Plenty of companies already sell custom shirts online. What's the big deal about Vastrm? What's revolutionary?
Also, what's the big deal about Warby Parker? Just slick marketing and creation of a brand, but the same Chinese factories as used by CHEAP-GLASSES-FRAMES-DOT-COM.
EDIT:
Nice, a downvote after just a few seconds. Look, just because Vastrm is a YCombinator company doesn't mean it gets a free ride.
The interviewer asks why Vastrm is special and after some mumbling about an iPhone app and custom algorithms, the CEO admits that it all comes down to letting the user pick a couple of shirts and returning the ones that don't fit. Wow, why didn't anyone think of that before?!
There is nothing special about Vastrm. They are using celebrity endorsements like Will Smith to pimp their brand but at the end of the day the shirt is still made in a sweat-shop in Thailand. Instead of paying Vastrm $115 for each polo shirt, you're better off buying a plane ticket to Bangkok so you can enjoy a nice holiday whilst getting your custom suit, shirt and shoes made for a few bucks.
Some of my colleagues do get MTM suiting made in places like Hong Kong and Thailand.
The apparel market is massive I think there is room for innovation.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/05/workers-ri...
You say you spent 2.5 years setting up a supply chain, but did you examine the possibility of manufacturing in the USA?
Given that your polo shirts start at $115, surely there's enough fat margin to allow for increased costs? The federal minimum wage is just above $7/hr. How long does it take to make a polo shirt?
Why did you choose Thailand and not the USA? That's the question the Bloomberg interviewer should have asked.
In addition to my comments on your company name you should consider including a label of sorts somewhere on your shirt as a branding element (needs to be visible even if it hangs from the front or the tail). It doesn't have to be ala Polo or Tommy (over the chest) but there should be something to let people know that the product is yours.
Also I'm sure you have researched this but my gut says $100 is not the same as $98 in terms of consumer perception.
There are plenty of companies that do made to measure clothing online, but they require you to do a lot of measuring (either having someone measure your body, or taking a shirt that fits you well and measuring it). This is a somewhat involved and error prone process. What Vastrm is doing is letting you get some shirts in different sizes and fits, and then returning the ones that don't fit you well. That's very different than what the other companies MTM online sites offer. They generally have very restrictive return policies since the shirts were made custom for you.
As for Warby Parker, I've bought two pairs of eyeglasses and a pair of sunglasses from them, so I have a little more experience here. Buying glasses online was a bit of a crap shoot previously. You look at some frames online (the sites are pretty crappy) and find something you think might look good, and then order your glasses and have them shipped. Not ideal. What Warby Parker offers is for you to choose 5 frames, have them shipped to you, and then you get to try them on and figure out what works best. They also encourage you to share the photos on social media to get input from your friends. Clever marketing, but also pretty effective. As for the quality, in my experience their frames are of a higher quality than the much more expensive frames that I've been buying from my local optometrist. All this to say: Warby Parker combines great designs, an easy process, and high quality to make for a much better experience than exists today.
The two I've used, Black Lapel and Indo Chino, both allow you to return anything for any reason.
I've had two pair of glasses from them, and I've never had so many comments and compliments on a pair of glasses. So even if the glasses are made by the factories that make frames for other companies, there is something to be said about their design.
I'd love to see Warby Parker's disruptive strategy applied to other parts of the health care market. It shows what free market pressures can do to effect prices.
If an excellent web site, free try-at-home-program, low-prices, and social responsibility is what passes for "just slick marketing" I hope that more companies go for "just slick marketing".
An invented word is fine but it should either relate to the product or at least be memorable and easy to pass along by mention. Especially for a consumer product which is marketed in part on a web site.
I don't know how to pronounce "vastrm" is it "vastrem" or "vastrim" or? ... and even if I did I'd have to spell it for someone since it's not close to being a word. It's a hack essentially.
Once again, they are, after all, selling to consumers.
Document destruction/retention: "rm"
but document retention "mv".
That's a great business by the way (destruction and document scanning). Destruction much easier though.
Regarding all the criticism/feedback that people are providing here - take it to heart. No, really - TAKE IT TO HEART. Reading through the list of comments it seems like everyone is providing similar criticisms (specifically that they'd never pay that much for a shirt and that they don't like the association with Warby Parker). While it's only natural to try to defend your position, I'd say really try to dig in and ask, "Is there a reason everyone is saying the same things or are they just misunderstanding my business?" If the latter, realize that this isn't a "People just don't understand us" issue like some type of angsty teenager, it's a flaw in how Vastrm is marketing itself and how potential customers see the potential benefit. This isn't something to be taken lightly and dismissed, this is something that has killed countless great businesses.
