Does the shoe fit? Try it on with augmented reality.

OAKLAND, CALIF. — When Eden Chen wants to go sneaker shopping, he takes out his smartphone and points the camera at his feet. Shoes materialize. He turns his feet from side to side. How does the shoe look on his foot? How does the top of the sneaker meet the cuff of his pants leg? “It’s one thing when a shoe looks great on display,” Chen said. “When it’s on your foot, it’s just different.” Chen, who has founded startups focused on gaming and augmented reality, is one of a growing number of consumers who, stuck at home because of the pandemic, are shopping in augmented reality. The technology was made ubiquitous by social media platform Snapchat, which used it to transform users’ faces into anime illustrations and add dancing hot dogs to their videos. But as the pandemic continues, retailers are increasingly relying on augmented reality to help customers try on products. It displays goods as a filter on what they see on their phones, stitching shoes onto customers’ feet, adding makeup to their faces and dropping furniture into their apartments. The process isn’t foolproof, Chen said. Sometimes the shoes will flicker as the artificial intelligence powering them struggles…
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