Hointer

I came in here with a friend to check this place out. The jeans are out of my price range at $ 100 to $ 200. The technology and display are cool and it is a good idea, but I didn’t see cost savings to the consumer with the increased automation of the store. Also, since my friend was willing to pay $ 150 for a pair of jeans he was hoping to get someone at the store to validate his decision and say the fit was right, but there was not person with that sort of expertise there. Nevertheless, glad to have them in the neighborhood.

I think this was the best jeans shopping experience I have ever had! The customer service from both the owner and her staff was amazing. The process was easy and seamless. Great selection of jeans and good prices. I’m visiting from the east coast and it was well worth a trip. They also do free alterations and did a perfect job hemming the jeans. I’m definitely coming back the next time I’m in Seattle.

Great prices on jeans and great selection that make Hointer well worth going out of one’s way for.
I wish all stores operated with an app the way Hointer does. It’s so much easier on the customer, not walking around w. armfulls of clothes.
fyi: This store is 90% denim jeans, only a few tops or non-​denim pants.

Best shopping experience ever! Great selection of jeans. Mostly men’s, but they have a decent selection of women’s jeans and they plan to add more. I went home with 2 pair after trying on about 8.
It was extremely quick and easy to shop with my smartphone. I used iPhone 5. I was really impressed when I wanted to try on a new size and was quickly and easily able to request it with my phone and have the replacement delivered within about a minute! Yeah. I’m impressed!

This is a cool store. Download an app, scan your items and size, the store assigns you a dressing room and your items are there when you arrive. You don’t have to talk to anyone, and can just do your own thing. You need another size? Then just push it on your app and it comes through a little shoot. It’s a really cool concept, but just goes to show how far we have come with technology… We don’t even need good old fashioned customer service anymore, just our phones!

What a unique idea! At Hointer you get the convenience of finding the perfect pair of jeans without having to sift through a million racks! You simply download a free app on your smartphone, scan QR codes for the pair of jeans you’d like to try on or buy, and you’ll know immediately if the right size is available for you to look at. This saves on having to answer to pesky salespeople and it allows for just one or two people to work in the shop at a time. It’s all self-​served!
They also offer alterations if needed. The variety of brands was a little more on the high end side, I didn’t see anything for less than $ 90−100… but they happened to be my favorite brands. I’ve typically found that the more expensive the brand (for shoes, purses, and jeans) the more wear you get out of it. And for something like jeans, you also get a better fit the more you spend. So this place is great! Jeans are meant to be worn a lot so even if I find myself buying expensive jeans, I only have a few pairs and I wear them all the time. So over the course of their 1 – 2 yr life, I get my money’s worth.
The downside for me here is that if you don’t like a lot of interaction with salespeople, but you like some, or you have a lot of questions about a specific fit or brand, there’s just one person here to help you. So before coming here it’s best to know what brands you like and what you’re looking for. Then it’s a simple process of seeing if they’re in stock, trying them on, and buying them. They have men’s and women’s jeans too, so it’s really easy if you’re with a sig other and you’re both wanting to shop together.

Upon approaching Hointer — Pacific Place location — I couldn’t tell if it was open or not. I should say that they had only opened the day before but still.
So we went somewhere else for a bit and came back. I was determined to check this place out. The idea alone was exciting. And I had already downloaded the app first thing.
I mean, it’s not visually appealing. It’s simple. And in a lot of ways I like that. Shopping has always felt overwhelming for me so Hointer’s approach was a bit of fresh air. One of the first noticeable difference was women: men jeans ratio. But nevermind, scan away. I found a pair of jeans to scan. Voila! Sizes. Check and check. I cruise around a bit (me and my fiancé are the only ones there) and find another pair. Scan.Size.Done. The app tells me to go into dressing room 3. So I do… and there they are. Just like that. And I love it :) Try them on. Nope, not that one. In the rejected bin it goes and it’s immediately out of my cart. No fuss. Figure I like the dark jeans, walk over, Nadya measures and they’re hemmed for free. Email confirming pick up on Tuesday.
Walk over, pull out credit card, Nexus Tablet completes the order and I’m done.
It truly is a dream… that’s not for everyone. I’ve been excited about it ever since and so told my friends, my brother, on and on… Well, to my surprise, they said they like having someone there for customer service. And I’m thinking, are you kidding me, this is the ultimate customer service. NO waiting, NO back and forth, NO fuss.

