When 6-foot-7 inch Dan Fellows gets on a plane, he has to duck. And when the 26-year-old investment rep takes Metra into the Loop from his west suburban home and winds up on the narrow upper tier, “Basically, I have my leg hanging out in the aisle and it just causes problems with people trying to get up and down the aisle.”
Dan, meet Gary Anders. At 5 feet 5 inches, the Milwaukee resident has his own challenges, whether buying shoes–he wears size 71/2–or a sweater.
“I don’t like to wear sweaters that I have to roll everything up so it looks like I grabbed my big brother’s.”
For sure, there have always been tall people, short people, heavy people and thin people. But these days, we do actually come in more shapes and sizes, thanks to a mix of factors, including obesity, immigration and the popularity of pumping iron. And that has made things more complicated for manufacturers and designers trying to fit us into everything from chairs to trousers–especially when some apparel makers use sizing data collected 40-plus years ago. Nowhere is the issue more apparent than in the clothing stores of America, where unforgiving three-way mirrors reflect a far less homogeneous group of shoppers whose bodies no longer fit the “average” proportions of the past.
In fact, a recent article in American Demographics magazine titled “The Shape of Things to Come” suggested that apparel marketers’ new bottom-line challenge is to design clothing that flatters a wider variety of American shapes and cultures. Besides citing the issue of obesity, the article noted that “average height and body shape is also changing as a result of increased diversity.”
They might have added our increased interest in bodybuilding and physical fitness as well.
A study released in 2001 of U.S. Army males at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center, a research facility in Massachusetts, credited the popularity of bodybuilding as well as a cultural shift in what makes an ideal body type with changes in body dimension. Some of the greatest changes, the study noted, were related to “soft tissue development, such as bideltoid breadth, rather than in skeletal dimensions, such as stature.”
In other words: bigger muscles, same height.
3D scanners
One of the first steps toward making things fit is determining what–exactly–is the customer’s shape. To that end, SizeUSA, a national sizing survey supported in part by the apparel industry and incorporating 3D body scanning technology that can gather measurements in minutes, just finished measuring more than 10,500 people across the country, with results expected in late November.
Yet, the United States isn’t the only country fussing over fit. The government, industry and academia spearheaded the measuring of 10,000 people in Britain. In France, the clothing industry–facing mounting grumbling from consumers peeved by poorly fitting garments designed for bodies measured in the 1950s–launched a similar program to measure 11,000 earlier this year. And in Mexico, there are plans to begin a measure-a-thon next year.
In the United States, some trends already are emerging.
“Probably the general thing that we’re seeing [is that] hips and seats and posteriors are wider,” said Jim Lovejoy, director of SizeUSA, from his office in Cary, N.C.
“It makes a lot of sense because we sit a lot more than we used to, especially if you’re thinking about 100 years ago. We drive. We sit. We watch television. We work on computers,” he said.
Shaped like pears and tubes
Lovejoy added that they are also finding a wider range of body shapes beyond the classic hourglass figure of days past, when “bust and hips [measured] the same and the waist was 5 or 10 inches less.” Today, they have found shapes expanding beyond the hourglass to include pear, round and tubular, among others.
What’s behind this nationwide growth spurt?
“Public health conditions have improved, diets have [improved], and children are maturing at younger ages,” said Kevin M. Kelly, associate research scientist at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. “Because of better nutrition and better overall health, we are able to reach more of our growth potential.”
That’s apparent in many immigrant populations, according Claire Gordon, a physical anthropologist and senior scientist at Natick who authored the 2001 study. When it comes to generational differences for immigrant populations who are experiencing improved nutrition and medical care, she said, “we see quite significant increases from generation to generation in overall body size.”
Of course, “the downside is that maybe we have gone overboard,” said Kelly, citing obesity.
With 64 percent of U.S. adults overweight or obese, according to figures from the Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Disease Statistics, obesity stories have been flooding the media. The latest? Medical-equipment makers and ambulance crews are bulking up their stretchers to handle the increased number of obese Americans.
Not everyone is waiting for SizeUSA’s numbers. Already, consumer demand for a wider variety of sizes and proportions beyond the old “average” has prompted some changes.
