Dive Brief:

• Amazon Fashion on Tuesday announced the launch of "Made for You," a custom T-shirt sales portal that employs "virtual fit technology" via the Amazon app.

• Each item is created after customers provide height, weight, body style and two photos of themselves, pick from two fabric types and eight colorways, and choose length, fit, neckline and sleeve length.

• The shirts are $25 each and available to U.S. customers, according to an emailed press release.

Dive Insight:

On-demand garment manufacture, once available only to upscale customers willing to pay top dollar, is widely seen as a way to solve issues of fit and preference, which have bedeviled apparel e-commerce.

Online apparel consumers tend to order various sizes, colors and styles of clothing, using their own homes as dressing rooms and returning what they don't want. The resulting waste drives up costs for retailers and the environment, with at least 39 million tons of clothing discarded each year, according to GlobalData.

Several apparel companies, including Levi's and H&M, have attempted to bring customization to the masses. Many, like Amazon's Made For You, employ technology to determine appropriate sizing and allow for individual preferences.

While theoretically customization could reduce expenses for the retailer, it remains an open question whether it is possible to operate an on-demand model profitably or on a major scale, GlobalData Apparel Correspondent Michelle Russell said in emailed comments earlier this year.

That may not be much of an issue for Amazon, which is known for its willingness to forgo profits as it tests new ideas. The customization offer could at least drive more apparel consumers to the e-commerce giant, which has been steadily gaining in the space. More than 70% of apparel shoppers bought clothing or footwear there from February 2019 to February 2020, up 10 percentage points year over year and almost 25 percentage points from 2018, Coresight Research said in an April report.