Stitch Fix is a fashion company that offers personal styling services for both men and women in the US and UK.
The company, headquartered in San Francisco, California, was founded by Katrina Lake in 2011.
Lake is an economics graduate from Stanford University and worked at a consultancy, specializing in both retail and fashion. In those brief encounters, she realized the slow growth of the fashion industry. For one, people still shopped offline despite the presence of the internet and smartphones.
Lake then became an associate at Leader Ventures, where she met other inexperienced entrepreneurs who drove her to start a retail business. To do this, she took an MBA at Harvard and launched Stitch Fix during her second year. Stitch Fix grew into the largest online personal styling platform today thanks to a $750,000 investment from Steve Anderson.
Lake’s idea is anchored in personal styling services. With this, customers are given sets of styles, also called a “fix,” specially made to fit their size, fashion tastes, price preferences, and many other factors. This is achieved with a combination of technology and the expertise of actual stylists.
After a quick quiz, five stylist-picked items are shipped to the client. Upon delivery, the client may try the clothes on and keep those they like. Styling fees will be deducted aside from the base price of the clothes when the client keeps at least one of the clothes in the package.
On the other hand, the clothes that won’t be kept can be returned to Stitch Fix without any fee. Aside from men’s and womenswear, Stitch Fix also offers other categories like children, maternity, plus size, and petite.
Stitch Fix gets most of its clothes from third-party brands, but the company also operates in-house clothing lines such as Alesbury, Fairlane, Mauvette, Truly Poppy, and many others. Most of these self-produced brands are made in Asia.
Today, the company is known as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, platforms of its kind. In 2017, with a valuation of $1.6 billion, Stitch Fix went public, in which $120 million was raised. They also launched Stitch Fix Freestyle in 2021. It is a personalized “online shop” for each client, in which they can buy as many as they want without necessarily paying for subscription and styling fees.
In 2021, Stitch Fix reported revenue of  $2.1 billion. Currently, they have roughly 4.2 million active clients and offer more than 1,000 brands. As of now, the company has raised $79.4 million in funding.
Ranking Methodology
The methodology with which competitors of Stitch Fix are ranked is based on various data points. Information such as revenue, the number of customers, funding raised, the number of brands, and so forth will be considered.
This analysis, to ensure comparability, only looks at the clothing subscription competitors of Stitch Fix.
The competition in Stitch Fix Freestyle is therefore not considered (although some below-listed companies also allow customers to purchase clothes directly on their platforms).
So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the top 8 competitors of Stitch Fix.
1. Daily Look
Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
Founder(s): Brian Ree, Eric Marston, and Shafali Khanna
Year Founded: 2011
DAILYLOOK is a premium personal styling service that offers fashion subscriptions for women of 0 to 14 sizes. The company delivers up to 12 items, which are provided at a preferred frequency of the customer: monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly.
The company started as a flash sale website. Before DAILYLOOK, founder Brian Ree used to tear out pages from the magazine as fashion inspirations. He would bring them to the mall, hoping to find the right clothes. Eventually, he found it frustrating and imagined how much more it was for women.
With that, he decided he wanted to create a platform that would make shopping for clothes, from head to toe, easier. This complete head-to-toe approach then inspired the platform’s name, DAILYLOOK. It means that people don’t need to worry about their daily outfits.
At DAILYLOOK, customers are charged $40 per box for the styling fee. Meanwhile, each item enclosed in the package costs around $60. Aside from technology-operated matching, DAILYLOOK has dedicated stylists clients can contact for additional professional fees.
This platform works much like Stitch Fix, but DAILYLOOK sends out more items, ranging from 7 to 12 styles. Customers can try these clothes on for five days. After this period, payments for all items are automatically charged to the client.
There’s limited information about DAILYLOOK’s number of customers. The latest estimate was made in 2014 when it had about 400,000 members. Le toteThe company has raised $10.5 million in funding and gets supplies from approximately 200-300 brands.
Sources: Character Media, Crunchbase, DAILYLOOK All Brands, Natfluence
2. Le Tote
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Founder(s): Brett Northart and Rakesh Tondon
Year Founded: 2013
Le Tote is a subscription-based fashion platform that offers swapping, rental, and sharing. The platform has been called the “Netflix of Fashion” due to its rapid growth in 2016, when it reported a whopping 500% year-on-year growth and a 94% customer retention rate.
The company was a brainchild of Tondon. He got the idea when his wife was pregnant, and he thought it was impractical to spend dollars on maternity dresses that would only be used a few times. That’s when he realized that the fashion industry had been stagnant, so there was an extreme need for variety.
Le Tote grew fast and acquired the digital collective department store Lord & Taylor in 2019 for $71 million. However, just a year after that, the company filed for bankruptcy. Le Tote and Lord & Taylor were auctioned to The Saadia Group for $12 million the same year.
