indiDenim allows both men and women to design their own custom pair of jeans. Once you place an order, your settings are saved in the system allowing you to easily place a “re-order”. I put re-order in quotation marks because while you can literally re-order an item, you can also tweak your settings to simply order a brand new custom item.

The process:
You start by choosing one out of three possible styles. Note that the options available to you after this point vary depending on which style you chose. For example, at first I picked the Presidio Trouser which then presented me with three fabric choices. The SoMa and Noe styles however, each have seven options for fabric. Once you’re past choosing your fabric you get a plethora of free styling choices such as rise, fly, leg & hem style, back pocket shape & decoration, and hand sanding.  In addition, for an extra $5 each, you can add such details as creases on the front and back of the legs, whiskering (I’ve never even heard that term before, I suppose that it creates slightly bleached crease marks on the upper front thighs), and tacking on back hems.  And for an extra $10 you can “brand” the jeans by placing up to three initials on the back right pocket.  Note that not all of these are available on the Presidio Trouser and the creasing option is actually free for that style.

Once you’ve customized the jeans to your liking, indiDenim prompts you to answer some measurement questions.  While majority are the fairly standard height, weight, waist and inseam length, there are a few questions that seem a bit off the cuff.  I’m not entirely sure why someone needs to know my bra cup size to figure out what size to make my jeans or the shoe size for men’s jeans…  A few more questions follow asking about your tummy, waist and thigh shape, and how well pants usually fit in those areas.  Clicking next takes you to the review page at which point you must log in to add your order to cart.  The website does a quick check to make sure that it is possible to make a jean with all the custom options chosen and you’re all set to go.

The Interface:
The website is nice and clean with no ads or other clutter distracting the shopper from the customization process.  Choices are all presented as radio lists accompanied by a photo example of the option.  There are a couple of points where using AJAX or some other technology could eliminate extra clicks for the shopper.  For example when you choose a jean style it takes you to a new page describing the option and you must click “chose this style” or “back” to chose a different one.  AJAX could also solve the problem of showing options which are or are not available based on previously selected options.  My only other complaint is that you cannot preview the final product.  Preview page is just a list of selections and I think it’d be great to see a visual representation of what your jeans will actually look like.  On the plus side, if the jeans don’t fit correctly, they can be returned for a full refund.