The Intellifit system uses radar to create a “fitprint” that includes more than 200 data points. Customers don’t have to strip down and it takes less than a minute. Consumers then can go to the firm’s Web site at intellifit.com, to order clothing from stores that include Levi’s and Macy’s. Intellifit gets paid by the stores.
The start-up isn’t profitable yet, though president Rob Weber hopes to double the current pace of 50,000 scans a year at the airport by 2009, and then branch out to big hub airports. The firm’s scanners already exist in about a dozen stores internationally. Weber, on the hunt for more capital, wants to be in 150 locations in five years. Right now, the firm is only measuring men, but has begun pilot projects in women’s stores.
Other companies are using similar scanning concepts. Unique Solutions, a Nova Scotia firm, is putting its laser, BodySkanner, in JoAnn fabric stores, to help sewing customers pick patterns. Bodymetrics, a British firm, has installed scanners in London department stores Harrods and Selfridges, for fitting men’s and women’s jeans. It uses a different technology, which requires that customers get down to their skivvies. But only until they can slide into the most comfortable pair of jeans ever.
