Nigerian startup Fitted has developed a digital platform that uses machine learning to eliminate inefficiencies in the bespoke industry.
Founded by Ibi Cookie in 2021, fit provides tailors and retailers with the tools to support them in their unique context of fashion, creating a means for every customer to get superior quality garments on time, every time.
Using proprietary AI tools, the startup auto-generates and stores customer measurements, reducing measurement time by approximately 90%. The cloud-based platform enables tailors to process and track orders, accept payments worldwide, connect with suppliers, and engage directly with customers.
“Basically, we give tailors and fashion brands everything they need to grow their business,” Cookie told Disrupt Africa.
Despite being a large part of the wardrobes of some 4 billion customers on the planet, the tailor-made clothing industry is mostly inefficient and unreliable. Business processes tend to be highly manual as tailors lack the tools to manage orders and accurately estimate customer dimensions. As a result, time is wasted manually adjusting orders or repeatedly adjusting garments due to inaccurate customer measurements.
Moreover, tailors and retailers are still largely excluded from the formal financial system. Most transactions are offline and informal, leaving brands unaware of how their business is performing and the critical data they need to grow their business or access bank financing. Customers are similarly affected, with clothes being sized incorrectly or delayed in delivery.
“A large part of this structural problem is that fashion for emerging markets is not really designed to work well for domestic markets or ‘minorities’. “It’s not uncommon for men and women of African, Asian and South American descent to find clothing that doesn’t fit their unique body types, and women especially struggle with this,” Cookie said.
“A great ancillary purpose of this platform is to aggregate the measurements of historically underrepresented people around the world. We are also building true standard sizing for those who are underrepresented in
Fit was recently selected as a participant in the Catalyst Jobtech Accelerator run by. Mercy Corp and BFA Global, which is funded by various other investors. Since its launch, Cookie said it has been very popular, collecting more than 20,000 measurements from customers and producing thousands of costumes a month.
“We have noticed a huge gap in the African fashion market. Customers are struggling to obtain reliable quality products from fashion brands, brands especially have low MOQs and lack of tailors and operations. Given that it is difficult to manage, we struggle to produce garments to standards.”
“We currently have overtailers from 13 countries,” he said, adding that those countries include India, Pakistan, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, the US and the UK.
“However, currently we only have fulfillment operations in Nigeria. In the future, we will expand to more countries in Africa and Asia, crossing fashion borders between developed and emerging markets in the world. We have plans to further facilitate cross-border payment flows.”
Fitted makes money by taking a commission on each transaction that occurs on its platform. Cookie said Fit, like other start-ups, faces some challenges in getting started, including navigating a difficult operating environment in Nigeria.
“We are a purely technical product, but we also produce garments through a vetted network of tailors who are also involved in the logistics of fulfillment. Our deep insight into gender gives us a unique competitive advantage, which helps us develop better products,” he said.
“We have been able to overcome these challenges through our relentless focus on collaboration, resilience and our mission to digitize and revolutionize the fashion industry in Africa.”
