I’ve been told more than once that skills learned from video games don’t really translate to the real world. To those who have told me this, I can only say: neener-neener-neener.

More and more companies are offering customers the choice to customize the products they buy.  

But this is a new wrinkle to me.

The folks at ShirtsMyWay have set up a process in which for about $75 and a few minutes of your day, you can design your own men’s dress shirts. Why is this thrilling, exactly? I’ll tell you why. Have you ever noticed that roughly 99 percent of all clothing stores are devoted to women’s apparel?

Really, if you’re a guy, you’ve got like maybe four colors and two styles of dress shirt to choose from. I’m not quite the average male, I suppose, but I know I would be more inclined to wear a dress shirt without the threat of death if I got to have some say about what my shirt looked like.

This is the point where those video game skills come in handy. The process goes roughly like this: you go to the ShirtsMyWay site, and you choose from 70 different fabrics. That’s just the first part. Via the site’s very user-friendly interface, you will then decide on just about every aspect of your custom dress shirts creation.

It reminded me a lot of playing The Sims. You know, at the beginning after having spent months fine tuning your Sim and carefully considering each wallpaper choice for his/her house. Except, instead of spending so long on it that you begin to resent it and you abandon the game for a month and finally shower, you’re done in just a few minutes.

The one reason it might take longer is because you fiddle around with each setting you can change, and that’s the fun part. I had no idea the little strip down the front of the shirt where you button it up is called a placket. Then again, it usually takes me a few tries to get the front of my tie longer than the back, so you may very well be ahead of me on that point.

I tried ShirtsMyWay and I have to say I’m impressed and it’s quite comfortable. I tried two white dress shirts among others.

To simplify matters and because I didn’t have a tape measure at my desk (I know, what was I thinking, right?), I chose the standard extra-large size. But if you have your measurements, you can get the shirts made to your exact specifications.

The shirts start at $75, and that includes all your customization. You know right from the start how much your shirt will cost, which is kind of handy. ShirtsMyWay offers free shipping worldwide.

Tags

Dress For Success