The platform is known for its rental service but offers clothing subscriptions. Le Tote earns from monthly membership fees, which range from $39 to $69. In addition, Le Tote specially dedicates its maternity rental service, as clothes continuously change size throughout pregnancy.
Unlike Stitch Fix, which sends out five outfits per package, Le Tote lets subscribers choose how many clothes they want to receive. Customers may opt to get 5 to 10 sets of clothing every month. Aside from a monthly package, Le Tote also offers a plan for a total Tote shipment.
There’s limited information about the company’s revenue; the latest report was from 2018, when it earned $60.8 million. They offer over 1,000 brands and have already raised $72 million in funding.
Sources: About Le Tote, Bill Malloy, Crunchbase, Digital Commerce 360, Etail, LinkedIn, Merage, Review42, The Wall Street Journal
3. Thread Clothing
Headquarters: London, England
Founder(s): Ben Phillips and Kieran O’Neill
Year Founded: 2012
Thread Clothing is a platform for fashion discovery and personalization. The company was initially focused on helping men wear nice clothes without going through the menial task of shopping. However, today, Thread has grown into a wardrobe coach for both men and women.
Founder O’Neill got the idea of Thread during an embarrassing moment. Apparently, his friends noticed that he wore the same shirt at every social gathering, and they took a bet that he would wear it again. Although it was just a classic prank during that time, the incident made him less confident.
With that, he came up with the idea of helping men like him get the best outfits from the comfort of their homes. Fortunately, the business concept was accepted to a seed accelerator program, which helped the company raise £2 million in initial capital.
Thread works much like Stitch Fix, recommending clothes to customers based on an appearance quiz. However, the founder admits the company only has ten stylists as of now.
Thus, there’s a lot more touch of algorithm technology in Thread’s recommendation than that of Stitch Fix. On the bright side, Thread gives “tips” on how to wear and style clothes rather than simply giving them.
Per estimates, Thread Clothing earned less than $40 million in 2021. Currently, it has raised $40.7 million. The latest report about their users was still in 2019 when they reached the milestone of having 1 million customers. Thread currently offers more than 700 brands.
Sources: About Thread, Crunchbase, Ecommerce DB, The Sun, Thread Interviews, UKTN
4. Wantable
Headquarters: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Founder(s): Jalem M. Getz and Stuart McMullin
Year Founded: 2012
Wantable is a personalized online retailer that lets customers try clothes before buying them. Here, outfits are called “Edits,” enhancing how a customer looks through a professionally reviewed style.
Getz, the company’s founder, is a California native who initially pursued engineering in Wisconsin. Realizing this field wasn’t for him, Getz went home and became an entrepreneur. He began a Halloween costume business called Halloween Express with a friend named John Menach in the 1990s.
They opened another venture called BuySeasons, with Gentz becoming a more prominent businessman. In 2012, Getz decided to leave Halloween Express to his friend and founded Wantable.
At Wantable, each package contains seven items, which customers may try on within five days. A styling fee of $20 is paid, which can be included in the clothes’ price (if you decide to keep at least one).
Unlike Stitch Fix, Wantable’s subscription plans are based on the type of clothing you want to buy: style, activewear, and sleep & body. After picking a plan, you’ll be prompted to browse through Wantable Stream. Each category (or plan) is a portal to a unique style quiz and subscription.
In 2021, Wantable had revenue of around $33.2 million. They have already raised $6.5 million in funding and house over 100,000 brands.
Sources:Â Experience Milwaukee by Anchor FM, Crunchbase, Unmetric, Wantable
5. Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe
Headquarters: Seattle, Washington
Founder(s): Amazon
Year Founded: 2019
As the e-commerce giant, it’s unsurprising that Amazon also entered the clothing subscription industry. Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe, also called Amazon’s Try Before You Buy, is an extension service offered at the Amazon Shopping app and website.
Amazon launched Personal Shopper, aiming to take on the current gameplayer, Stitch Fix. Indeed, there are now many other competitors racing in the industry, so the tech giant hit where it hurts: the cost. Compared to Stitch Fix and other platforms, Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe offers a significantly lower price of $4.99 per styling session.
The platform claims to work with around 250 professional stylists who help subscribers find the best outfits. In addition to personal details, Personal Shopper lets users add their Instagram and Pinterest profiles to give the stylist a better grasp of their taste in fashion.
Customers may receive a new package every one, two, or three months. Each box contains up to eight sets of outfits. Upon the arrival of the clothes, customers have seven days to try them on and decide what to keep or return.