Several years ago, for example, the airline industry kicked off space wars offering more legroom for the, well, leggier. And the most basic seats in the new Soldier Field are an inch wider than the old 18-inch seats, with 22 inches of space available for those with club seats.
In Atlanta, at Friedman’s, a store popular with athletes for its larger than average sizes, Shaquille O’Neal used to be the only guy buying size 22 shoes. “Now we sell quite a few,” said owner Bruce Teilhaber. “We have people in high school who wear 22.”
At workplace furnituremaker Knoll Inc., Chicago-based ergonomics specialist Maria Eppler has seen adjustibility in seating (seat backs and arm rests that move) arrive in the ’90s and continue to increase in variety to accommodate varied hip and waist widths, as well as larger and taller bodies.
Supersized workers
“The demand from clients has really driven [such changes],” Eppler said. “We have clients who say that 10 percent of their workforce is over 300 pounds.”
At Irwin Seating Co., a Grand Rapids, Mich., manufacturer of fixed seating for stadiums, cinemas and auditoriums, including the Lyric Opera House and Shubert Theatre, Bruce Cohen, the firm’s managing director also has watched chair size inch up.
“In the old days, the predominant size chair was an 18- or 19-inch wide seat. Now you see stuff that’s 20 or 21 inches wide,” he said.
Consumer demand for more comfortable and bigger bedding is why the 60-by-80 inch queen-sized mattress was the largest-selling in 2002, according the International Sleep Products Association, an Alexandria, Va. trade group that tracks mattress sales. “These sales continue to go up,” said the group’s Nancy Blatt.
The largest, readily available mattress? The California king at 72 by 84. That was until Minneapolis-based Select Comfort introduced its 80-by-98 inch Grand King bed earlier this year and took it nationwide last month.
The increased size of our nation may be most apparent in our children. Just ask Johnny “Red” Kerr, the 6-foot-9-inch Chicago Bulls analyst, the team’s first coach and former pro ballplayer. “My son Jimmy played at the University of North Dakota and he wore a 15 shoe. My [6-foot-3-inch] grandson [Neil] who is 15 years old wears a 14-15 shoe,” Kerr said.
Which reflects the biggest trend at Rochester Big & Tall’s North Michigan Avenue location. There, 48 extra long is considered “average” and “we’re definitely seeing taller, younger people,” added Steve Brooks, an assistant store manager.
Are we destined to become a super-sized nation of 7-footers?
“Some of the things people see in their children now are not increased body size for their adult body size,” said Natick’s Gordon. “But it’s more rapid growth and earlier maturation but not necessarily a huge increase in their adult body size.”
Whether consumers will find clothing or shoess or furniture that actually fits remains to be seen.
“The general answer that [apparel makers] have given so far,” said SizeUSA’s Lovejoy, “is that they just want to understand better what the current U.S. population looks like with all its diversity in sizes and weight gains and all of that kind of thing so they can do the adjustments that are necessary.
“We’ve had a few inquiries from automotive companies,” he added, “but right now our sponsors are primarily interested in the apparel business.”
The bottom line
As with everything, economics will come into play. So don’t expect every item in every line of clothing to fit or all auditoriums and stadiums to install 22-inch wide seats, for example.
Which leaves room for folks like Anders, who was so frustrated finding clothes that fit, he opened Napoleon’s Tailor in the mid-’90s.
“Cutting off [regular-sized] slacks doesn’t make them fit,” Anders said, during a phone chat. “There’s more to it than adding or subtracting at the bottom. The size of the hip, the depth of the crotch, the taper of the legs [all] have to change.”
The stores–one in Milwaukee and one in Chicago–target men 5 foot 8 and under. The Wall Street Journal called them “the nation’s largest chain of clothing stores for short men.”
But thanks to surveys like SizeUSA’s that incorporate time-saving technology–manual measuring can take 1 1/2 hours–the apparel industry, as well as manufacturers in other areas, may have a better idea of the shape we’re in. And that eventually may help consumers find better-fitting clothes, a more comfortable commute and a good night’s sleep.
Which would suit Kerr. He recalls nights on the road with the team when twin beds and footboards made sleeping miserable. These days, the footboards are mostly gone and “you can get a king-sized bed in a hotel,” said Kerr.
He still showers with caution in hotels, where, he said, it seems most showerheads are positioned for people 5-foot-11.
