MYSUREFIT L O C AT I O N : Milwaukee FOUNDER: Christian Ruth
LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY
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F O U N D E D: 2015 P R O D U C T: Virtual shopping and fitting technology platform WEBSITE: mysurefit.com E M P L OY E E S: 35 employees GOAL: Expand MySureFit technology licensing to more brand retailers EXPERIENCE: Christian Ruth is the founder and CEO of management investment firm Covenant Capital Holdings. He previously held positions with Platinum Equity, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston.
MySureFit aims to disrupt online apparel market with virtual fitting room By Brandon Anderegg, staff writer
Christian Ruth
MILWAUKEE-BASED startup MySureFit has set out to revolutionize the online shoppers’ experience with its virtual fitting technology platform for men’s and women’s clothing. Over the past five years, MySureFit, formerly known as SelfieStyler, Inc., developed proprietary measurement and fit points for garments that generate size recommendations with 99% accuracy, said Christian Ruth, MySureFit chief executive officer. App users input their height before a video prompts the user to stand in various positions for a series of photos. These photos are analyzed to calculate correct sizing and to create a realistic avatar of the shopper, which serves as a model for outfits selected by the user. MySureFit has developed its technology over the course of several years, but the company launched commercially in 2019 when the technology could be delivered at scale, Ruth said. Last year, the company hired David Cunningham to lead MySureFit’s brand partnerships. Cunningham was previously brand president for Ralph Lauren’s Chaps and Calvin Klein Jeans. Ruth says MySureFit has grown to include more than 200,000 users, thousands of customers and has sold tens of thousands of items on the platform.
MySureFit helps shoppers purchase clothing that fits them, resulting in fewer returns, according to Ruth. For brand retailer garments, MySureFit technology delivers a product return rate of less than 1%, much lower than the 30% to 70% return rate of online retailers today, he said. While in-store garments may have a cycle time of 10 minutes before they are returned to the rack, the cycle time for garments purchased online may take weeks, especially if the shopper purchased multiple sizes of the same garment. This means online brand retailers not only have to account for artificial demand, but they may also have a stock out situation, which can lead to the loss of customers and revenue, Ruth said. “This is one of the reasons why a lot of brand retailers are going bankrupt and one of the reasons why they did not want consumers shopping online because the unit economics for online fashion were terrible,” Ruth said. Although users can shop on the MySureFit app, the company has license partnerships with brand and multi-brand retailers, a segment of the business the company hopes to grow in the coming months. “We’re not targeting just a couple million dollars; we’re looking at trying to build a $10 billion-plus revenue type business,” Ruth said. n biztimes.com / 7
