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The Golden Egg
Since its inception, the company has been generating plenty of positive buzz in the apparel industry, attracting heavy hitters from such companies as Tommy Hilfiger, Levi and Gap to its management team. It has also attracted cold, hard cash. While many start-ups, especially dot-com companies, have found their funding rapidly dwindling as major technology companies collapsed and the economy turned sour, Archetype has been a high-flying exception, rounding up investment dollars with remarkable speed. In mid-October, the company received its second round of funding even as it landed its first major account — the venerable Lands' End.

Ron James, custom project manager for Lands' End, says that the firm was intrigued by the possibilities that Archetype offered. "No one has done [mass customization] as cost effectively and successfully. A lot of mass customization being done today is really size suggesting, so no one has done it the way we're doing it with Archetype."

Indeed, Archetype is not a manufacturer in the traditional or typical sense, but rather a high-tech middleman that uses its mass customization system to link retailers who want to give their customers the option of a personalized garment with the manufacturer or contractor who produces the one-of-a-kind order.

The process begins simply enough, with an order form, which was developed by Archetype and can be distributed by retailers via their stores, catalogs or Web sites. "We don't require people to be apparel experts to order; we ask for information people tend to know about themselves, such as their height and weight," explains Luhnow.

Customers are also asked self-assessment questions, like: What is the shape of your thighs? Do you consider yourself to have very athletic thighs, slim thighs or average thighs? "Information like that really helps us put together a garment that fits the person based on their individual preferences and their individual size," notes Luhnow.

The self-assessment order form, which typically takes less than five minutes to complete, allows Archetype to zero in on the perfect fit, but also allows consumers to take the customization process one step further and design their own garments. "For example, instead of 30 khakis, we offer about 3.6 million different versions of a single style," says Holloway. "That's a whole lot of inventory. You'd have a warehouse the size of Texas virtually. We don't. It's all done through software."

James says that the ability to give consumers more options takes Lands' End customer service to a whole new level. "Right now we keep a log of what people ask for. They may ask for chinos with no pockets, but it's unrealistic to carry millions of SKUs just so you can service everybody," he notes. "But this way you can actually do that."

The Building Blocks
Yet consumers aren't exactly given carte blanche in the design process. Archetype's product development team works closely with the retailer so that all the design options fit in with their brand specifications. "We're not offering Lands' End chinos in rainbow colors because that's not consistent with the Lands' End brand," Luhnow insists. "Lands' End calls the shots when it comes to their garments and their brands. All we're doing is facilitating a way for [retailers] to offer their consumers more options, to [give] them a garment that fits them perfectly and meets their needs."

Lands' End is able to offer a custom fit for consumers of all shapes and sizes thanks to its partnership with Bobbin All-Star Archetype and skilled contract manufacturers.

"They're creating custom fitting with the Lands' End styling and the Lands' End labeling," adds Dawn Decquisto, sales executive for Gerber Technology, Western region. "That's very state of the art. That's what everyone is talking about doing, but [Archetype's] not just talking about it - they're doing it and are successful at it."

To do it, the customer's order, complete with a barcode to track it, is sent to Archetype's 7,000-square-foot headquarters in Emeryville, CA, where the company's 40-odd employees offer, as Holloway puts it, "a complete end-to-end solution."

Using Gerber's PDF 2000 and made-to-measure programs and Nester software, patterns are swiftly drafted. The trio of software programs allows Archetype to match the specific measurements and styling demands of the consumer, make and manipulate the patterns. Then the pattern files are sent electronically to select contract manufacturing locations, where Archetype has already installed its systems, including Gerber's automatic, conveyorized, single-ply DCS 3500 cutters. "That allows [the manufacturers] to put a roll of fabric out at the end of the cutter and feed that roll through and cut automatically in single-ply, so they're able to make these custom-sized garments, effectively and quickly," Decquisto explains.

Indeed, the speed of the process is dazzling. From the time the order is placed by the consumer to when the consumer receives the shipment is a mere two or three weeks.