BACK TO THE FUTURE: STANTT USES DATA TO MAKE YOUR SHIRTS FIT PERFECTLY
With the goal of becoming the middle ground between custom shirts and off-the-rack, Stantt co-founders Kirk Keel and Matt Hornbuckle left their corporate marketing jobs and went to work on developing a line of shirts with a comprehensive sizing structure at a retail price of $98.
Using nearly 200,000 measurements and millions of data points from 3D body scans, Keel and Hornbuckle created an algorithm that matches every man to one of 75 unique sizes using just three measurements from your chest, waist and arm. “In our original data set we found 75 sizes that fit roughly 95 percent of the male population perfectly, where as traditional S/M/L sizing fits about 15 percent,” Keel told MR.
This wide-ranging size scale didn’t come easy. The duo spent over a year conducting data analysis and testing the product on real men to get the line ready to launch. “We worked with a Gerber 3D modeling program where we would take thousands of different avatars of guys, digitally put our shirts on them and see how they fit,” says Keel. “From there we could optimize and so forth. So to get to the whole size range, it was just months and months of up-front work and testing.”
Having quickly grown out of the Brooklyn facility they started in, Keel and Hornbuckle decided to move their production to Honduras to help streamline the stock of these 75 sizes. If a customer needs a size that isn’t in stock, this factory is able to make it in 24 hours, ship it to New York to be categorized and then that team ships out the shirt to the customer all within the goal time of eight days.
After initially launching with a direct-to-consumer website, Keel and Hornbuckle quickly discovered that their customers wanted to try on the shirts. “What we found over time is when we started doing pop-ups the guys really liked getting measured and trying on a variety of sizes to figure out their perfect size,” says Keel. “Brick-and-mortar shops are the last place we thought we would find success in acquiring new customers when we initially launched. But our guy likes to try it on in-store and then return to the site to re-order the product in a different color way or style.”
Stantt currently has pop-ups in Garden State Plaza and the Brower Club in New Jersey, as well as one expected to open at Fulton Center in Manhattan in the coming months. The brand’s primary focus going forward is opening new pop-up locations outside of the tri-state area, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and San Francisco.
So what’s next for the brand? “We have confirmation that we will be in a very well-known department store as a test this spring,” Keel tells MR. “So it will be a branded Stantt experience with our technology and our line just with fine Italian fabrics priced at $148. We’re also working on developing new categories to expand the collection into denim, blazers, sweaters, you name it!”
