Men’s Wearhouse Installs AR Mirrors Ahead of Prom Season—Is Nike Next?

Glenn Taylor
·5 min read

Men’s Wearhouse is working with Snap to test augmented reality (AR)-powered mirrors in a pilot launching ahead of the popular prom season.

As part of its Prom Your Way campaign, the Tailored Brands-owned men’s wear retailer and operator of more than 630 stores in the U.S. partnered with Snap Inc. on the AR mirror project. The mirrors, featuring embedded fit technology, display dozens of new apparel and accessory styles that shoppers can virtually try on and share with friends and family in seconds, the company says.

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“At Men’s Wearhouse, we dress our customers for the most important moments in their lives. We are proud to launch digital partnerships and store innovations specifically geared toward how high school students want to shop and prepare for prom,” said John Tighe, president of Tailored Brands, in a statement. “We are excited to offer these younger customers experiences in-store and online to make the shopping experience easier. Everyone deserves to look and feel their best on prom night.”

Snap’s new Apparel Try-On technology will be introduced at at a subset of Men’s Wearhouse locations. Powered by AR image technology, the AR Try-On solution converts retailers’ existing product photography into a personalized AR fitting room that can adapt to each shopper automatically through advanced deep learning and computer vision capabilities, according to Snap.

“We’re excited to partner with Men’s Wearhouse to bring the magic of our AR outside of Snapchat into stores for shoppers to enjoy,” said Jill Popelka, head of AR enterprise services (ARES) of Snap Inc. “The process of finding the right outfit, especially for an eventful moment like prom, can be cumbersome. Our AR mirrors make shopping more fun and fruitful, helping shoppers easily try new styles on, and share looks with friends for their input, giving them the confidence to feel truly prom ready.”

The AR mirrors will appear in some Nike stores later this year as well, Snap Inc. says. They were first tested in a Brooklyn, N.Y. store in the borough’s Williamsburg neighborhood as part of the “Swoosh High” campaign last fall, allowing customers to virtually try on Nike clothing and score discounts by playing an AR-based game.

With the help of Snapchat’s AR Mirror, Nike invited shoppers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to experience their “Swoosh High” campaign in a more immersive way, using AR Lenses to try on products and unlock access to exclusive discounts.
With the help of Snapchat’s AR Mirror, Nike invited shoppers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to experience their “Swoosh High” campaign in a more immersive way, using AR Lenses to try on products and unlock access to exclusive discounts.

Last month, Snap launched ARES as part of an effort to sell its AR technology to brands for use in their own apps, websites and stores. Businesses access the company’s new Shopping Suite solution via a front-end dashboard and back-end infrastructure where they create and manage their AR assets, build AR experiences, manage 3D asset catalogs and implement the Shopping Suite SDK. Meanwhile, Snap provides an in-house team that helps clients with onboarding and using the suite’s features.

According to a study from the Snapchat parent, 74 percent of consumers under 50 years old said they would be more likely to purchase clothing after using an AR experience. Seventy percent of the more than 4,000 shoppers said that AR could generally sway them to purchase more retail products.

Snap Inc.’s study is predictably bullish on AR technology, saying that it will be valued at $1.2 trillion by 2030. Retailers from H&M to Savage X Fenty are among those that have launched in-store virtual try-ons to get shoppers comfortable with the technology and personalize the fitting process.

Men’s Wearhouse’s partnership with Snap aims to complement the Michael Strahan-approved brand’s new digital video and social media campaign by further engaging young people preparing to go to the prom. The campaign features teens in new prom looks, styles, and brands provided by Men’s Wearhouse.

The videos aim to connect and inspire high schoolers and their parents through creative imagery and video. This year’s campaign builds on last year’s nostalgic ‘90s-inspired prom campaign.

“The campaign aims to bring the emotional aspect of celebrating prom with friends to life,” said Matt Repicky, senior vice president and chief brands officer of Tailored Brands. “Men’s Wearhouse understands the importance of inclusivity and has made it a pivotal aspect of our campaign. By rolling out the campaign across top social platforms, including YouTube and Twitch, we are connecting with a younger audience heavily engaged by social media.”

Men’s Wearhouse also recently launched Wedding Wingman, a digital tool designed to help shoppers pick wedding outfits for themselves and their wedding party. Wedding Wingman asks an engaged couple basic questions about their wedding and then provides them with a range of options that they can save for later. The solution also enables grooms to track who in their wedding party has retrieved their outfits and send reminders to those who haven’t.

Men’s Wearhouse and Nike are the latest examples of how Snap Inc. has sought to break into commerce in recent years, with the company first launching its own store in 2018 that later became an outlet for consumers to make their own personalized Bitmoji merchandise.

The social app acquired fashion fit technology Fit Analytics in 2021 to enhance its e-commerce capabilities and in-app purchases to Snapchat and expand its revenue stream.

The technology company has also been an ongoing partner with Amazon, initially teaming up with the online retail giant in 2018 to enable consumers to use their phone camera to take photos of real-world objects and find them on the e-commerce marketplace. Snap then brought virtual try-on to Amazon Fashion in November 2022, enabling shoppers to use Snapchat Lenses to digitally try on thousands of eyewear styles.

Most recently, Snapchat worked with another frequent collaborator, American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), to deploy a shoppable AR Lens feature showcasing select styles from the inaugural 200-piece RE/AE collection, which is the retailer’s new resale offering powered by ThredUp.

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