Hointer | About

We're a bunch of curious techies who thought the old-school way of buying clothes just wasn't fun. Sorting through piles to find a size, having to deal with sales people to try something on, and waiting in lines to check out kinda sucks. Online shopping is no better and means wrong sizes, bad fits, uncomfortable materials, and the dilemma of do-I-really-want-to-go-through-the-hassle-of-returning-this. Why not have online conveniences without the offline BS?

For every guy, there's nothing like a great pair of jeans to make you look and feel confident, and we never have enough pairs to get through the week. So, Hointer Beta 1.0 was purpose-built for super easy men's shopping: you walk in, find a few pairs of the latest and best denim, swipe your card, and walk out. Oh, we'll do other items later, but jeans are the core of any great wardrobe and the biggest hassle to buy!

Collaborating with a totally awesome German equipment manufacturer, the server team prototyped and built technology to create backroom/fitting-room magic that puts the control of the store behind a simple set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and is capable of retrieving requested items in seconds.

Not to be surpassed, the client team rose to the challenge by placing power in the palm of your hand; creating cross-platform smartphone/tablet apps that could drive the APIs and securely process payment. With the help of the design team, they produced an easy-to-use app and computing-cloud-based proxies that drive the store remotely.

The design team wasn't about to be outdone by the software guys, who were ripping up and redesigning code at a ferocious rate. They created a store that could be changed just as fast, from product hangers made of magnets, to cool looking tensioned tubes and cables, to moveable display bars and counterweights that anchor cables and deliver tension all the way to the floor. Enjoy the spacious fitting rooms and the simplicity of their chutes, one for items in and one for items out.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without our fearless leader, Dr. Nadia Shouraboura, former head of Supply Chain and Fulfillment Technologies for Amazon.com. She has a ton of experience in retail and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Princeton University. The rest of the team is made up of freakishly brilliant designers and engineers who aren't afraid to rewire a USB cable, pick up a concrete drill, or put a miter saw to work. Everyone pitched in to create the first store. We hope you like it!