Founders Stories: Meet the team cutting new shapes in men’s fashion
Welcome to Founders Stories, an interview series where we sit down with our portfolio co-founders and talk about their path into entrepreneurship, what problem they’re solving and why it matters.
The negative environmental impact of the global fashion industry is an issue that has gotten out of hand in the past few decades. Luckily, today, a lot of young companies are working on sustainable solutions and we are proud to have one of them in our own portfolio.
Meet Jess Fleischer, who, together with Andreas Langhorn, co-founded Son of a Tailor: a custom-fit clothing brand for men.
The story starts in Copenhagen during the spring of 2014, when they set out with a simple but ambitious aspiration: to make the best t-shirt in the world.
But what does that mean? From the beginning it meant more than just design or fabric. To make the best t-shirt in the world they needed to re-think everything about producing clothes from the ground up.
They decided to create a business built on the principles of expert craftsmanship, simple Danish design and sustainable production methods.
By taking customers’ unique measurements and using proprietary technology they could produce the perfect fit.
It would be a move away from standard industry sizes, which were only introduced to simplify processes and drive mass production.
Standard sizes allowed us to lower costs which was a good thing, but now technology makes it possible to customise at scale, which is even better.
Customisation means a better-fitting t-shirt, sure. But that’s just a small part of it. It also means a more efficient t-shirt for the company producing it.
More than anything, customisation means re-creating a connection between producers and consumers. Finding a more sustainable bond between them. Sure you have to wait two weeks for your shirt, but it will be the best shirt you ever bought. And that’s a problem worth solving.
Waste less, want less
So how does it work? Son of a Tailor’s Ideal Size algorithm creates a personal size for each customer based on four measurements: height, age, shoe size and weight. This is then saved to their profile on the site, so they can easily order new items.
Apart from solving the pain of clothes shopping, especially for those of us that struggle with industry standard sizes, the approach is also massively more efficient.
Son of a Tailor automatically generates individual t-shirt patterns and optimises them - like fitting pieces into a puzzle - to minimise waste.
The patterns are then cut with a laser for optimal precision and speed.
“First of all it makes us waste less: few people are sending clothes back because they don’t fit, so we are wasting less time and CO2,” says Jess.
He has a background in supply chain and manufacturing and previously worked as a strategy manager and business developer at eBay.
“But we also wasting less in our supply chain because we have zero inventory, which means we are becoming more efficient than mass production in our CO2 footprint and our transparency.”
Customers can track how each piece of clothing they order is made, where it was made, who made it and exactly what it is made of.
Apparel with a purpose
Most of us can relate to the personal pain of not being able to find the perfect fit in an industry that keeps overheads low by producing standardised sizes and shapes.
But while finding the right fit is important to shoppers, consumer values are changing. More and more people are prioritising spend on brands that are upfront about how their products are made and at what cost to the environment.
“It’s been one of the problems with the fashion industry in general, that they have been very un-transparent and a very polluting industry,” says Jess.
“We try to tell our customers that this product was made for you by this seamstress, at this time — we actually take them through the whole journey.”
Son of a Tailor is about creating quality clothes and steering buyers away from throwaway clothing culture that has become more prevalent in the past years as production costs have dropped at the expense of people and planet.
The amount of clothes bought in the EU per person has increased by 40% in just a few decades. However, estimates show that if the number of times a garment is worn is doubled on average, the greenhouse gas emissions from the textiles industry would be 44 % lower.
More than a third of consumers claim they have already switched from a preferred brand to another because it credibly stands for positive environmental or social practices.
Five years on from that Spring, Son of a Tailor has sailed past the milestone of making its hundred thousandth t-shirt, reports 96% accuracy on fit and has expanded into a growing range of sustainable custom-fitted apparel for men.
Watch the full interview as we chat to Jess about how Son of a Tailor is using technology, transparency and the perfect fit to bring a sustainable future to Danish fashion design.
Can’t get enough of Son of a Tailor?
- Get your own custom-made fit — delivery is free worldwide
- Follow Son of a Tailor on Instagram for inspiration
- Stay tuned for their next pop-up stores coming up
Founders is a startup studio. Together with exceptional entrepreneurs we build products and companies that radically improve how people and organisations work. Our portfolio includes Pleo, Duuoo, Kontist, Son of a Tailor, Maguru,LifeX, Reach, Wonderwerk, Headlight & Donna.
Camera work and video editing by Jonas Smidt Mogensen. Thanks to Amy and Stefano for editing and research.
