ZOZOMAT

At ZOZO, we've always believed that technology should remove barriers — especially in online shopping, where finding the right fit can feel uncertain and frustrating. That's why we created ZOZOMAT: a simple printed mat and smartphone scanning system that brings accurate 3D foot measurement into everyone's home.

What if measuring your feet could be as easy as stepping on a mat and scanning with your phone?

That idea became the foundation of ZOZOMAT — a low-cost, high-precision solution to help people find shoes that fit right the first time.

Online footwear shopping has long been challenging because shoes must fit just right. An ill-fitting shoe can be uncomfortable, discouraging, or simply unusable. ZOZOMAT helps solve this problem by providing the data needed to make accurate size recommendations before checkout.

By integrating foot scanning into the online shoe shopping experience, ZOZO continues to push the boundaries of what's possible in e-commerce — making it more accurate, enjoyable, and human-centred.

Developed completely in-house by the ZOZO team, ZOZOMAT represents our ongoing commitment to innovation. By combining smart design with cutting-edge scanning algorithms, we've created a tool that makes personal measurement more approachable and empowering than ever before.

While the size recommendation features on ZOZOTOWN may appear effortless, the journey behind them is anything but simple. One of our engineers at ZOZO New Zealand has spent the past four and a half years building, refining, and re-imagining the systems that help customers find the right fit — from children's shoe models to our next-generation apparel recommendation engine.

Here's a look into his world: the innovations that surprised him, the human moments that shaped the work, and the meaning he found in the process.

Some of the most meaningful breakthroughs came from places no one expected. The original plan was to refine the shoe recommendation engine — but along the way, the team realised the technology could be expanded across categories, especially apparel, which has a far larger market.

Adapting the algorithm involved more than theory. Real users don't behave like datasets. Families shop under the same account, sizes are purchased for relatives of all ages, and children grow unpredictably — all of which made data cleaning just as important as model accuracy.

Moving from older systems to new ones became its own form of innovation. Every improvement uncovered deeper questions: What do we keep? What needs to be redesigned? How do we align different viewpoints into a single, future-proof system?

And sometimes innovation showed up in the smallest tools — like discovering UV, a Python dependency manager that instantly solved years of “works on my machine” frustrations and cut cloud installation time from minutes to seconds.

Innovation didn't just come from big ideas. It came from practical fixes, smarter workflows, and small shifts that changed everything.

Although the challenges were technical, the hardest — and most rewarding — parts often came down to people.

Different colleagues described the same problem in different ways. Conflicting opinions weren't disagreements; they were misunderstandings shaped by language, background, and perspective. The engineer learned that the only way forward was through careful listening — asking questions two or three times until the real concern surfaced.

Cross-cultural collaboration, especially with teams in Japan and China, taught him how to simplify complex ideas into shared shorthand: visual cues, analogies, even playful nicknames like the “mountain plot.” Translators helped bridge the gaps, but it was up to the team to make sure the meaning stayed intact.

Another deeply human lesson was about pacing. He learned that last-minute bugs were inevitable — but preventing them required early planning, early data collection, and knowing when to sleep instead of push through. His best work, he discovered, always happened in the morning, not late at night.

Behind the algorithms are people learning to understand each other, across time zones, cultures, and expertise.

Not all standout moments happened behind a screen. Some came from the unique culture inside ZOZO New Zealand.

He fondly remembers the day an entire group of new hires — including visiting team members from Japan — were introduced to New Zealand not in an office, but during a full-day team event in Waiheke. It was an unforgettable first impression of both the country and the company.

Another set of memories came from ZOZO's annual tree-planting events. Digging holes turned out to be much harder than anticipated, giving him a new respect for friends who work in landscaping. These simple, physical challenges became meaningful reminders of the diverse experiences within the team.

Shipping the children's shoe project was another milestone — the first time code he wrote from scratch was released “into the wild.” Seeing it used by real customers, after years of development, became one of the highlights of his career.

These small stories — laughter at team events, pride in the first release, moments of connection — became as important as the technical wins.

For this engineer, the impact of the work became real the moment he visited ZOZO's distribution centers in Japan. Standing inside the massive warehouses, seeing the scale and the people behind the operations, he realised:

“The things I write on my laptop are actually used by real people.”

That sense of impact — helping customers find the right size, improving a colleague's workflow, building tools that solve real problems — became one of the most meaningful parts of the job.

He also discovered the importance of balance: between solitary product work and collaborative people work, between deep focus and lively discussions, between planning his future and staying open to unexpected turns.

After four and a half years, he feels exactly where he hoped he would be — growing, learning, and finding satisfaction in the mix of technical curiosity and human connection. And if he could tell his younger self one thing, it would be simple:

“Don't worry so much. Things will be fine — actually, they'll often be better than you expect.”