April 29, 2008

IndoChino Offers Tailor-Made Suits

Duncan Riley

25 comments »

Canadian online retailer IndoChino offers a traditionally offline product, tailor-made suits.

In 2006, founder and then university student All Heikal Gani wanted a suit that looked good at a reasonable price but couldn’t find anything he liked. “Designer suits were way too expensive, but the polyester suits he could afford were of poor quality and just didn’t fit” is the official line, and as anyone who has purchased a suit knows, it’s also 100% right. Gani wrote a business plan for tailor-made men’s suits sold over the internet, then teamed up with fellow student Kyle Vucko to bring the idea to market.

The suits are sourced from China, with company maintaining an office in Shanghai to oversee production in addition to their head office in Victoria, British Columbia.

The site closed its second round last week from Burda Digital Ventures. Canadian investor Boris Wertz (W Media Ventures) led the original seed round.

Suits start at $199 (USD) and they would appear to ship outside of North America as well. There is advice on the site on how to obtain your measurements and each suit comes with a perfect fit guarantee.

CrunchBase Information

IndoChino

Kyle Vucko

Heikal Gani

Information provided by CrunchBase

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TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » IndoChinoがオーダーメイドスーツを販売

April 29th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

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Hendra

April 29th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

Nice..
Juan Saldivar

April 29th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

Interesting, with all this web 2.0 hype it’s interestings seeing all this new types of sites. But well if shipping isn’t as expensive as the suit haha could work, who knows, time would tell. And the web 2.0 crash would be soon.
Strange

April 29th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

This could be good… but custom suits require a lot of adjustment / refitting
Rian

April 29th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

Congrats guys! nice to see a company from the victoria BC tech scene getting some exposure!
Chris

April 29th, 2008 at 6:44 pm

I founded a consulting firm (a few years ago, moved on since) that was the exclusive Canadian distributor of Optitex which makes the industry’s most advanced made-to-measure engine:

http://www.optitex.com/en/Products/Modulate

I implemented it over at Abbyshot if anyone is interested in a custom made “Matrix trench” or signature coat from any sci-fi movie:

http://www.abbyshot.com/
ineedhits online advertising

April 29th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

I really like the idea, although I have a few questions:

1. how to they handle alterations if the suit doesnt fit right (shipping back to china and back to US would be expensive? getting repaired locally could ruin margins?)
2. how do they ensure customers make the correct measurements?
3. many suit buyers like to see and feel the fabric before they buy.. is this possible?
Corey

April 29th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

I hate it when people who leave comments don’t even bother visiting the website.
1. every suit has free alterations from a local tailor up to $25.
2. they have two ways to do measurements (height,weight, waist) and then a more detailed way with more instructions
2. they have fabric swatches available for $1 just like any other online store in which fabric is extremely important in the buying process
Miles (SEM iCluck)

April 29th, 2008 at 9:14 pm

Interesting idea… I dunno how it will build steam but there should be a source of crowdsourcing added with potential web businesses added in so that people may create businesses around their own designs — What’s the business model other than mark-ups? Memberships of any sort or ads?
james

April 29th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

Their photos suck!

I looked at their tux photos and they are soooo bad. They really need some clean sharp images that shows the fabric and quality. They need to be building a brand for quality and their images need to communicate that brand.
Tobias

April 30th, 2008 at 12:44 am

I buy made to measure suits and I don’t see this working. The main adventage of the made to measure experience is the advise from an expert that comes with the fitting…

In my view made to measure 2.0 can only work with a offline/online model, where the first measure is taken offline, and reordering is possible online.
Kyle

April 30th, 2008 at 1:36 am

This is Kyle Vucko, the Co-Founder/CEO of Indochino,

I would like to thank everyone for their comments and reply directly to a couple:

1. Poor Quality Photos- I totally agree with this, and part of our financing is going towards getting professional equipment.

2. This can’t be done online- We have been told this since day 1. People globally are using our service for its great value and time savings. Furthermore, our return rate is currently at 3%, substantially bellow the 17% industry average. You can measure yourself!

3. Thank you Corey- I appreciate you taking the time to go through our site and reply to the above comment. Please do get in touch with me.

I would love to hear further thoughts from readers, please feel free to email me direct: kyle@indchino.com
roy

April 30th, 2008 at 6:39 am

I prefer dressmokey.com.
Lateef X

April 30th, 2008 at 9:06 am

I am also worried most about the final product on these suits.

