Custom Clothing Makes A Comeback

CrunchGear recently opened my eyes to ShirtsMyWay.com, a site that lets anyone customize a dress shirt to their exact specifications. The minutia of details that one can pick and choose from is dizzying including the type of fabric; the design of the collar, cuffs, yoke, back, bottom, and pocket; type of buttons, button holes, collar stays, or a monogram; and, of course, the size of the shirt. Coming in at $75 per custom shirt at least, ShirtsMyWay.com is too rich for my blood. Besides, I’m not that great of a shirt designer.

But the site took me back to the days of the dotcom boom where I would spend hours on Customatix.com. The company was started by four Adidas executives in 2000 with the aim of letting anyone create a completely customized shoe. You could pick from a bunch of different styles, choose the colors of various pieces, have your name stitched on the back, pick the laces, and even add a logo from their huge library. I remember making a whole virtual closet full of shoe designs that I had no intention of actually purchasing. I guess that’s why they’re no longer around. Though I did get a friend a gift certificate to the site for her birthday and she did design and order her own custom-made shoes.

On the brighter side, it looks like Customatix inspired the wave of hideous MySpace profiles later in the decade.

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