Body morphotype and 3-d scanned e-tape anthropometric measures for men in Gauteng

Abstract

Advances in the clothing sector began from the 1980s when a three dimensional (3-D) full-body scanner was developed to obtain anthropometric body measurement data accurately, quickly and non-intrusively. However, sizing systems currently in use in South Africa are outdated and still based on traditionally extracted anthropometric measurements of the ‘ideal’ body type. In this study the aim is to classify the dominant male body morphotype and develop anthropometric size charts for men residing in Gauteng, South Africa, based on 3-D anthropometric body scan measurements. The research study used secondary data (Tabo, 2020) e-tape anthropometric dataset of 270 men residing in Pretoria and Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, aged 18 to 56 years. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and K-Means Cluster Analysis were used to identify the key body dimensions and to classify the dominant men’s body morphotype emerging from prevalent cluster categories. Furthermore, a combination of PCA and Regression Analysis was used to identify the key control e-tape measurements for the development of an anthropometric size chart. The PCA and K-Means Cluster Analysis identified the rectangle (n=123, 45.5%) as being the dominant body morphotype from a sample of 270 men. Thereafter, the inches (inch) and centimetres (cm) based anthropometric size chart for the upper and lower body, aligned with a South African commercial men’s tailoring mannequin manufacturer, was established as chest size of 37 inch to 41 inch for upper body, and waist size of 30 inch to waist size 36 inch for the lower body. For the upper body, the men’s tailoring mannequin shoulder to shoulder width of 47 cm was 11 cm larger than the shoulder- to- shoulder width of 36 cm for the men of a Rectangle morphotype. For the lower body, the men’s tailoring mannequin thigh girth of 60 cm was 10 cm larger than the thigh girth of 50 cm for the men of a Rectangle morphotype, and the out-seam 110 cm was 13 cm longer than the out-seam 97 cm for men of a Rectangle morphotype. The findings of the study, therefore, suggest that menswear clothing manufacturers in South Africa need to revise size charts to reflect the current body morphotype anthropometric measurements.