When you purchase a bespoke/custom suit locally you take it in to be re-fitted sometimes upto 3 times…but in my case…always at least once.

I commend Indochino for offering a $25 reimbursement for local tailoring but still suggest that they come up with some other ways of reassurance…alterations to a suit pant and jacket start at $50 in many places…so this can get costly.

Good job on the 2nd round!
Mulroney

April 30th, 2008 at 9:27 am

I have ordered three suits and four shirts from IndoChino and they have all turned out great. I actually get compliments about the suits all the time. So it worked for me, and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a suit.

Every time a company pushes the envelope in E-Commerce, people have their doubts. It’s easy to say that it won’t work, as it was to say that Amazon or eBay would never work (like, 10 whole years ago). Nowadays people don’t think twice about ordering things like prescription eyeglasses online.

If you are expecting $5,000 3-fitting custom tailored suit quality for $200 delivered to your door, you are crazy. IndoChino obviously isn’t competing in that market. You are getting a fitted, fashionable suit at a price comparable to the Men’s Warehouse. They are targeting buyers who don’t have a couple grand to spend on a suit, not people who buy tailored suits and go in multiple fittings until the suit is “perfect.”

Frankly, whether or not you think it can work, you can’t really go wrong at $200+ a suit with adjustment credits included and a good return policy.
Karen

April 30th, 2008 at 9:28 am

I know there are all sorts of problems with what I am about to say and that women’s fashion is different, but here I go: As a female who *gets* to wear a suit everyday and works the same hours as her male counterparts, I would kill for a custom made suit that I could order online. If you could provide a personal shopper to tell me how to dress myself, and some custom shirts with out forcing me to go to Michigan avenue, I would kill for you. If you could also pick out some not-too-sexy, not-too-dumpy shoes, and some non-hideous cufflinks, I would kill for you and also bake you cakes. And I would add tortes to the list if you invented (or directed me to) something that is a quick and effective way to save my pant hems, which have been tailored for heels, while I walk to work in my flats, in order to save my shoes. Safety pins are cumbersome and bike cuff wrinkle my pants.

Of the 5 custom tailors in the loop that I have polled so far, all make custom shirts and suits for men, none make customer shirts or suits for women. I am sure that this is all available at a price, a combination of both time and money, but what am I supposed to do until I make partner?
James

April 30th, 2008 at 9:35 am

How is this service offering different than any of the other hundreds of made-to-measure tailors which take orders over the Internet? Is the only difference that they have a .com in their name and took venture funding?

http://www.maxwellsclothiers.com/
http://www.tailordave.com/

etc…
drivingsouth

April 30th, 2008 at 11:45 am

Kile,

So when do you think a fresh VC’d site can be seen? I would love to try it out but confidence is one of my biggest concerns and one of e-shop’s biggest challenges!

Also one question is in my mind: Custom-made suits are extremely important for non standard bodies like min (1,85m, ~64Kg),… 1) Are these your tipical clients and 2) is it more difficult to get it right first time, without any need for further adjustments?
rich

April 30th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Good idea. Although, I’m not too sure about China. In the Netherlands there is a company who have their tailored suits made in Italy. That sounds more like it. http://www.suitsupply.nl
Chris

April 30th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

Michael Arrington - you really need to support your own CMC alumni. Dressmonkey.com is doing the same thing and is founded by one of your fellow CMCers.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....onkey.html
iTailor

April 30th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

dress-shirts designed by you on facebook.
Kyle

April 30th, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Hi Driving South,

New and better features, photos, etc. to the site will continue to come over the next couple month, we are refining not re-creating it.

To your Q on customers:
1) non-standard bodies is a big user of our site, but not as much as one would think. People seem to purchase for the style, service, and value.
2) Our measuring system works, very few people end up following up for the alteration credit (perhaps 1-2%).

For further Q’s, please feel free to email me direct: kyle@indochino.com.
Sam

May 1st, 2008 at 3:32 pm

@Chris #19
How do you order a suit on dressmonkey.com?
I only see custom blazers, not complete suits.
Ron Kurti

May 1st, 2008 at 7:20 pm

What’s a suit? My suits are all in the deadpool.
HK

May 18th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

These guys are a joke. I complained about receiving their e-newsletter even after unsubscribing multiple times. Then they sent me back a misspelled and grammatically incorrect email that was the most unprofessional thing I have ever read.

They are too immature to run a company.