Original Stitch launches its AI shirt-fitting tool out of beta

Original Stitch, a startup that lets men create custom shirts online, brought its tool for measuring clothes using machine learning out of beta today. Called Bodygram, the system is designed to let a man take a photo of his favorite button-down and turn the measurements into a custom shirt.

Bodygram launched earlier this year, but required people to contact the company directly in order to get a computer vision-based measurement. In theory, that should allow people to order custom shirts that match the fits of their favorite shirts without requiring them to measure their bodies.

The resulting clothes are made to order in Japan and mailed to the company’s customers. People can choose from a variety of fabrics for their shirts, and customize different parts of the garment with various materials if they choose to do so.

In VentureBeat’s tests, the results from the beta Bodygram system were close, but not necessarily perfect. If people are dissatisfied with the fit of their shirt, Original Stitch will make a new one that’s adjusted to fit better.

Original Stitch CEO Jin Koh said in an interview that 70 percent of the company’s revenue comes from return business from its 350,000 customers. He said that a typical customer will buy one shirt at first, and then come back to purchase four shirts within the following month.

That’s helped by Original Stitch’s web-based shirt customization software, which stores customers’ measurements (either entered by hand or brought in through its Bodygram tool) for later use so that it’s possible for people to purchase a shirt that fits the same as the last one they bought.

The company also revealed that it raised a total of $5 million in seed funding from investors including Social Starts, Inspire Ventures, and NTT Docomo Ventures. The infusion of cash will be used to continue pushing Original Stitch in the U.S. and Japan, as well as help the company expand its business to other markets using the software that it has developed.

Looking towards the future, Koh said that Original Stitch is also working on a system that would suggest shirt styles that would suit their different customers based on a photo.