Everything aside - I don't really like polo shirts to begin with, but I wish you the best of luck.
Slide 1/2 - Both slides push "New Designer Collections". What does that even mean? If Vastrm is positioning itself as high quality custom polos then everything on the site should speak to that level of quality and be recognizable as "designerware" by the Vastrm brand, not just because you say it's part of a designer collection."
Slide 3 - It's a decent idea in that it pushes something that I'm going to assume is unique about your brand (the woven collar), but I still have no idea what that means or how it's going to benefit me.
Slide 4 - vCool fabric? I don't particularly care that my shirt has "moisture wicking" fabric, I care that it's high quality, comfortable, and is going to help me look damn good.
Slide 5 - This is your entire business! Why in the hell is it the last slide? Less than 10% of people will ever stick around to see the last slide and it's the most important one you've got. The imagery itself leaves something to be desired, but designing my own shirt is one of the biggest selling point for Vastrm.
The thirds columns below are decent but aren't that convincing (first one is the best of the bunch but needs to be shown on an actual model showing how damn good of a fit it really is). What are these details that make it a luxury shirt? Why is the call to action on the video "Learn More" instead of "Watch the Video" or something more specific to its content?
The "Home Try On Program" block is again one of the most important parts of your business (it's risk free! Try it on and send what you don't like back!), and it's at the bottom of the page. Sell this idea!
Also, your 100 years of history looks great! This tells me your company has a story, a history. This is the type of BS that people love to know is there (even if they dont' bother reading the page) - that you're not some big chain retailer but a small business with a family history that's sticking it to "The Man".
The actual product grid pages look decent, but the single product pages are overwhelming me with an accordion of options. I understand the idea is allowing people to customize their shirt, but I'd have to click at least 20 different times to open/select each option and then add the product to cart.
Make it responsive!
Obligatory Plug - I'm an SF based web designer/front-end developer with experience doing responsive Magento stores for clients.
Looking at Vastrm, apart from the home try-on it doesn't appear to be the same thing at all? The whole point (I thought) of the glasses retailers is getting great quality at realistic prices rather than prices that have been over inflated by the glasses monopoly that exists.
Vastrm on the other hand sells what look like good quality clothes at the same massively inflated fashion prices that other retailers sell at. $95 for a polo shirt? I'd expect more like $35 as a 'surprising' price.
TLDR; I was quoted £140 ($220) for a pair of glasses, I went to the UK equivalent of Warby Parker and got nicer ones for £60... and they were 'buy one get one free', so essentially £30 a pair. That's the sort of 'surprise' that Vastrm needs to create, and $95 polo shirts aren't going to do that.
People with physical deformities (what is a more polite way to say this?) could also be a market.
Warby Parker took advantages of a business (eye glasses) which had greatly inflated prices and a few suppliers controlling the market. The shirt business isn't the same - there is plenty of competition, price points, and availability of product.
I won't make a guess on how good the vastrm idea is but it's no warby parker.
Your points are valid (and I will take them as correct).
But when someone sees a headline that says "the Warby Parker of" they are going to think many different things and that's at least what I thought.
Clothing is sold everywhere eyeglasses are not. Custom clothing is nothing new what Warby did essentially was a new idea.
Note also that eyeglasses have been around forever and are used by a nice percentage of the population because if you need glasses and don't wear contact lenses you need glasses.
Polo shirts are not the same (title says "custom polo shirts") and I'm not even seeing that they sell polos for women. And how many men are "metro" enough that they even care about getting customer polo shirts? There is a big difference between men's fashion and women's fashion to begin with.
re: a different experience. We are sort the anti-Gap. At the Gap, one size fits all. With us, we will fit the shirt to your body type and not force you into a size that was made for the masses.
This said, I'm not really drawn to the offering:
1. I personally don't have a problem with fit. Many brands already offer different options (i.e. classic, slim, ultra-slim) and I'd find it hard to believe that there is a large number of individuals in the target market who can't find a brand that offers a satisfactory fit. If you're interested in wearing attractive, comfortable clothing, identifying the brands and fits that you like really isn't a big deal. And once you've done this, you generally don't need to revisit.
2. This isn't a suit. I have little interest in spending time designing a polo or seeking a more "perfect" fit for casualwear. Vastrm seems far less efficient than "take a trip to the mall."
3. I wouldn't consider myself a label snob, but the label and visible branding that often accompanies it is always reasonably going to be a part of the value proposition when it comes to clothing.
