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You'll Soon Be Able to Make 3-D Foot Scans to Buy Shoes Online

The Japanese billionaire using technology to improve online shopping is taking his efforts head-to-toe.

You'll Soon Be Able to Make 3-D Foot Scans to Buy Shoes Online
Yusaku Maezawa, chief executive officer of Zozo Inc., reacts during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo, Japan. (Photographer: Tohomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The Japanese billionaire using technology to improve online shopping is taking his efforts head-to-toe.

You'll Soon Be Able to Make 3-D Foot Scans to Buy Shoes Online

Yusaku Maezawa, founder of Japanese e-commerce site Zozo Inc., dropped several hints on Twitter that his company will soon let users create 3-D scans of their feet and use the measurements to buy shoes through the site. In May, Maezawa released the Zozosuit, a spandex body suit that can measure the human body in 3-D and create custom-sized clothes to fit the dimensions.

"Almost ready," he tweeted earlier on Saturday, accompanied by a video of a 3D model of a human foot being displayed and manipulated on a smartphone screen. "Foot measurement. Easy at your home," he tweeted after midnight on Sunday, adding several shoe emojis including high-heels, sneakers and boots.

The expansion into footwear could be the next step in Zozo’s global expansion, spearheaded with the Zozosuit. Maezawa aims to make Zozo into a leading clothing brand and in April laid out a 10-year plan for quintupling his company’s market value to 5 trillion yen ($45 billion). Shares fell 1.3 percent in early Tokyo trading on Monday, while the broader Japanese market declined 1.5 percent.

Last month, Maezawa joined Elon Musk in announcing that the Japanese entrepreneur will be the first paying passenger to the moon on a SpaceX rocket. The trip is scheduled to take place in 2023.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yuji Nakamura in Tokyo at ynakamura56@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Peter Elstrom, Reed Stevenson

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.