Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies • Hacker News Board

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#21

Post by wsul » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:06 PM UTC

exhaze wrote: post #14

I'm a big fan of custom-made clothing (I'm an engineer at ThirdLove [1] - you take a picture of yourself, we figure out your measurements based on the picture, and you can buy clothes from our vertically-integrated brand based on your fit). Maybe I'm a pretty standard size, but is there really a huge demand for custom-fitted t-shirts/henleys? Custom fit is valuable for clothing that is three-dimensional (suits/sports…

Thank you for the support! I wish I could return the favor!

The reality is that many people are served really well by standard sizes - but there are huge pockets of people that aren't, and that traditional retailers choose not to accommodate. We're not doing completely custom clothing eg. an all together different pattern - we'll do it, as a service if none of our sizes fit, but I think that is pretty unlikely.

What we've done is taken the most overlooked body types - tall and thin, extremely athletic (body builders etc.), and heavier-set guys that want nice shirts, and built sizes that look good on them.

That said, I DO genuinely think that our medium shirt (the size I wear) fits better than any medium I've tried before. We've had a TON of feedback to confirm this.

Great advice on the checkout forwarding. Will definitely make that change soon!

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#22

Post by danvoell » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:07 PM UTC

Where does the blog post talk about angel round?

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#23

Post by necubi » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:07 PM UTC

If I may make a suggestion: there's a hugely underserved population of short (< 5'6") men who cannot buy good quality, well-fitting clothing in the US. I would love to see a small shirt manufacturer tackle this demographic.

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#24

Post by wsul » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:07 PM UTC

grannyg00se wrote: post #18

Seems you have every country on the planet in your drop down list for the shipping address, but I keep getting "no shipping option" no matter which country I choose.

Sorry about that! What're you trying to order and to what country? We'll get to the bottom of it.

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#25

Post by hashtree » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:11 PM UTC

exhaze wrote: post #14

I'm a big fan of custom-made clothing (I'm an engineer at ThirdLove [1] - you take a picture of yourself, we figure out your measurements based on the picture, and you can buy clothes from our vertically-integrated brand based on your fit). Maybe I'm a pretty standard size, but is there really a huge demand for custom-fitted t-shirts/henleys? Custom fit is valuable for clothing that is three-dimensional (suits/sports…

In the states, if you fall into a certain number of body types and desire properly fitting clothing your options are very limited without tailoring. For me, even clothing that is aimed at my body type doesn't fit well. I appear to be on the extreme end or simply have too high of standards.

I know I'd pay a pretty penny for just a few shirts that fit exceedingly well.

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#26

Post by wsul » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:11 PM UTC

necubi wrote: post #23

If I may make a suggestion: there's a hugely underserved population of short (< 5'6") men who cannot buy good quality, well-fitting clothing in the US. I would love to see a small shirt manufacturer tackle this demographic.

Great idea! Shoot me an email at will@pistollake.com and I'll get some measurements from you and work on the pattern.

Our XS fits 5'6" well, but we haven't tested to see where it starts to become too long. Here are a few people that are 5'6" wearing it:

https://pistollake.com/images/examplefits/Erik_XS.jpg https://pistollake.com/images/examplefits/Zach_XS.jpg

NAME SIZE HEIGHT WEIGHT PANT SIZE CHEST STOMACH BICEP ARM LENGTH Zach XS 5'6" 140 28/28 35" 31" 11" 28" Erik XS 5'6" 130 28/28 35" 31" 10.25" 28"

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#27

Post by wsul » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:12 PM UTC

hashtree wrote: post #25

exhaze wrote: post #14

I'm a big fan of custom-made clothing (I'm an engineer at ThirdLove [1] - you take a picture of yourself, we figure out your measurements based on the picture, and you can buy clothes from our vertically-integrated brand based on your fit). Maybe I'm a pretty standard size, but is there really a huge demand for custom-fitted t-shirts/henleys? Custom fit is valuable for clothing that is three-dimensional (suits/sports…

In the states, if you fall into a certain number of body types and desire properly fitting clothing your options are very limited without tailoring. For me, even clothing that is aimed at my body type doesn't fit well. I appear to be on the extreme end or simply have too high of standards. I know I'd pay a pretty penny for just a few shirts that fit exceedingly well.

This is -exactly- why we're doing what we're doing. What is your body type, if you don't mind me asking? Would love to see where you fit in our size scale and shoot you a shirt.

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#28

Post by grannyg00se » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:13 PM UTC

wsul wrote: post #24

grannyg00se wrote: post #18

Seems you have every country on the planet in your drop down list for the shipping address, but I keep getting "no shipping option" no matter which country I choose.

Sorry about that! What're you trying to order and to what country? We'll get to the bottom of it.

I was trying to order one polo to Canada. Then I tried a bunch of different countries at random.

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#29

Post by wsul » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:14 PM UTC

napoleoncomplex wrote: post #20

wsul wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. We just hit $10K, our goal was at least $5K, which is the minimum to place an order for 16 rolls from the mill. 2. Most people are adequately covered by the standard 6 sizes. Ours fit particularly well - how a shirt should. It is a lot about how it fits in certain areas of the body and then drapes. We spent a ton of time perfecting our block, specific for our cotton, and then expanded it with other shirt designs.…

Just ordered, and your reply is confusing me a bit regarding the measurements. I entered some measurements under "My Profile", are those all I need to enter, or will there be a different interface once the campaign ends? First time I'm doing something like this, so I'd like to make sure I'm doing it right :).

The section of My Profile was our first stab at taking in measurements, but we're refining it and making the UX much better. We'll definitely let you know when it launches.

Re: Kickstart the first tailor-fit, American-made henleys and hoodies

#30

Post by jmduke » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 9:16 PM UTC

A smart move by these guys was targeting a high-profile member of a fashion community (in this case /r/malefashionadvice, though I wouldn't be surprised if they hit up Styleforum and other places as well) and sending him a bunch of stuff to review -- the guy reviewed it and it hit the frontpage of a ~250K community for a day[1]. This isn't a particularly novel or high-cost approach, but its a classic marketing move that seems to be glossed over by nouveau entrepreneurs. Writing a book on Rails? Send a copy of the book to a prominent Rails blogger to see what they think. Launching an AirBNB for corgis? You'd be well-advised to spend an afternoon finding and reaching out to the dozens of corgi forums.

[1] Incidentally, this is why I think Reddit advertising will never take off: the value proposition of stuff like this is just so much more appealing.