Online shopping: never again order the wrong shoe size – Berlin start-up has developed a solution

Anyone who orders shoes online knows the problem: You can rarely be so sure whether the size you choose will actually fit. With some manufacturers the shoes are smaller, with others they are wider. Unless you have already worn the model yourself, you have to rely on the size information and descriptions. The return rate for shoes in online retail is therefore enormous: According to estimates, every second shoe ordered is returned.

The Berlin start-up Footprint Technologies wants to change that. The company has developed a technical solution that should enable online shoe buyers to find out the right size for each shoe model in just a few moments. “Our goal is to make the online shoe trade more sustainable,” says Footprint boss Matthias Brendel in an interview with the stern.

Foot measurement and shoe comparison

For this vision, the 38-year-old environmental engineer gave up his well-paid corporate job at Audi and joined the founders in 2019. The solution that he and his colleagues have worked out works like this: First, the customer scans his bare foot at home with his smartphone. An algorithm then compares the measurement result with a database, which contains the exact internal dimensions of the respective shoe model – and spits out the appropriate size after a few seconds. The hit rate was very high in tests, says Brendel.

The practical thing about the footprint solution is that customers do not have to install an app, they just click a button in the online shop and are guided through the measurement procedure on their smartphone in just a few steps. In addition, the service is free of charge for customers.

The catch: In order for this to work, Footprint depends on the cooperation of shoe retailers and manufacturers. On the one hand, the online retailer must have implemented the foot measurement service on their side. On the other hand, shoe manufacturers must grant Footprint access to their holiest. “To build our database, we specially measure the lasts on which the manufacturers build their shoes,” says founder Brendel. This is the only way to ensure that feet and shoes can be compared to the nearest millimeter.

Start with infancy

Brendel’s company cannot offer the service for all shoes in the world in one fell swoop, but has to gradually bring more and more dealers and manufacturers on board. Brendel is convinced that they will participate and even pay for the service. After all, manufacturers could save a lot of unnecessary return costs.

It starts with Footprint in the children’s shoes segment, where “the need is greatest”, Brendel is convinced. Because while many adults know the size of their feet halfway, it looks different with fast-growing children’s feet. Every few months, parents wonder again which shoe size they need to get their offspring again. Brendel reports that he experienced this himself using his niece as an example, which was what inspired him to come up with the footprint idea in the first place. With children’s shoes, the results of the foot measurements and shoe recommendations are currently 90 percent accurate, says Brendel. “Of course we will work on the remaining ten percent by taking into account other geometric features in addition to foot length and width

A first partner is already using footprint technology: a few days ago, the measurement function went live on the website of the southern German children’s shoemaker Ricosta. Cooperations with other brands and some larger online shops have already been concluded. In the shortest possible time, Footprint wants to cover a large part of the children’s shoe market, also to get ahead of competitors who are working on similar technical solutions. In the coming year, foot measurement is to be expanded to include adult shoes and other countries.

The small Berlin start-up with currently ten permanent employees could then quickly become more. The company is financed by business angels, including the former Karstadt boss and Deichmann manager Helmut Merkel. Brendel’s goal for measuring the world of shoes: “We want to become the market leader in Europe.”