theGretal — fashion economics
Fashion counts what sold. We count what didn't.
Fit.
Price.
Technology.
Fashion brands lose revenue in three places no sales report shows: fit that customers cannot trust, prices that undervalue the work, and technology that never earns back its cost. We measure all three. We started in West Africa, where the numbers were missing.
Fashion economics. Proving what fashion tech is worth.
01 — The Ledger
What we count.
₦461,000,000 / YR
The revenue West African fashion loses when customers cannot trust the fit. We audit how a brand communicates size and close the gap.
PUBLISHED 2026
AUDIT OPENS 2027
The money spent on fashion technology that never earns it back. We measure whether fit tech and digital tools return revenue, and what it takes to make them.
IN PROGRESS
UNMEASURED. UNIVERSAL.
The margin creative businesses give away by pricing from fear. We build pricing that pays for the work.
FRAMEWORK
New entries are added when we can name them and measure them. Never before.
02 — Your ledger
The Sizing Scorecard
How much of the Sizing Tax are you paying?
Five questions, one for each dimension we audited in The Sizing Tax. Two minutes. Your score out of 100, on the same scale that produced the average of 41.
01 / 06
Size chart
Does your size chart give body measurements in centimetres or inches?
The Fit Audit
The score is an estimate. The audit is the truth.
You answer the free score from the inside. We run the Fit Audit from the outside, the way a customer meets your brand and the way we audited eleven brands for the report. You receive your full score across all five dimensions, a written breakdown of where the Sizing Tax is leaking, a prioritised list of fixes, and a 45 minute call. Delivered in seven days.
FROM ₦150,000 · INTERNATIONAL BRANDS FROM $200 · DELIVERED IN 7 DAYS
Fit-tech companies and platforms: market research is quoted per project →
03 — Fashion tech
Africa isn't behind on fashion tech. It's uncounted.
The tools exist. Size recommendation, virtual try on, 3D sampling, demand forecasting, digital product passports. What does not exist is a single published number showing what any of them earned a brand in Lagos, Accra or Abidjan.
So brands here make a decision every other market made with data, without it. Some buy tools built for a different body and a different returns culture, and quietly stop using them. Most simply wait.
We close that gap with evidence. We test the technology against local bodies, local logistics and local currency, then publish what we find, whether the verdict is buy, wait or build your own.
Will it work in Lagos?
Fashion technology, tested against West African reality. Every review takes a single tool and ends with a verdict: buy, wait, or build your own. Vendors do not pay for them.
Review queue
AI size recommendation
In queue
Virtual try on
In queue
Digital product passports
In queue
04 — The evidence
The Sizing Tax: West Africa Fashion Report 2026
SIX WEEKS · ELEVEN BRANDS · FIVE DIMENSIONS · THREE SCENARIOS · AVERAGE SCORE 41/100
Sizing is the gap between what a customer needs to know about how a garment will fit her body, and what a brand tells her before she buys.
None of these brands has connected sizing communication to revenue. They treat sizing as a design function when it is a commercial one.
Not one brand in this audit scored A.
Grades across eleven brands
A 0 · B 1 · C 1 · D 6 · F 3
Research partnerships and sponsorship for the 2027 audit: margaret@thegretal.com
06 — Who we work with
Who comes to us, and why.
Fashion brands selling beyond their home market
You ship to London, Houston and Accra, and the DMs all ask the same question: will it fit me? You come to us when refunds and silent non-buyers stop feeling like bad luck. You leave with a score, a number, and a list of what to fix first.
Fit-tech and fashion-tech companies entering Africa
You have the product and the investors. You do not have local body data, local returns behaviour, or a single case study south of the Sahara. You come to us for the market evidence. You leave with numbers you can put in front of a board.
Platforms, funders and institutions
Marketplaces, payment companies, development agencies and export councils that need the numbers behind African fashion before they commit. You commission the research. We publish it, with your name on the cover.
If you are none of these and still reading, write anyway.
We don't design collections. We don't sell software. We count.
07 — Speaking
Invite Margaret.
Margaret speaks on the economics behind fashion technology, why sizing, pricing, and compliance quietly shape whether a brand grows or stalls, and what founders can do about it. Open to panels, summits, and brand workshops.
THE SIZING TAX · 20 MIN · THE HIDDEN COST OF NOT KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMER'S BODY
Enquire
08 — Founder
Margaret Akinwumi — The Fit Economist
I started in fashion the way most creatives do: more passion than resources. I was borrowing my neighbour's phone to photograph my designs. My path moved from making clothes to directing events, until one question changed everything: why are fashion brands investing in fit technology that isn't working for them? That question became The Sizing Tax, and then theGretal.
LinkedIn →09 — Contact
Our door is open.
margaret@thegretal.comAbuja, Nigeria · Working across West Africa and remotely, worldwide.