Skins wins praise from sizing lobbyists

SYDNEY: Sportswear brand Skins has taken the national sizing crisis into its own hands, investing tens of thousands of dollars in a targeted consumer measurement survey.

The compression garment specialist sampled a cross-section of sportswear consumers earlier this year to determine the key “shapes” of Australia’s athletic community. The findings have resulted in the development of a new commercial product range, which addresses not only the height and weight of consumers but segments them into two distinct shape categories.

For instance, the current sizing guide used for Skins’ range of leggings is similar to that of hoisery providers. Consumers can purchase XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL as well as a selection of taller fits based on measurements provided in a height and weight grid.

Skins’ new range, which is scheduled to launch through major retailers early next year, will break this sizing system down even further by providing two additional body shape categories, one of which addresses pear shapes.

Skins’ product development manager Amanda Herrod revealed details of the project at a business seminar on national sizing standards last week. The company is still developing an in-store marketing campaign to educate consumers on the new system.

“Australian sizing guidelines don’t address actual shapes,” Herrod told the seminar. “I recently discovered my mother and I are pretty much the same height and weight, but we have very different body shapes.

“Because she has long skinny legs and a wider top, leggings for her are tighter around the waist and looser on the legs. With me it’s the complete opposite. That’s why a consistent sizing system that includes shape is so important.”

Industry pattern engineering veterans Kathleen Berry and Lois Hennes, who were also at the seminar, praised the initiative and said it came at a critical time for the industry. Berry and Hennes have released a ground-breaking 480-page book, The Fashion Design System, which proposes master blocks for five Australian female body shapes over traditional sizing measurements.

Berry said current standards were seeing businesses lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in waste and faulty products.

“Previous drafting systems were based on the size of females living over a century ago and subsequent biological changes now make those calculations questionable,” she said.

Australia’s last major sizing survey was carried out in 1926 by lingerie group Berlei. Industry campaigns aimed at organising a new national study have failed in recent years, despite successful campaigns carried out across the UK, USA, Germany, Poland and India over the last 50 years.

The Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia (TFIA) is currently finalising a national action plan to tackle the sizing issue.