“The utilisation of anthropometry (the science of measuring and classifying of the human body based on size and shape) is fundamental and precedent to accurate clothing fit, care seats, comfortable office or home seats, etc (Ashdown et al., 2004; Roebuck, 1995). Throughout history various approaches for anthropometric measurement have been developed which mainly involved manual methods and
body contact”, writes Dr. Rose B. Otieno.

Though useful, these traditional strategies have various shortcomings: they are time consuming, invasive, often inaccurate and have lacked validity and reliability. Usually manual equipment and instruments are used and methods require contact with the subject. Despite various efforts, there still exist problems of poor fit and this has been costly to retailers and manufacturers, and many consumers remain dissatisfied with the fit of garments. The search for perfect fit in products e.g clothing, and related ergonometrics have a long history with various efforts to capture shape and size for the development of patterns.

However, anthropometric research is usually proprietary and not easily available in the public domain. New Anthropo- Biometric technology is viewed as the new frontier in solving product sizing problems for manufacturers, retailers and consumers.

Determining body anthropometry is a fundamental first step in developing products that fit well (Ashdown et al, 2004). For manufacturers, retailers and consumers, efficient product sizing is vital for standardisation, labelling and stock management, marketing asset, proprietary information, creating consumer satisfaction, creating of niches and size identification by customers (Otieno, 2000).

Garment Sizing in the UK has been problematic for retailers and manufacturers. Lack of current reliable data has been compounded by protectionist policies towards their research (Kingswell, 1998). It was envisaged that Size UK (the first national survey from scanned data), would generate a cohesive labelling system, reduce the ambiguities between stores, provide better fit and increase profitability by more accurately charting the consumer’s needs.

In the latter part of the 20 th century, Anthropo- Biometric technology has been viewed as advantageous and globally the demand for mass customised well-fitting products.