So we get a lot of customers and visitors to our website noting their concern that because we sell our custom men's dress shirts online only, they don't have much of a chance to try on our dress shirts like they would do at normal retail stores to see if the fit is right and if it even looks good on them. Personally, I love shopping and trying on clothes to see if they fit me right and look good, as well as if I might have any other clothes that would go well with them.
Things like this make us think about if we had physical stores in all the premium locations within the urban cities across the country, but frankly, we're a startup and we don't have the capital to pay for rent at most metropolitan cities, nevermind build the store and stock it with shelves of inventory. But that's not our style either.
If the customer can't try on his dress shirt, how can we make sure that the guy who's normally a Medium because he's slender, will have a dress shirt that's long enough to cover the top half of his 6'2" body? What about the guy that likes to hit the gym - so he has broad shoulders and an iron-plate chest who unfortunately has disproportionately shorter arms but needs the chest size of a Large?
This other guy also has a problem that we have to address that most men probably have as well, which is, most men's dress shirts you buy off-the-rack always have a baggy waist that doesn't compliment your truly slim figure. It even makes you look like you have a silly muffin-top when you tuck your shirt in even though you're only 160lbs of fit male.
Again, we only operate online, and we sometimes do wish we had a hot retail location in the heart of Soho, NYC, but since we only sell dress shirts online, we've had to figure out a way to satisfy our customer to make sure his dress shirt fits the first time around. Again, many men are hesitant to buy shirts online because of their lack of confidence in the shirt's fit, but luckily, because all our shirts are individually made custom dress shirts, we give you the flexibility to tell us how we should cut your shirt so it fits right the first time. No need to flip through racks of clothing at Express or Zara to see if your dress shirt size is in stock.
For those who have already played with our dress shirt design configurator, you've noticed that the first thing we do for sizing is ask your body type (for the guys that fall under 'circle,' please do not be offended, we promise we can cut you a dress shirt that fits so well that it compliments your figure), then we ask your normal standard size, height and weight, and then your fit preferences to give you the dress shirt that you want, without compromising a smaller collar for a shirt that fits everywhere else, or a longer sleeves just because you needed to go a size up since your chest can't fit a Medium.
We also have our 'Perfect Shirt Guarantee' which means you can return your dress shirt for any reason and get a full refund, or if it doesn't fit, you can exchange it (which is similar to returning it) for a better size. You just tell us what was wrong with the first dress shirt and we'll make sure those problems are resolved the second time around.
How else can we make your dress shirt shopping experience better so that you can support the co-created dress shirts movement, and so we can better serve you with a dress shirt that you want and one that fits too?
Drop a comment or mail sayhi (at) blank-label.com
Danny Wong is the Lead Online Advocate for Blank Label. Don't be afraid to tweet him either @dannywong1190. Also, feel free to read more of his musings on the Co-Creation Blog.
