Mass Customization Reaches Critical Mass at Market America

Company Launches Line of Fully Customizable Clothing

GREENSBORO, NC May 19, 2004 -- Mass Customization has become an elusive holy grail for some companies. Some have become successful offering custom computers, custom clothes or even custom cars. Until now, consumers had to purchase custom products from different vendors on different websites or even different stores for premium prices. Market America wants to change that. With the successful launch of i.design, the newest addition to its line of customizable products, the company is becoming a one-stop shop for customers that want items made exclusively for them.

James H. Ridinger, CEO and president of Market America, has never operated as a normal, mainstream CEO. When he started his company in 1992, he took a direct-selling business model and customized it into something that that had never been seen before. In 12 short years, Ridingers intense focus on technology and consumerism has shaped Market America into a company that sees the differences in every consumer as its future.

Market America is banking not just on those differences but also on relationships. The company sells the clothing line through trained distributors that can help measure and assist customers with finding the exact fit. The marriage of One-to-One Marketing with Mass Customization has allowed the company to successfully launch i.design and compete with large clothing retailers.

The i.design clothing line has been a quest of mine for quite some time, said Ridinger. We have worked tirelessly to build our company into a mass customization leader but custom clothing was a challenge. The companys mission is to find out exactly what customers want and then deliver it right to their door. Our customers wanted a personally tailored line of clothes, so we searched for someone that knew how to do it. Our search brought us to Archetype.

Archetype Solutions, a San Francisco-based, venture-backed company was formed in 2000 by apparel professionals from Levis, The Gap and Tommy Hilfiger. The group created new technology and systems to offer an affordable method for consumers to create custom clothing. By using advanced, patented software and a simple question and answer method to determine sizes, Archetypes system allows customers to order clothes that are stylish and fit like they are meant to made to order.

We are thrilled to work with Market America. Their management team and business are exceptional. We experienced an attitude not seen in most companies, said Robert Holloway, CEO, Archetype. We are approached by many companies that think they are ready to jump into Mass Customization because it has great buzz. Market America clearly understood and already had the mass customization mentality from its successful lines of customizable products.

Introducing our customers to the idea of buying custom clothing has been smooth. Market America has been offering customized products for years now. We also have Motives, a line of customizable cosmetics and Isotonix Custom Formula, a line of individually customizable dietary supplements. We even offer a Gene SNP DNA Screening Analysis to customize supplements according to a persons DNA," said Ridinger.

Prices for i.design clothing range from $55 for jeans to $49 for a button-down shirt. The line is sold exclusively by Market America distributors. Local distributors can be found by visiting www.marketamerica.com and using the Distributor Locator.

ABOUT MARKET AMERICA
Headquartered in Greensboro, N.C., Market America is an Internet marketing company specializing in One-to-One Marketing and Mass Customization. Founded in 1992, the company has experienced explosive growth and achieved more than $1 billion in suggested retail sales. Market America has more than 100,000 independent distributors worldwide and plans to use its recent Australian expansion as a platform for further growth into the Pacific Rim.

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