It sounds straightforward, but to make Nike Fit possible required more than a year of development, including testing and algorithmic training that Nike quietly conducted using thousands of shoppers coming through three of its US stores, as well as thousands of its own employees. The technology relies on the work of an Israeli computer-vision startup that Nike acquired last year. Nike will begin rolling Nike Fit out on its app and to select US stores in July, with a further expansion to stores in Europe planned for August.
There does seem to be some need for such a solution: A surprisingly large share of people wear shoes that don’t fit. Last year, researchers at Melbourne’s La Trobe University conducted an extensive search and review of published findings on incorrectly fitted footwear and the problems it causes. Across the studies they examined, they found that between 63% and 72% of participants wore shoes that didn’t adequately accommodate the length or width of their feet. Specific groups, notably children with Down syndrome, older people, and people with diabetes, were especially likely to have shoes that were too narrow. [...]
Size isn’t all that Nike Fit considers. “Fit is a factor of a bunch of different things,” Martin explains. There’s the material the shoe is made of: A leather shoe will fit differently than a shoe with a knit upper, not just due to leather having different stretch characteristics, but also because of the stitching. There’s the purpose of the shoe: People generally want a little extra room in casual lifestyle shoes, but someone buying soccer cleats needs a snug fit. Martin says the lacing of a shoe is itself a big factor in fit.
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