UPcload certainly has one thing wrapped up – the best views from any startup office in Berlin! If the people who worked there had the time, they could gaze out at the Bode Museum across the Spree at the tip of Museum Island, as the sounds of dozens of passing tourist boats floated up through the windows. Time, however, is not a commodity they currently have too much of – all 12 staff are hard at work as UPcload prepares for its next step.
It’s a brilliant concept, albeit a technically challenging one – users can be sized up for clothes from the comfort of their own homes, only needing a webcam. They pose (in clothing that’s tight enough) while UPcload takes a series of measurements to analyse the exact size and shape of clothing required. With between 50 and 60 percent of all items of clothing bought online being sent back, many because of size issues, UPcload could represent a boon for merchants and consumers alike.
“The topic of clothing is very sexy,” UPcload co-founder Asaf Moses told Silicon Allee. “Everyone has clothes. But there is not a lot of innovation in clothes. We are igniting something here that is new.”
The idea behind the project is that online clothing vendors incorporate UPcload onto their websites, so that customers can find what they want and then undergo the simple process with their webcam to find the right size. There are hopes it will encourage more people to buy clothes online, and will lead to large sums saved by companies who can guarantee size satisfaction.
Asaf and fellow co-founder Sebastian Schulze are now overseeing the product’s fine-tuning ahead of the first pilot scheme with Youtailor.de, set to be launched in August. There is still lots to be done, but Asaf is confident it will be a success. “We have had a great response. People can relate to this idea.” Some 50 percent of electronics are sold online, Asaf explains, and 61 percent of books, so why not clothing? And even better, the whole thing is scalable. “We hope to have hundreds and even thousands of people using it at the same time.”
And what better place to do it than in Berlin – Asaf is quick to point out that Germany, and its capital in particular, provide a lot of support for startups. UPcload themselves have been helped by the Humboldt University, with their offices in a university building.
There are big plans for UPcload, so watch this space.