Communications of the ACM
Computing What Fits
A Fits.me robotic mannequin, which takes a user's measurements to demonstrate how clothing will fit.
Credit: Fits.me
For many men, shopping with their wives is akin to having someone scratch their nails across a chalkboard. For Romney Evans, however, such an outing back in 2004 turned out to be a fateful day. His wife was having "a horrible time finding jeans," he recalls. "She must have tried on a dozen items ... and I think she was feeling bad about herself. I thought, 'This is crazy; is it really this difficult?'"
Evans thought there had to be a way to enter some information online and find the right style, so he started researching how other people were attempting to deal with the problem. While in graduate school at Babson College, Evans says his goal became launching a consumer site devoted to helping people find the right fit in jeans. He found a partner in classmate Jessica Arrendondo Murphy, who had a background in apparel and buying, and in 2007 they launched what is now called True Fit. The company's "fit confidence engine" analyzes reams of data to help consumers understand how well clothes and shoes they see online will actually fit them.
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