Fashion or Function

Abstract

Mass customization has been used in various clothing products including T-shirts, dress shirts, jeans, sports shoes, accessories, etc. However, even though the concept of mass customization has been accepted among scholars and business practitioners, and the application of mass customization has been practiced in the fashion industry for more than two decades, the acceptance among ultimate consumers and the market of MC in the apparel industry has not taken off yet. To this end, this study intends to fill the identified gap through a content mining exploratory qualitative study using customer value theory to evaluate individual consumers' actual customization experiences. Results identified that functional value, self-expressive value, and aesthetic value were derived from menswear customization experiences. Among them, functional value (e.g., quality, fit) is the dominant dimension of value derived from menswear customization experiences, and it determined consumers' overall attitudes toward mass customization of menswear.