A tech startup that is looking to make those hellish trips to the shoe store a thing of the past has won a grant of 15 million rubles (approximately $275,000 at the current exchange rate) from Skolkovo Foundation.
Fitanny’s virtual shoe fitter compares your foot structure to the type of shoe you’re interested in, and then issues a predicted comfort rating. Potentially, it’s a step in the right direction for Internet shops but a kick in the teeth for high street stores, where trying shoes on can be a long, arduous, and often pungent process.
An illustration from Netkutyur showing the tight spots in red.
“If you look at the market for internet shoe sales, it’s clear that it lags behind other segments quite significantly,” says Vladimir Abramov, the general director of tech startup NetKutyur that developed the service.
“To carry out the service of choosing shoes on the internet, you need to solve several tough technical problems: build the foot model correctly; build the 3D shoe model; and build a model for how they interact dynamically,” he added.
The team have worked up a set of complex mathematical algorithms that they say yield high-accuracy predictions.
Abramov explained the process: Users enter their foot dimensions online, plus photographs from the front and the side, allowing the system to build up a 3D model. The program superimposes the model of a shoe selected by the user in a particular online store and predicts whether it might be comfortable or not, going so far as to show where the shoe might squeeze or pinch.
Potentially uncomfortable areas are displayed in red, with blue and green considered within the parameters of comfort.
Skolkovo’s IT cluster project manager Sergei Khodakov said the service could make shopping for shoes online as attractive a prospect as for any other clothes.
“Moreover, the service could make this market grow faster still,” Khodakov added.
The grant from Skolkovo, which NetKutyur is to receive over the coming weeks, will help turn the technology into a product. Internet stores and shoemakers will be able to use the service on their websites.
The technology is applicable to any form of shoe, from a builder’s boots to stiletto-heeled designer shoes; from running spikes to football boots.
The company has competitors in the sports and regular shoe market, but far fewer in the much tricker designer segment, which is where Abramov sees his company’s competitive advantage.
NetKutyur was founded in 2012 by mathematical 3D modeling experts. A Skolkovo minigrant allowed the company to finance a prototype last year, on the basis of which it won this month’s larger grant.
It is already in pre-testing with several companies and plans to release Fitanny commercially in 2016.
