Online clothing retailer Zozo Inc. is scrapping its body-measuring Zozosuit, saying that it now has enough data to produce custom-size clothes for customers without creating 3D models.
The polka-dot spandex suit will be scrapped by March, Chief Executive Officer Yusaku Maezawa said in a surprise announcement in Tokyo on Wednesday, following the company's quarterly results. Zozo will ship 3 million Zozosuits before shutting down the initiative, compared with its previous forecast for 6 million to 10 million units. That will result in cost savings of about ¥3 billion ($26.5 million) in the fiscal year through March 31, he said.
"We're at a stage where if we just know your height and weight, we can estimate the ideal clothes for you," Maezawa explained. "You will no longer need a Zozosuit at all."
Going forward, shoppers will be able to input their height, weight and other basic details. Zozo will then combine that information with its database on body sizes, user profiles and product preferences to deliver custom-sized apparel that will be sold under the company's private clothing brand. "We have enough data," he said. "Machine learning is an incredibly potent tool."
The Zozosuit has become a phenomenon in Japan, with social media full of pictures of people trying on the garb. The company said it has received orders for ¥15.4 billion worth of clothes from Zozosuit users since distribution began a few months ago. It has fulfilled just a third of that due to bottlenecks in production and quality issues. These will be fixed before the end of the year, Maezawa said.