Standard T-shirt sizes suck. Here’s why.
It’s not you, it’s them
There is a major problem with standard sizes: they don’t work. 80% of humans simply don’t fit the categories. Standard sizes are very convenient for retailers — but they are bad for customers. That is why we need to change how the fashion industry works.
So how does the industry work and why is this a problem? In one word, stock. In order to keep costs down the industry has narrowed the sizing down to three tiers, small, medium and large. The main problem with this is that there are infinitely more body types and sizes then those three sizing standards. The industry knows this, but in all honesty, they don’t care. The way the industry works is: The cheaper, faster and more standardised we can produce clothes, the better.
To make it even more confusing each clothing brand has its own sizing system!
Sizes are all over the place
Based on the data provided by Threadbase, a NYC based startup, the sizing of different brands varies. A lot. For example an Urban Outfitters crew neck T-Shirt in size Small is LARGER than a Zara T-Shirt in size Large.
Chest sizes vary up to 4 inches (10 CM) within the same size from brand to brand. It’s no wonder online shopping can be a pain, you never really know the size you’re going to get.
Clothing manufacturers realized that they could flatter consumers by revising sizes downward. The measurements that added up to a size 12 in 1958 would get redefined to a size 6 by 2011.
The Washington Post wrote an extensive article about how women’s sizing changed since the 70’s. In here they detail a tendency called vanity sizing. Sizes have gotten bigger as to follow the obesity trend in the US. The contrary can also be seen as companies undersize garments, actively forcing their customers to pick larger sizes then they maybe normally would, the logic in this practice is, however, unknown.
This trend of creative sizing has now also moved to mens clothing and honestly it does little to improve the already confusing status quo.
To make matters even worse is something known as manufacturing variance. This is what causes the phenomenon of two identical shirts from the same brand fitting differently. That means even if you’ve (finally) found the T-Shirt that fits perfectly, you can’t always be sure that you can simply buy that shirt in bulk and have them all fit the same.
The cause of this can vary. Sometimes the cotton fabric can be cut differently, or the cotton material is switched from one supplier to another with a more dense or loose knit, all factors that will change your shirt from feeling “just right” to “something’s off”.
