ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that ITOCHU and SHENZHEN TOZI TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD (headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China; Dr. Zhu Shuaiyin, CEO; hereinafter “TOZI”) have concluded a capital and business alliance. ITOCHU aims to create synergy in its textile business primarily using “1 measure,” an AI measurement-taking technology provided by TOZI.
Dr. Zhu Shuaiyin, founder of TOZI, entered graduate school at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2010 and started research on the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the apparel industry.

At the time, fashion e-commerce market in China has got into the stage of rapid growth with high rate of sales return. Seeing the opportunity in this expanding market, Dr. Zhu then endeavors himself in AI solutions. After seven years of research on providing consumers with appropriately sized clothes, he successfully developed “1 measure”, a 3D virtual measuring technology that uses AI, and founded TOZI in 2017.

ITOCHU is searching for fashion-related technologies developed in Shenzhen, China, through its subsidiary ITOCHU Textile Prominent (Asia) Limited (headquartered in the Special Administrative District of Hong Kong; Hiroyuki Akahori, CEO; hereinafter “IPA”). Based on the understanding that the introduction of measurement-taking technologies is essential for increasing the convenience of consumers in the e-commerce market and solving the inventory and other issues in the apparel industry, IPA has been considering the adoption of a measurement-taking technology that is compatible with its strong value chain of textile products. Meanwhile, “1 measure” is a precise measurement-taking technology based on the AI function of creating a 3D virtual model from pictures taken on a mobile device, which can be used for a variety of fashion products manufactured by IPA. It is expected to create synergy also in industries other than fashion, such as healthcare, games and entertainment in the future. With this background, IPA and TOZI concluded the agreement for this alliance.

As part of reinventing its business for the next generation, which is the basic policy for the current Medium-Term Management Plan, ITOCHU Textile Company aims to take the lead in expanding efforts in cooperation with large retailers around the world by building value chains that start with raw materials. While exploring technologies and services using AI and IoT developed in Shenzhen, China, through IPA in Hong Kong, ITOCHU will continue to enhance its unique strengths and proposal skills by incorporating these technologies into value chains, from raw materials to final products, and develop unique business models that could not be followed by its competitors.

・Special 「1 measure」 website ：https://jp.emtailor.com/1measure_tozi/