© meepl/ Stoll.

Swiss retail technology company meepl, a ‘3D smartphone body scanning clothes shopping companion’, has announced it has partnered with Stoll the leading flat knitting machine manufacturer, to offer bespoke made-to-measure knitwear for the fashion industry on a global scale.

“This unique collaboration will be a first for the knitwear fashion market - combining sustainability with personalisation,” meeple said in a press communication earlier today. “Coupling meepl’s 3D body scanning app with Stoll’s knit and wear innovative technology will provide a customer-centric solution to the historical issues surrounding customised clothing production. It will allow knitwear to be customised on an automated and scalable level, using meepl’s highly accurate measurements fed straight into the knitelligence software controlling Stoll’s machines.

Ferdinand Metzler, Founder and CEO of meepl, commented: “Our partnership with Stoll means we will be able to offer a bespoke shopping experience to knitwear consumers across many global brands. By combining our state-of-the-art technologies, we can offer an unparalleled service that addresses sizing and quality of fit, bringing us closer to achieving our goal of eliminating standard sizing once and for all,” the Swiss company said.

“From a sustainability point of view, both ourselves and Stoll feel passionately about reducing landfill when it comes to the disposal of clothing garments. We hope that by harnessing our technologies to match supply and demand we will be able to eliminate issues with overstocking and reduce retailer returns.”

The knitwear industry has previously struggled with inefficiencies with made-to-measure sizing, relying on manual methods of measuring and human input, which is prone to error, meeple says. According to the company, meepl’s smartphone-enabled 3D body scanning technology uses body reconstruction algorithms to produce an almost 100% accurate body image from just two pictures, instantly obtaining up to 100 measurements of the body.

© meepl/ Stoll.

“Over the last few years, there has been a notable global increase in demand for knitwear products, with a recent report recognising knitwear as a major segment of the fashion industry. Stoll’s clients including leading brands such as Adidas, Nike and Marc Cain, will be able to capitalise on this growth by offering greater accuracy in sizing with meepl’s 3D technology, resulting in a better consumer experience,” meeple adds.

“With meepl’s easy-to-use and accurate body scanning technology the consumer’s personal body measurements can easily be connected to our knitelligence platform. The platform automatically adjusts the knitting pattern based on the body measurements being provided making it possible to knit tailored garments in a very short time without any manual intervention. For the first time ever, this combination of technologies makes it possible to offer mass customisation for everyone from the convenience of their homes,” a spokesperson for Stoll said.

“Both meepl and Stoll are paving the way in their use of technology in the production of garments for the fashion industry. The partnership will offer an unrivalled experience for the end-user in terms of both accuracy of sizing and quality of fit, leading to a level of automatic customisation of knitwear which can be scaled to a level that to date has not been achieved,” meeple concludes.

meepl is a Zurich-based software company founded in 2015 by a team of ETH engineering students. Their aim was to provide an easy and accurate way to offer 3D body scanning on a mobile phone to enhance the customer journey of online shoppers by uniting state-of-the-art technology with customer needs. This, the company says, goes hand in hand with its aim for achieving more sustainability within the fashion industry. With leading experts in visual computing and machine learning the company has grown steadily to a team of 25 to provide technology-centric solutions for the apparel industry worldwide.

H. Stoll AG & Co. KG, with headquarters in Reutlingen (Baden”Württemberg, Germany) is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of flat knitting machines. The long”established company was founded in 1873 and has 1000 employees around the world. The Stoll brand portfolio includes flat knitting machines and pattern software that are used to produce fashion and technical textiles. Stoll exports its products to more than 50 countries worldwide. With a network of subsidiaries, sales and service centres and numerous agencies, Stoll offers a fully integrated service package. With innovative developments and state”of”the”art production, Stoll makes a multitude of knitting trends possible, impressive examples of which are illustrated in the current Stoll Trend Collection.

www.meepl.com

www.stoll.com/en