Trunk Club Review: Part 1

I was recently contacted by a marketing rep from a Chicago-based company called Trunk Club. She asked if I’d be interested in becoming a customer and reviewing their service.

I’ve heard of Trunk Club, but I don’t know anyone who’s actually tried it, so I decided to give it a go and document the experience here on The Modest Man.

After all, my mission is to help men 5’8″ and under dress better, and to that end I’m always down for trying new things.

The service is free to try, so I didn’t receive any compensation or incentive to do this.

What Is Trunk Club?

Trunk Club’s mission is to make it easier for men to dress well, and they do this by sending customers a box of hand-picked clothes upon request. In a nutshell, it works like this:

Step 1: You sign up at trunkclub.com and fill out a brief survey about your sizes and style preferences.

Step 2: A personal stylist contacts you and asks more detailed questions (“What colors do you like?” “What brands fit you well?”).

Step 3: The same stylist handpicks some clothes, packs them up in a box and send them to your home or office.

Step 4: You try everything on, keep (and pay for) what you like and send the rest back in the same box for free.

Step 5: You leave feedback about each item so your stylist can continuously improve their selections.

Step 6. When you’re ready, you ask your stylist to send another trunk.

Put simply, you’re outsourcing the whole clothes shopping process. Your Trunk Club stylist is handling everything from brand selection to shipping and returns, and it’s what they do all day, everyday.

They earn a commission on everything you buy, so they want you to like the clothes that they pick. But they also have a salary, so they won’t pressure you into buying anything you don’t want.

Sounds pretty good, right? What’s the catch?

Well, let me just say right off the bat that I don’t think this is going to work out for me. I love the idea, but I foresee one major problem:

I am just under 5’6″, so most off the rack clothes don’t fit very well.

My prediction is that the clothes will look great, but they won’t fit properly, which means I’ll have to spend my time and money getting them altered. And this sort of defeats the purpose of using Trunk Club in the first place.

I’m not just being a pessimist. This is an educated guess. I searched the Web for Trunk Club reviews, and one of them was from a smaller gent who wrote:

“After trying everything on, I decided to keep none of the 10 items that were sent to me…. For someone that is smaller than the typical adult male, a lot of brands off the rack just don’t fit me properly. That doesn’t really mesh well with Trunk Club since they pick from a variety of brands that are geared toward the average adult male.”

Another blogger echoed this sentiment:

“If you’re slim and under 5’7’’, there’s a good chance that most of the clothes in your Trunk probably won’t fit.”

These reviews don’t instill much confidence, but I’m going to give Trunk Club a chance. I explained my concerns to the stylist, and she assured me that they have plenty of shorter clients who are very satisfied with the service.

So, if the clothes in the first trunk don’t work out, I’m going to send detailed feedback and see if the second one is any better.

I’ll document this whole process here on the The Modest Man blog, so stay tuned, keep your fingers crossed, and make sure to sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss part two of this review.

Do you think my Trunk Club clothes will fit? Say “yes” or “no” in the comments.