The $4.99 subscription fee is fixed and consumable for one styling session only. Depending on the availed plan, it should be repaid each month, bi-month, or quarter. Thus, regardless of the plan you signed up for, you’ll only pay $4.99, excluding the clothes you keep.
Since Personal Shopper is a sub-service offered in the Amazon app, there’s no concrete information concerning its revenue, number of customers, and brands.
Sources: Amazon Personal Shopper FAQ, Business Insider, Crunchbase, People, Reviewed, Statista
6. Lookiero
Headquarters: Pais Vasco, Spain
Founder(s): Oier Urrutia
Year Founded: 2015
Lookiero is a personal shopper mainly focused on women’s clothing. Often called the Stitch Fix of Europe, the company primarily markets its services in Spain, France, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, and Portugal.
The idea of Lookiero started when Urrutia and his partner traveled with some friends. He noticed that women have less time to go shopping due to their duties as moms. So after many years of working in India, China, and the US, Urrutia returned to Spain.
Urrutia adopted many inspirations from California. At that time, personal shopping services were growing in popularity in the state. The platform deeply relied on social media and word of mouth during its early stages. In just two years, their customer base quickly grew to 250,000.
Lookiero delivers five sets of clothing, including accessories, in which customers can pick what to keep and return. As with most online personal shoppers, their fashion picks are based on a combination of technology and professional stylists’ tastes.
This platform earns money from styling fees (usually $10) that are automatically imposed on clients upon request for a delivery. To continue using Lookiero, users must sign up for a subscription plan, which can either be paid monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly.
In addition, customers may also opt to purchase occasionally. With this, the order is placed and processed on demand. Users only need to indicate the specific day they want to receive a package.
And after starting from scratch, Lookiero is now among Europe’s thriving personal shopping services. Although the company doesn’t regularly update its number of users, there were over 3 million registered members in Lookiero as of 2021.
The platform also has over 150 brands. The firm doesn’t release an accurate report about it to the public, but it has raised $53.6 million in funding.
Sources: Crunchbase, Lookiero, Mamabella, MMC Ventures, Signal Hire, Spend In, Tech EU
7. Stylogic
Headquarters: San Diego, California
Founder(s): Alice Ki and Caeli Kim
Year Founded: 2016
Stylogic is a personal styling service that offers curated clothing items hand-picked by a specifically assigned stylist. This subscription-based platform allows its customers to pick a convenient date of delivery.
Little is known about its founding history. Founders Ki and Kim are both young women who want to bring personal styling to the comfort of their homes. The inspiration of Stylogic is anchored to the fact that modern women juggle multiple tasks, and it shouldn’t be a hindrance to looking just as presentable and fabulous.
The two founders did this by offering a subscription-based virtual personal styling platform. Upon signing up, users are required to fill out a form about their sizes and preferences. With advanced technology, Stylogic will assign a stylist to choose five outfits to deliver to the customer’s door.
As with Stitch Fix and many other similar platforms, Stylogic generates money from the styling fee of $20 per order. Furthermore, discounts are also applicable when the client keeps all the sets sent to her.
But in addition, Stylogic allows for “price matching.” Upon letting the customer see the hand-picked delivered clothes, she can look for them elsewhere and see if they have a lower price. If so, Stylogic can match the initial cost to the lower one.
Sources: Crunchbase, Signal Hire, Stylogic
8. UrbaneBox
Headquarters: Scotia, New York
Founder(s): Samuel Gonzalez
Year Founded: 2016
UrbaneBox is also a subscription-based online personal styling platform. While the platform encourages subscriptions, non-members can also use a one-time service. Unlike other competitors, though, UrbaneBox usually sends only up to 2 or 3 wardrobe staples.
The company’s founder, Gonzalez, holds a psychology degree. He went on to pursue public administration for his master’s degree until he had an entrepreneurial breakthrough. As a busy person himself—juggling studies and work—Gonzalez found it hard to keep his wardrobe up-to-date.
That is when he discovered clothing subscriptions. However, these services tend to be expensive, not to mention that there are a limited number of brands. With this, he became committed to having new, professionally picked outfits arrive at your door every month.
Initially, the company was only focused on menswear, but UrbaneBox eventually expanded to other categories such as womenswear, formal, and casual.
UrbaneBox offers monthly subscription packages as well as six-month packages. Each client is assigned a stylist they can contact for personal fashion advice or requests until they finally come up with two to three sets of outfits.
A subscriber receives a package every month, which usually costs $80. Although each bundle contains 2–3 sets, clients may request additional items and custom packages.
However, UrbaneBox doesn’t offer free returns and exchanges, unlike Stitch Fix. All the items that arrived are yours to keep. And while returns are accepted, you may need to pay another handling fee to do this.
Sources: Crunchbase, Subscription Addict, UrbaneBox