Other businesses totally need to implement their system!
…just with enhancements…
It makes shopping fast and FUN!
It gets you OFF the sales floor and saves you from having to waste time looking for the right size, and instead gets you to the important part which is TRYING THE CLOTHES ON! :-D
The sales staff are friendly and helpful, but not overbearing like at other stores.
They don’t barrage you upon entry.
This could be a negative to new people though, or people who do not have the necessary hardware to shop (a NFC or camera equipped iOS/​Android smart-​phone).
I don’t expect non tech savvy people to enjoy the visit, since shopping in this retail store requires use of a cell phone app.
My visit was initially confusing because normally when guys shop for pants, you have two numbers you need to pay attention to WAIST and LENGTH.
At Hointer, that’s not the case. You ONLY need know your waist size.
This is because they’ll tailor your length FOR FREE to ensure the proper length and fit. (They’ll even ask if you prefer a casual length fit, or a business fit. Business is shorter… I prefer casual. :-])
Since the staff is friendly and professional with an eye for detail, this can be a pleasurable experience.
But if you walk in expecting to leave with the pants you want, you may be disappointed.
The free tailoring takes a few days, so unless you luck out and have the length be EXACTLY right for you (unaltered), you’ll have to wait and return again to pick them up.
So the experience would be better if they had a stock system that would deliver the selected waist size AND leg length.
Still, the place is worth a try. :-)
And the pants are NICE (if a tad spendy… hey they’re DESIGNER! This isn’t JCP! ;-p)

Not for everyone. It’s only jeans and belts, the styles and brands are very limited, you won’t find less than $ 90 per pair, and the ease of receiving isn’t as seamless as they’d like you to think. I’d asked for three and received two. Waited five minutes for the third before I gave up and just removed it from my cart. It’s a great idea, but needs to work out the kinks and have more product.

Disclaimer: I’m writing this under my husband’s account since I don’t have one.
I recently checked out Hointer and from the technological stand-​point, I was definitely impressed. It was fun to use my phone to get my dressing room ready. It was also nice to be able to toss the ones I didn’t need and get new sizes. Note– I did toss all of them in the bin on accident before I was able to re-​select a size for one of the jeans and wasn’t able to «go back». So, they may want to look into enabling you to review the jeans you tried on already. There was a lot of selection for men, but very little for women (which I was told they are working on increasing).
I think it’s all about what you’re looking for in your experience there. If you know exactly what you want, and don’t need an expert opinion, this is the place for you. You can try on what you know you want to try on, be in and out in no time. Great!
However, I realized that I needed more guidance than that, and they didn’t have that to offer. I LOVE the idea of making shopping as fast as possible, but when it comes to spending $$$$ on premium jeans, I want an expert opinion. I was looking for some black skinnies. They only had 2 or 3 options. The customer service is very hands off, which, if that’s what you’re looking for, that is good.
But I wanted to see how much the rep/​founder knew about the jeans. So I asked Nadia her thoughts on the fit, she replied that it basically mattered how I felt they fit. She was nice and kind of helpful. I don’t know much about premium jeans and fit, but I guess I was hoping for a more authoritative answer like «it should fit like this over here and here» or «this particular brand tends to stretch out more, so you may need to size down». Those are the type of answers I know I can expect at Nordy’s or a standard premium denim store. For a customer like myself, I’m willing to do a little waiting if it means I get more informed on the choice I’m going to make. I’m willing to guess that most customers that shop for premium denim might want that experience too… since it is standard for the product.
I’m not going to assume that they know nothing about premium denim from that one encounter. And I’m no business genius, but I do hope that the people at Hointer have taken some time to learn about their product. And if they haven’t, I hope they will take the time to do so. With that, I’m not sure if I’ll be back.

Hointer was a super experience, and I’m really excited to see where it goes.
You walk in and there are jeans suspended from the ceiling from all kinds of brands — a few I knew, more I don’t — prices were what you’d expect for mid-​high-​end jeans ($ 130-​$ 200), nothing crazy. (Seemed like some savings over Nordstrom etc., though they’re not overstock or «value» buys.) A more-​than-​reasonable selection: certainly more than I get at Nordstrom.
I guess you could go in, grab what you wanted, and run out, but I had a little time and wanted to find the right pair — you wander the store (really more of a showroom), scan the QR codes for the pants you want to try on (with your own iPhone/​smartphone or ones they’ll lend you), and then go to the dressing room.
The dressing room is the super magic place. Robots (you can’t see) whoosh pants to you and away from you; you press a button to say «get me this in size 31 instead» and, 30 seconds later, whoosh again. (Don’t underestimate the whoosh — it’s a great feeling.) When you don’t like them, you put them in a bin, and they disappear. I probably tried on 20 pairs in ~15min without having to leave the dressing room, and actually learned something for the first time ever.
Best part — three new pairs, from two new brands (for me), including one small handcrafted brand out of NYC.
The one thing I really wanted on site was a seamstress: I spoke to the owner and she said they’re interviewing to hire one now.
You can see how this model will work for other pieces, especially tops — I won’t need pants again for a while, but when they have button-​downs and sportscoats, I will absolutely be back.

The concept for this store is genius, the best of retail and online shopping combined. You can try jeans on without having to carry them to the fitting rooms and you can find your sizes without waiting for help (two of the things I hate most about b&m shopping). Simply scan the barcode of the pant, select a size, and the pants are waiting in an assigned fitting room for you. Drop unwanted pants in the return chute and they are removed immediately from your cart. Checkout, done.
WHY DIDN’T ANYONE THINK OF THIS SOONER!
If all stores were like this (fingers crossed for the future), everyone would get shopping done in half the time, with little to no waiting.