AUT computer science grad Calli Bates is working at the cutting edge of high-tech fashion
Online shopping has brought with it a lot of positives – namely saving time, money and effort. But as any regular online clothes shopper knows, getting the right fit without walking into a real store to try something on can be a challenge. That is until one tech company came up with a cool solution: the Zozosuit – a high-tech body measurement suit connected to an app in your smartphone, that recommends the perfect fit.
Zozo, the company behind the suit, is Japan’s largest online fashion retailer – but the tech was developed in New Zealand by experts like Calli Bates, who has a Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences from Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
Calli, who joined Zozo as a software engineer in 2019, has also recently worked on the Zozomat which is a similar concept, but for virtual shoe sizing. “I love being on the cusp of innovation and getting the chance to play around with all these new technologies,” she says.
Calli says she first became interested in tech when she developed an app for a high-school project and decided to turn it into a career. She didn’t expect to also end up in the fashion industry, but she says she loves having that extra dimension to her job.
“Online retail is booming, especially in COVID-19, which has opened up a lot of opportunities for people to explore how fashion retail can be done differently, using technology,” she says.
Calli’s career path
- Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences, AUT
- Scrum Lead, KiwiRail
- Software Engineer, Zozo
This article is brought to you in partnership with Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and originally appears in Careers with STEM: Tech 2020.
Author: Gemma Chilton
Gemma has a degree in journalism from the University of Technology, Sydney and spent a semester studying environmental journalism in Denmark. She has been writing about science and engineering for over a decade.
