Uber for tailors could help save the profession

Online tailor directory dispatches affordable, qualified tailors to customers' homes on-demand.

The profession of tailoring has seen a worrying decline in recent decades. The rise in popularity of cheap, disposable fashion has reduced the need and desire for fitted garments, making custom tailoring an unsustainable craft. But Mario Galvan — founder of Men’s Warehouse — believes that this can be solved by simply reconnecting customers with the artisan trade. That’s why he launched zTailors — an online directory which enables customers to find and hire a local tailor, who will be dispatched to their home.

Bricks and mortar tailor’s stores rely on strong locations with heavy foot traffic to attract customers. zTailors enables professionals to revitalize their trade without the expense of hiring a space or shelling out for advertising and marketing. To begin, customers sign up for a fitting in their home or office via the platform — they will then be assigned a tailor with a minimum of five years experience, who has been vetted by one of zTailor’s community managers. zTailors offer competitive prices: tapering a shirt costs USD 20, while having a pair of jeans hemmed costs USD 15. The tailors, of whom there are already 600, are employed on a freelance basis and can earn between USD 25-50 per hour through keeping 65 percent of their fee. After the initial fitting, tailors work from home and return the newly fitted clothes to the customer within a week.

zTailors recently went into partnership with Macy’s: the store will now offer customers in the Los Angeles area the option of alterations for online purchases through the tailor-on-demand service. zTailors, which currently operates in LA and New York, expects to expand to a national service within four months.

Are there other crafts that could be revitalized by a similar Uber-like framework?