For short men, the hardest part about dressing well is finding clothes that fit. If you’re like me, trips to the mall usually end in frustration. It’s almost as if the clothing industry hates short men…
Online shopping is just as bad. Unless you know exactly what you’re buying, it’s always a gamble. You have to wait days or even weeks to try something on, and oftentimes it doesn’t fit.
UPDATE (July 2018): Unfortunately, it looks like Fitbay has gone out of business. Too bad!
Sure, online stores post photos of men modeling their clothes. But you want to know how something will fit you, not some 6’2″ model who’s built like a Greek god.
And yes, sometimes you can read reviews from other guys who already own whatever you’re looking at , but this isn’t very helpful either. You don’t know what kind of body type do the reviewer has. Are they built like you?
Probably not.
A while back, I was reading reviews for this jacket I wanted to buy, and I remember thinking:
It would be great if every review included the person’s height and body type.
Now that would be helpful, don’t you think?
Introducing Fitbay
Well, someone else had the same thought, and they ran with it. I’d like to introduce Fitbay, an free tool that helps you find clothes that actually fit.
I was skeptical when I first heard about Fitbay, but I’ve been using it for a couple of months now, and let me tell you: it’s a game changer for us modest men.
It’s free, and it’s very easy to use. When you sign up, you enter in some basic info about your body type. Things like height, weight, shape, etc. It’s all anonymous unless you choose to make it public.
Creating your profile takes less than two minutes. There’s no measuring involved. You just answer five simple questions about your body type.
Then you can tell Fitbay which brands and sizes you like. It can be anything – Banana Republic 30×30 chinos, Levi’s 28×30 jeans, J. Crew XS jackets – whatever.
If you want, you can upload your own photo for each item, or you can let Fitbay find a picture from the internet. I like using my own photos so people can see how my clothes actually fit on a regular person, rather than some professional model.
Finding your body doubles
After you create your profile, Fitbay uses some algorithmic wizardry to match you up with your body doubles, people who are built like you. For example, my body doubles are short, slim men with normal shaped torsos.
Some of my body doubles also have shorter arms, which means they have the same problem with shirtsleeves always being too long.
Based on what brands and sizes you and your body doubles like, Fitbay recommends clothing that will probably fit your build.
You can browse recommendations by brand, size or garment type (i.e. jackets):
It’s pretty accurate, so you will probably see some things that you already own. But if you see something you like, you can save it:
So you can use Fitbay to keep a list of clothes you’d like to try on. This is a great way to remember new brands that you haven’t tried yet.
You can use Fitbay on your computer or phone
Fitbay has a mobile app, so you can use it on your phone (which is great for shopping). It has most of same features as the full website version, and its design makes it fun to use.
I prefer the desktop version because I do most of my clothes shopping online, but the your profile syncs with the app automatically, so you can switch off anytime.
You should sign up now (it’s free)
Here’s the thing about Fitbay: it relies on users like you.
The more of us that sign up, the better it will be.
That’s why I want every Modest Man reader to create a Fitbay profile so that we can learn from each other. It’s free, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it.
Go sign up, then leave a comment with a link to your profile so I can follow you.
Did they remove the body double feature? That seemed the best part.
Did they? Haven’t checked in a while…
Where’s the damn andriod app?
Hey Brock,
Just matched 81% with you and am now following. The brand recommendations are incredibly accurate. I added Levi, Uniqlo, and Mossimo— before finishing my profile and found that they’re some of my top body double matched brands. Now I just have to try out AE, H&M, and J. Crew.
Thanks for getting me started on finding clothes that actually fit me. I found your site through googling “clothes for short guys” and “shirt fit” after getting fed up with them looking like dresses and my jackets/hoodies being so long I sit on them. Now I’m starting to get called sir (24yrs old) instead of being asked if I’m old enough to buy M rated games and automotive clearcoat. I didn’t even know you had to be 18 to buy spray cans until I got carded a few months back.
Thank you.
BirdLives following
Thanks for putting the word out on this, Brock. I just made a profile and followed you.
Awesome, will follow you back.
-B
WOW! What an awesome app!…. Struggle is real for those who lift weights but still care about great fit. This should be very useful! Thank you Sir!
You men have a whole other set of problems to deal with. These guys understand:
http://www.wellbuiltstyle.com/
Thanks Brock!! You’re a genius providing us something to use. It’s too good to be true. Can’t wait to use it!
Looks pretty cool so far, I hope they’ve got an Android app in development though.
Thanks for the great tool!
Yeah that would be great. They told me one is in the works but will probably be ready next year.
-B
Also, I wish it would let you enter in actual dimensions (shoulder width, waist size, arm length, etc) instead of just guesstimating.
Yeah, also I would prefer if it let you choose specific products, rather than generic sizes. For example, a Banana Republic 30×30 varies tremendously from one “cut” to another. The Gavin chinos are way different than the Aiden chinos, so knowing that 30×30 fits your body double isn’t really helpful.
Still though, I think Fitbay is off to a great start… hopefully they will take this feedback into consideration.
Just signed up (and followed you). Looking forward to seeing what it suggests. I’m bummed they don’t offer an android app though. Thanks for posting this!
Cool, followed you back.
No Android app? 🙁
Not until 2015…
That’s positive! I will sign up if they are working on getting the Android App out.. I REALLY want this!