Shaping the future of fit in the fashion industry

In this exclusive interview, we had the opportunity to speak with Jason Wang, the COO of Alvanon, a leading new-age apparel and fashion technology company that has won the 2023 Just Style Excellence Award for Innovation and Product Launches. Alvanon has been at the forefront of shaping the future of fit in the fashion industry for over two decades, providing sizing standards and fit specifications for consumers' bodies. In our conversation Wang discusses the future of fit and fashion technology, from anticipated industry trends to insights on Alvanon’s mission, goals for the future, and what sets them apart. He also introduces MyAlva, an exciting new venture with the potential to transform fit for consumers and the industry. Alvanon is working towards creating a sustainable future for the apparel industry, including the development of a new technology, BodyAI, designed to reduce overstock inventory and their transition to 3D printing for their physical mannequins.

 Alvanon is a global fashion-technology company shaping the future of fit. Since our founding we have been working to define sizing standards and fit specifications for consumer’s bodies. We do not make clothes; we help make clothes fit. Fit standards like ours are designed to serve both brands and consumers, solving many of the problems facing the industry today. Research shows that customers who have an understanding of a brand’s fit and how it relates to their body are more likely to purchase more and return less. Brands with consistent fit standards produce more saleable garments, reduce waste, and secure long-term customer loyalty.

Over the last 22 years Alvanon has developed over 10,000 sizing and fit standards for thousands of brands and retailers globally. Understanding the value of emerging technology, our process involves creating a digital avatar twin for each physical mannequin, allowing brands to work with accurate measurements in 3D from the beginning of the design process. We work on the complex problems of fit for consumers, brands, and clothing manufacturers.

We have been a disruptor in the mannequin business since 2001, applying deep data analysis to the development of physical mannequins. These mannequins aren’t your usual mannequins; based on extensive research on the human body, they are setting the size standard for the whole fashion industry. We’ve built a reputation on our unique methodology for understanding bodies and our ability to translate that understanding to fit forms, while emphasizing the industry’s need for standards. Our work serves as the benchmark for fit.

As a company, we have an evolutionary mindset. To us, this means investing in research, experimentation, and collaboration to find practical solutions for industry-wide problems. We strive to look beyond our silos and encourage our clients to do the same. This mindset has allowed us to constantly evolve as a company, including new products and guided consulting services as the industry becomes technologically ready for the next steps. We also embrace competition; we truly believe that this industry and the fashion industry's problems are big enough that multiple stakeholders can co-exist, collaborate, and flourish.

We launched our vision of an apparel fit and sizing ecosystem in 2022, exploring the possibilities of a digital fit ecosystem and a roadmap to a sustainable and profitable future. Through launching new technologies, such as Body AI and Alvanon’s consumer app, MyAlva, we hope to realize the implementation of such an ecosystem throughout the entire fashion industry.

We are currently working on the beta launch of our new suite of technologies, BodyAI. Launching simultaneously in late 2024 will be MyAlva, a consumer-facing app that builds an accurate avatar of a consumer from measurements or photos, providing fit and size recommendations based on their measurements; and the Alvanon Analytics Platform, a data engine that is able to analyze consumer avatars for brands and retailers to optimize their product offerings.

Through BodyAI, we are able to help brands have better sales conversions and reduce returns. More importantly, we are able to provide real consumer body data back to the brands to directly improve their fit and sizing for future products.

We will likely continue to see many brands try to tackle the struggles of overwhelming product returns. With overall revenue dropping, companies will be looking to improve their bottom line by eliminating returns where possible. I believe we will start to see many companies offering virtual dressing room solutions and sizing recommendation engines as possible solutions.

AI will also continue to dominate the headlines, as brands continue to test implementing AI in their product development and marketing workflows.

At Alvanon, we are deeply passionate about creating a sustainable future for the apparel industry–we were founded on the belief that there is always hope for tomorrow. One of the key aims of BodyAI is to create this sustainable future by providing companies with more direct and usable consumer data. If brands understand the actual sizes of their customers in different regions, for example, they would be able to produce apparel in the right sizes in the right volumes for those markets. This in turn would reduce the surplus of unsold and overstock inventory which ends up in landfills. Producing better fitting garments also reduces returns, shrinking the associated carbon footprint.

Internally we are transitioning the production process for our physical mannequins (AlvaForm) from fiberglass to 3D print. 3D printing is a much cleaner production method for our forms. We now use a biodegradable polyurethane which is far better for the environment.

It is an honor for us to receive this award for our avatars. Our team at Alvanon has been actively working on fit issues for over 22 years, deeply committed to creating an efficient and sustainable fashion industry through our work. Each and every individual who has put their minds into developing these digital assets deserves recognition for the considerable innovations they are making for the industry.

First, we need to thank our founder the late Dr. Kenneth Wang, for allowing us to have the freedom to play with concepts and build out ideas in our own time. Second, thank you to our truly awesome global team. Everyone here thinks beyond boundaries and is agile enough to be practical and balanced when understanding our clients’ needs. Finally, thank you to our clients for believing in us enough to undertake the complexity of digital transformation and innovation in their organizations. This work only continues because we see the need to build our future together.