size up with us. Each data point helps our systems become more robust and in turn helps you a better fitting shoe

Our virtual fitting app with quick requires you do three simple photos in order to get your complete 3D profile.

What happens after we have your profile ?

We generate a 3D model of your foot with all the required measurements. Next time you are browsing on one of our partner retailer sites- you can actually see how the shoe fits virtually.

Try our service here: https://shoesize.tech/demoapp/

 Leave us a comment to tell us about the foot scanner experience.

While there are established international standards for footwear sizing systems ( US, EU, Mondopont etc) Many brands publish their own “label size” in order to provide a better idea of the fitting or even change the gradation between sizes. Even the international size charts are benchmarked against the ideal foot length for a particular size.  While this is done with the best intentions, we understand that it is confusing to shoppers- who rarely know their foot length or width accurately.

There are several DIY measurement procedures recommended on almost every retailer, brand, and general information site, such as:

https://www.wikihow.com/Find-Your-Shoe-Size

or

https://www.healthyfeetstore.com/shoe-fitting-guide.html

While such methods provide a baseline guideline – the process is laborious and error-prone : (

However, if you are doing this, here is a list of common mistakes that are likely to happen, and please be mindful of the process.

 

1. Standing position: Unless the measurement is taken in a weight-bearing position, i.e standing the exercise is futile.  The optimum way is to stand with your feet slightly apart with equal weight on both legs.  You will need someone else to draw the outlines for you.

2.Paper crumpling & Toe cringing: Make sure you use clean & non-creased paper for this process. The paper is crumpled even slightly under your foot- the deviation will be substantial. Also, stand with your toes spread out comfortably.  

3. Foot Angle: Keep your foot a straight as possible. If your foot doesn’t fit on one paper, tape two sheets together and then do the process.

4. The angle of the pencil & line thickness: Using either a blunt pencil or not holding it straight will cause the line to inaccurate leading to inaccuracy in measurement. For best results, use a sharp pencil and hold it perpendicular to the ground. Bending either inwards or outwards will cause the line deviation.

5. Measuring the lines: Ensure your select the longest toe and the endpoint for the length & for the width, measure at the ballpoints even if your toe box is wider. As shoe width is only calibrated based on this ballpoint width.

6. Measuring directly in mm: Measuring in inches and converting to mm will loose some accuracy due to the fraction rounding. Find a ruler which is calibrated in mm to start with.

 Overall Error: Given the combination of factors that matter while taking these pictures to keep in mind this method only provides a ballpark reading and you will still need to order couple of sizes or actually try out the shoe.

Time to Disrupt is now!

Until recently there have been no alternatives to this process. While several companies have attempted this – Most people ask you to download an app and do fairly complicated photos. Based on our research of the last 4 years and over 50,000 data points collected we are proud to present a browser-based solution that requires one simple photo.

All you need to do is open this link on your mobile browser and click on the photo:

 

While the oldest shoes which appeared 5,500 years ago were no more than gunny bags wrapped around the foot . However, this was a big step – literally and figuratively for mankind as it gave a huge boost to mobility.

From that point on wards to now shoes have gone from becoming a functional requirement to a representation of our creative expressions.

We have a list of some of the iconic shoes in last few decades, which may have been a turning point in design, aesthetics and function.

Source credit: Fifty Shoes That Changed the World: Design Museum

We would love to hear your inputs on shoes from 2009 onward which should be added to this list . Once we have enough suggestions, we will update this info graphic.

Do drop us a comment on shoes you would like to see added here!