Inspiration: ShirtsMyWay

Yesterday morning, I came across a very intriguing site, thanks to Terence Sambo’s blog: Men’s Fashion and Lifestyle Aficionado. The original post is here, and it highlights a new website (launched February 3rd, apparently), called ShirtsMyWay.

It’s the kernel of a really, really strong concept.

The basic idea is that there are a number of different regions of fabric on a standard dress shirt; cuffs, collar, plackard, pocket, main shirt, etc. Each of these can be customized, selected from a set of fabric choices. The user has full control over each part of the shirt, as well as some other details (like number of buttons in the collar, monogramming, etc.).

It’s quintessential microdesign; the customer has control over a majority of the design aspects of the shirt, leading to one of (apparently) over 7 trillion different results. The business simply provides the template and construction for the customer to work on and design. As I’ve said before, this provides significant creative value and individualism value (most of the shirts are likely unique).

The website is not quite perfect yet; the user interface is a bit tricky to navigate, and could be made much cleaner/easy-to-use. Personally, I find the fabric choices a bit boring, but I’m (personally) a bit more ridiculous in what I would wear. However, there is great potential in this idea (I’ve actually had similar ones kicking around in my head for a few months). I’m hoping to learn more about how they have put this product together in the next few weeks, and I’d also like to hear reviews; especially with respect to the quality/construction/fit of the shirts; a problem with buying online is that you can’t check these things, and it’s much more important (even crucial) when buying dress shirts, as opposed to tee shirts.

Very interesting things developing here.

-III