redefine the retail experience. Son of a Tailor’s Instant Fit Store is poised to disrupt the conventional norms of clothing shopping.  The concept “The idea behind Son of a Tailor is as simple as it is radical: clothing that fits you perfectly and that’s made to serve you well for years to come while reducing overproduction through demand-driven manufacturing,” co-founder and CEO of Son of a Tailor, Jess Fleischer, told Inside Retail. The company developed a ‘Perfect Fit Algorithm’, which calculates a custom pattern based on only height, weight, age and shoe size, with 95 per cent accuracy.  “This improved the customer experience massively and allowed us to scale globally. Another example is Son Supply – a bit more than a year ago, we bought our own production in Portugal, giving us direct access to the supply chain,” he added. Being production owners also enabled it to help other brands transition to small-batch production through its B2B service. Fleischer said the decision to transition from an online-made-to-order model to launching a physical Instant Fit store was all about its dedication to great customer experience. “Having a physical space allows us to deliver this in new ways: through the unique in-store fitting experience with personal assistance and by giving customers the possibility to feel our fabrics,” he noted. He said the team puts a lot of care into selecting materials that feel great on the skin and that hold up wash after wash but in an online environment, the level of quality is sometimes difficult to convey.  “For the average customer, it might also be challenging to decide whether they, for example, prefer medium- or heavy-weight cotton or how exactly Tencel Lyocell feels and drapes,” he said. The Son mirror The first thing customers see when entering the store is a mirror – The Son Mirror. Essentially a screen and a camera combining AI and image recognition technology, it measures the customer’s body in an instant.  “Building on 10 years of expertise and custom sizes for over 170,000 men, we have created 24 sizes for the store. Once the Son mirror has measured you up, it will suggest which of the 24 sizes to go for,” he explained. Customers can always request adjustments for the perfect fit. The mirror also allows customers to try on a range of limited-edition colours without changing garments even once, by digitally colouring the garment they are wearing.  “The way the mirror facilitates a smooth customer experience by sidestepping the hassle of trying on a multitude of sizes and colours while reducing the need for stock tremendously is very much in the spirit of Son of a Tailor,” he elaborated. According to Fleischer, customers have always struggled to find the perfect fit. That’s why for the last 10 years, the company has been offering custom-fit clothing.  With its data on custom sizes for over 170,000 men, it settled on 24 sizes that would serve the majority of its customers well. “Our most popular products are readily available in these sizes in-store and we replenish on-demand. The rest of our portfolio is on display but only made to order, in as short as seven days,” he added. Sustainability is key Sustainability is a key focus for the brand. A third-party verified life cycle analysis recently concluded that a custom-fit, made-to-order cotton T-shirt has a 25 per cent lower environmental footprint than its mass-produced equivalent. “That’s a massive difference and highlights how much closer we could get to the Paris Agreement if more brands would adopt similar models,” he pointed out. Owning its production in Portugal also means that the brand is directly in control of the working conditions of the people who create its clothes.  “In an industry typically shaped by an opaque web of sub-suppliers, that’s sadly unusual. We believe in reconnecting the people who wear our clothes with the people who make them. That’s why each item comes with the signature of a member of the garment team,” he stressed. A key challenge the brand has faced again and again is that it’s incredibly difficult to drive systemic change as opposed to choosing a more environmentally friendly fabric.  Overproduction is one of the industry’s main sustainability issues but brands as well as suppliers are hesitant to move away from the well-trodden path.  “It’s also important to acknowledge that sustainability is extremely complex. That’s why we focus on the areas where we believe we can have the biggest impact,” Fleischer opined. The company recently became a certified B Corp, and its score of 117.5 places it among the top 8 per cent of B Corps worldwide.  “To put it bluntly, this makes us super proud. But we also think that too few brands are certified B Corps which is why, as part of the announcement, we publicly challenged other brands to get certified and do better than us,” he noted. Onwards and upwards According to Fleischer, 70 per cent of the store’s sales are down to existing customers. Customers can receive in-person guidance on achieving the right fit, and some customers just prefer shopping offline and not online. With its unique retail concept, the brand is leveraging technology to facilitate a smooth experience that removes the less desirable parts of offline shopping like trying a multitude of items in a tiny changing room. “So far, the feedback has been fantastic, from both existing and new customers so it looks like we’re onto something,” he said. He is committed to providing customers with products that are not only sustainable and the perfect fit, but also made from high-quality materials that last. “Online, we already operate worldwide but provided that our offline concept continues to go as well as it has started, there’ll surely be more stores coming. Perhaps London, perhaps New York. Stay tuned,” he concluded.