Everyone knows that problem: You order pants, a shirt, a jacket, exactly your size and when the piece arrives, it is either too big, too small, too tight, too wide… And you send it back. On average, every second fashion order is returned for these reasons. With the presize mobile app, users can scan their bodies, and within moments, they are told their right size. No more returns anymore due to a wrong size or a bad fit.
presize co-founder Leon Szeli in an interview with Innovation Origins:
Who is behind presize? Who are the founders?
We are Leon, Tomislav, and Awais and founded presize in 2019. We all have very different professional backgrounds (biomedical computing, consumer science, robotics & aI) and also come from different countries (Bulgaria, Pakistan, and Germany). Fortunately, we got to know each other through CDTM (cdtm.de). After several research posts abroad (Stanford, Cambridge, UC San Diego), we worked in Munich together on several digital innovation projects. One of these projects gave rise to the idea of presize.
How did you come up with the idea of founding the start-up?
While Awais was developing the first prototype, Tomislav and Leon were realizing more and more that the returns problem in online shopping was getting out of hand. Leon’s girlfriend was banned from one of the big online shops because she had returned too much. We noticed that some shops even prevent users from adding the same product in different sizes to their shopping cart. Anyone who has ever stood in line at the post office or had a return sitting around in their living room for weeks knows how annoying the whole thing is for the end-consumer because you never make it to the post office before 6 pm.
What makes presize special compared to your competitors?
The presize technology is based on the latest findings in Computer Vision and Deep Learning and creates a 3D model on the basis of a smartphone video. The patented technology is as accurate as a manual measurement by a professional tailor and therefore superior to competitors who use questionnaires or photos. Questionnaires cannot represent the individual body and photos are unreliable. If someone changes the position of their hand in the photo, for example, they immediately have a larger hip measurement. In addition, presize is completely web-based, i.e. the user is not forced to download an app – in contrast to our competitors.
What was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome?
The fact that we are completely browser-based is very beneficial for the user, but it was a challenge for our development. Each device has a different camera system (iPhones, Samsung, Huawei, etc.), different browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox), and different permissions to access sensors (iOS vs Android). Consequently, the development was technically challenging.
Was there a moment when you wanted to give up?
There are days when business is better than others. But we have never thought about giving up.
And vice versa: What was the best moment for you when it came to founding the company? What made you particularly proud?
When we first received a tailored shirt from one of our customers that was 100% presize produced. We also had a shirt from a professional tailor for comparison. They were identical, i.e. for the first time, we had proof that we could completely digitalize a manual process and thereby save money and time for all of the parties involved.
What can we expect from you in the coming years?
We are integrating with the first major online shops towards the end of 2019. In spring 2020, we will conduct a second round of financing to accelerate further growth.
What is your vision for presize?
Our vision is to provide a billion people with the perfect fit. That’s why we want to add many more shops around the world.
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