Balodana and AIMIRR team to bring augmented reality “virtual try-on” into custom clothing shopping experience
(CHICAGO, IL) – It’s the ultimate consumer fantasy: you try on clothing virtually from the privacy and comfort of home, your garments are made on-demand custom to your preferences and body measurements, and then shipped directly to you in about the same time as traditional internet shopping.
Balodana is one step further towards fulfilling that dream, as it announces an exclusive partnership with Seattle-based startup AIMIRR to bring “digital fitting room” convenience into its custom clothing marketplace, and to collaborate on a fully integrated experience with mobile body measurement data capture. AIMIRR is a real-time garment rendering technology that turns your cell phone into a smart mirror, complete with 360 views superimposed on your real body instead of an animated avatar.
The experience will be demonstrated by AIMIRR at TechCrunch Disrupt as part of its Battlefield 200 from October 18-21, 2022, where attendees will be able to see themselves try on a custom-made dress from Samshek, one of Balodana’s custom designers.
The founders of Balodana and AIMIRR met when they were collaborating with IEEE members on a project to connect body scanning data with digital patternmaking and smart factory systems. Pritesh Kanani, CEO and founder of AIMIRR, was attending Chicago Booth School of Business and offered its beta software to be used alongside three other body scanners in creating custom pants for study participants.
Dana Todd, founder and CEO of Balodana, was immediately smitten with the approach AIMIRR was taking towards virtual try-on.
“I have been watching the slow development of the digital dressing room since the early days of ecommerce, and I’ve been frustrated with the experience as a consumer myself. My philosophy is that a virtual experience has to be better and more efficient than a woman standing in a store, quickly holding up garments one at a time to suss out what looks good and what doesn’t,” said Todd. “The traditional approach has been to build unflattering 3D avatars that require too much processing and deliver too little utility for consumers. When I saw that AIMIRR was using augmented reality to deliver the experience, allowing you to move around naturally while also getting your body measurements scanned, I was sold.”
The AIMIRR app helps shoppers get measured within 30 seconds, and it can also be integrated with existing shopping sites. As part of the Balodana shopping experience, customers will not only be able to see what the clothes will look like, they can order them made-to-measure through its network of custom clothing makers.
“Having worked computer graphics my entire life, it came as a surprise to see the majority of the retail industry struggling to provide a seamless digital experience when it comes to apparel and fit. Dana has been an outlier and an early adopter investing in technology advancements in fitting and manufacturing. Working with Balodana’s highly specialized network made me realize the granularities of key decision-making factors that influence shoppers. During our time working together at IEEE OCAC, we studied the nuances of a multi-stage pipeline from scanning to patternmaking to manufacturing, reducing manual errors that lead to non-standardization and a bad shopper experience. I stand behind Balodana’s mission of making personalized clothing accessible to every individual and am deeply excited for this collaboration.”
The virtual try-on experience is set to go live on Balodana in November 2022 with a select set of products.
About Balodana LLC
Balodana is the only multi-brand custom clothing marketplace that inspires and perfectly fits women who want to master the art of the first impression. In an era in which consumers expect personalized experiences, tailor-made clothing is not only personal but the most sustainable way to buy new garments today. Balodana curates designs and designers worldwide who specialize in women’s made to measure (MTM) clothing. Customers use their measurement profile to shop hundreds of custom style patterns in all price ranges and categories. The company was launched in 2019 and is based in Chicago.
About AIMIRR
AIMIRR (AI mirror) develops computer software that apparel retailers can use to embed 30 second digital trial rooms into their websites, where shoppers can experience an “apparel lens” – seeing how they look in any apparel item live on their bodies and to a size level accuracy. AIMIRR’s patented garment rendering technology is the only web scale augmented reality digital fitting room experience that can showcase an apparel item live onto a shopper’s body, demonstrating both sizing, material, texture and fit. The company was launched in 2021 and is based in Seattle, WA.