Peachi app helps users find personal style

By Jessica Meditz

jmeditz@queensledger.com

In an age of online shopping, many people find themselves spending more time and money trying to find the look that’s right for them.

In fact, about 30 percent of online shoppers say they purchase clothing items in three different sizes, in the hopes that one fits.

With this knowledge, Justin Ramos, a Queens Village native and Jackson Heights resident, built the fashion company, Peachi.

Peachi is an AI-powered digital dressing room application that’s partnered with 400 brands, allowing users to develop their own personal style.

It’s an interactive platform that offers various features to get to know one’s style, such as styling games, the ability to pin and save items, as well as photographing clothes already owned to determine what to work around.

Ramos, 31, attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he played baseball and football.

He said that while he’s a software engineer by trade, key events earlier in life such as his sports career are what inspired him to develop this app.

“My football coach was really big on the whole idea of ‘look good, feel good, play good.’ When I graduated college, I understood how to do that in the athletic fields, but thought about how that translates to a profession,” Ramos said.

“I said, ‘Let me build something that helps people look and feel great every day, so that they can be their best selves, and just feel confident when they walk outside the house.’ That’s how Peachi was born,” he continued. “I wanted to build a tool that really helps people understand their style and find great pieces for them in a much easier way than currently exists.”

One of Peachi’s most personalized features is its sizing calculator, which uses sizing data from various brands to calculate a user’s size in a different brand.

Because the program is only about six weeks into development, the sizing calculator is currently available for men’s sizing.

Ramos plans to expand the tool to meet women’s needs in the near future.

“We ask you a series of questions, such as what the brand of your favorite shirt is. If someone says they have a shirt from H&M that fits perfectly, or another one from Zara, they’d click on that. Then we ask what size that shirt is,” he explained.

“We’re able to use that information for a bunch of different brands, and figure out what is the best size for you. Then we send an email with brands that we work with, and the sizes you should wear in that brand,” he continued. “So we might say, ‘You said you’re a large at Zara, but you’re actually a medium at H&M. That’s a big problem we found, where sometimes you can be a large in one, but a small in another brand.”

While the brand does not manufacture clothing itself, it is connected with hundreds of big name brands including Balenciaga, Calvin Klein, Burberry and Adidas.

Peachi is participating in an accelerator run by Antler, a global venture capital firm with offices worldwide, including in New York.

“Antler has been really helpful. They have this idea called ‘first principles,’ which identifies what must be true in order for this vision of the future to happen. We know that people have issues right now shopping online, so that’s what kind of started us to go down that path of figuring out the problems people have,” Ramos said.

“We’ve been scientists the last six weeks, having hypotheses, asking questions, learning and just doing small experiments on each step,” he continued. “It’s really helpful to have people in your corner who have invested in and built a lot of businesses before, giving you guidance along the way.”

About 1,000 people around the world are currently using Peachi, and Ramos expects that number to grow.

Those interested can visit Peachi’s website, download the app on their mobile device and follow the brand on social media @staypeachi on Twitter and Facebook, and @keepitpeachi on Instagram.