Re: A matter of size (shirts that is)
Mark Arend (mwarend@INTERNETWIS.COM)
Thu, 9 Dec 1999 22:04:08 -0600
At 04:15 PM 12/9/99 EST, Chris Summers wrote:
> A couple of years ago, Clemson sampled 39 major U.S. manufacturers to
> determine a "standard" size scale. The American Society for Testing
> and Materials (ASTM) recommends standards for establishing size
> scales. All of the surveyed manufacturers were found to have adopted
> the ASTM standards, but there were still wide variances in sizing.
> Two examples: Male neck sizes varied up to 1 1/2 inches and female
> bust sizes varied up to 4 1/2 inches within any single given size.
Reminds me of a story my late brother-in-law told me a few years ago. He
was in women's clothing wholesale for many years. It seems that a clothing
manufacturer had only two sizes left of a certain style--let's say M & L.
So they re-labeled half the Mediums as Small & half the Larges as Ex-large.
The store, which wanted a further range of sizes, then labled some of the
smalls as extra-small and some of the XLs as 2XL.
Now, I'm not saying he didn't exaggerate a bit, but this sort of thing does
go on.
Mark W. Arend, Scoutmaster
Troop 736
Beaver Dam, Wisc.
