Why I started a fashion brand for men under 5’10 + Pesach Sale After being a frustrated 5’7 male shopper for too many years, I had the idea to make high quality, properly fit & competitively priced clothing for men who are under 5’10.
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After a day at the mall and trying on hundreds of shirts from 15 different stores, I once again walked out empty handed. All of the shirts I tried on had sleeves that were too long, overall shirt length was way too long & the neck was way too large. One consistency was the
overall billowy effect of all the shirts feeling more like a drape than a shirt made for me.
When I got home, I quickly learned why I was having such a tough time in this seemingly simple desire to find clothes which fit me properly. The average male height in the US is 5’10. The mass manufacturers are cutting clothing around this average male height to hit the broadest
audience possible (and I don’t blame them).
I started asking others who are under 5’10 if they were experiencing the same frustration. The answer was absolute, yes. Their solutions were what got me motivated to start this company. They were all either 1) wearing clothes that don’t fit them properly 2) spending a ton
on custom clothing or 3) buying off the rack and paying for a tailor to correct the ill-fitting clothes.
I knew I had identified a potential market, but there was still a ton to learn. I was encouraged to learn that there are 32 million men in the US who are 5’4–5’8. 32 Million seems like a large enough audience for me to justify getting into this space. I have run and operated
numerous e-commerce companies but did not know the first thing about fabrics, clothing manufacturing, sizing and so much more.
After months of research and phone conversations, I flew out to Honduras, in November 2017, to meet and tour the facility of a fantastic family run manufacturer who was so like-minded to our mission and ethics that we immediately joined the family. We worked with our factory
through all details of stitching, buttonhole placements, collar heights, cuff lengths and hundreds of more components to constructing an awesome shirt.
The next good fortune was my introduction to Catherine Iger who had spent the past couple of years starting a company called Fittery with her partner Greg Vilines. To summarize, Fittery was founded to help men find the perfect fit clothing from all of the mass manufacturers
based on their dimensions. What they had compiled was a substantial database of measurements of males in the US. Catherine was very enthusiastic about our concept, and she immediately offered to jump on board in helping to create new sizing for our target
market. We took this a step further when we decided to purchase Fittery’s database at the end of December 2017 to perfect sizing for our demographic based on analytics and data science.
Greg Grinman, the e-commerce Superman, has been by my side for all of the above along with his mastery of website building, marketing, branding, and social media expertise. We are also fortunate to have David Sasson, Chief Operating Officer at Bonobos & previously COO Derek
Lam & Vice President at Kenneth Cole, as a board advisor and providing his knowledge and expertise in what it takes to build a successful fashion brand.
We ran our Kickstarter campaign as a proof of concept which started on 5/9 (5’9) 2018. We were thrilled to sell over $15,000 of shirts in just 21 days, and at that point, we had confirmation that we were onto something.
We set up our fit store in a comfortable 1,200 sq feet in the heart of Cedarhurst and have been thrilled with the great reception we’ve received (& the sales don’t hurt). The store has allowed customers to come in and get fitted into our unique sizes and fits.
At the Kickstarter stage we launched with 11 button-down shirts. We have since expanded to 37 styles of button-down shirts ranging from Dress, Dress-Casual to Casual along with shorter length & width ties. In February 2019 we launched our first Skinny Fit Dress Jeans with
inseams ranging from 26”-31”. The jeans are flying and are already sold out in many sizes. We are anxiously awaiting our next arrivals of T-Shirts, Polos, Long Sleeve T-Shirts, and Slim Fit Jeans in April/May 2019. We are currently developing eight additional
new products for release in Fall 2019.
Pesach Sale
1x Shirt $45 reg $59
2x Silk Ties $40 reg $79.98
4x Shirt $140 reg $179.97
Visit our fit store at 536 Central Ave. Cedarhurst, NY 11516
Elie Robinson Founder Under 5’10
For Questions and comments: [email protected]