Finding a suit that fits is getting easier for the shorter man.
National chains still don't offer many options, but legions of shorter men in the country are increasingly discovering specialty stores just for them.
For 5-foot-5 Josh Rogers, the first trip to Jimmy Au's For Men 5'8" and Under was memorable.
"It was a fairly typical clothing store, except everything was a possibility. It wasn't like I was going to have to settle for that one weird thing that fit," said Rogers, a New York City resident who wears a 36 short.
Another first for Rogers: The custom-made mannequins were eye level.
"I never experienced anything like that," he said.
Only a handful of stores cater exclusively to shorter men. But in recent years, the Internet has spread awareness of such shops and helped attract customers from around the country. Even those who live hundreds of miles away can track down the right fit with a click of the mouse. Some make special trips to the stores.
The lack of choices in chain stores is partly a matter of economics. Buying too-big clothes and scissoring away sleeves and pant legs has long been the norm for shorter men, giving retailers scant incentive to incur the extra cost of stocking sizes for them.
Shorter men can also "roll over" into the young men's department, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for research firm NPD Group. As a result, national retailers don't realize the market's potential, he said. In total, the NPD Group estimates the men's apparel market at $56.5 billion a year. But because shorter men often buy clothes that are too large, analysts said they could not estimate what part of that the shorter men's market would be worth.
"It's a matter of build it and they will come. (Shorter men) don't look for small sizes right now because it's not there," Cohen said.
Bigger men, on the other hand, are captive to larger sizes and so stores for them have abounded. Casual Male Retail Group Inc., which owns Casual Male XL (formerly Big & Tall), has about 490 stores across the country.
The discrepancy is despite government statistics showing that there are just as many men shorter than 5 feet 9 inches as those who are taller. At the further ends of the spectrum, there are twice as many men who are 5 feet 6 inches and shorter as those who are 6 feet 2 inches and taller.
Selling shorter men's clothing also requires nuances that major retailers may have difficulty mastering. Many men hesitate to walk into a short man's store, or even a "small" section at a department store, said Alan Au, who runs Jimmy Au's in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Just a few years ago, Au removed the words "Short and Small" from the store's name. Inhibitions were lowered, and sales rose.
Like big and tall men, women have also been successful in getting sizes just for them, whether that's in petites, plus sizes, or petite plus sizes. That's in part because women are more at ease demanding clothes for varying body shapes.
Still, the smallest size available for men on the Web sites of most national retailers like Macy's Inc. and Jos. A. Bank is a 38 short.
"It becomes more and more difficult the more professional you want to look. The options just start narrowing the smaller you are," said Rogers, who runs ShortShrifted, a Web site devoted to clothing for short men.
