Information on Loughborough

National Sizing Survey the changing shape of the UKs children

Posted on 27/03/2009

Loughborough University Website

National Sizing Survey the changing shape of the UK’s children

High street retailers Next, Monsoon and George at Asda are sponsoring a national children’s wear survey that is now underway at Loughborough University.

The project, called Shape GB, is the first large-scale project to measure children across the country using 3D body scanners, and aims to measure 6,000 boys and girls aged 4 to 17.

The data gathered will provide a more sophisticated means of measuring and analysing children’s measurements and will identify the differences in height and body shape between children of different ages.

Most retailers are still working to British Standard measurements for children’s clothing from 1990, so the project will provide a much clearer idea of what their customers look like and how sizes need to be changed to create better fitting clothes.

A spokesperson for Leicester-based retailer Next explains: “This size survey will give us invaluable up-to-date information on the changing shape and size of our children, to help us ensure that our garment sizing caters for the needs of our customers.”

The project is being managed by 3D scanning specialist Select Research and involves experts in from Loughborough’s Department of Design and Technology.

Loughborough lecturer Dr Russell Marshall says: “It is important that we support designers with relevant and applicable data on the users they are designing for.  Current size data available for children is at least 20 years old and so we are very pleased to be able to collaborate in the Shape GB sizing survey and ultimately contribute to the development of more user-driven products.”

A dedicated website has been set up to allow parents to register their children for measuring at Loughborough. See www.shapegb.org for more details.