Off-the-rack assumes a drop-6 or drop-7 build. If your shoulders are two sizes ahead of your waist, you've been making the choice between "fits the chest" or "fits the waist" your whole life. Custom MTM done properly cuts both independently — your drop is whatever your numbers say.
When a brand sells you "Athletic Fit," they mean a fixed pattern modification — chest a bit larger, waist a bit smaller than their base pattern. It's drop-8 instead of drop-6. If you're actually drop-10 or drop-12 (broad shoulders, narrow waist, big arms, big thighs), Athletic Fit is still a compromise — closer than regular fit, still wrong.
Add big arms and big thighs and the math breaks further. Most online MTM derives sleeve and thigh widths from chest and waist measurements. If your bicep is 19" or your thigh is 28", that derivation puts you in clothes that tear seams or pull tight in the wrong places.
RemoteSuit takes nine independent measurements — chest, waist, hip, shoulders, sleeve, neck, inseam, thigh, bicep — and patterns the suit around each one. Real Nathan Tailors atelier rep reviews every set before cutting. From $109.
Drop-8, drop-10, drop-12 — whatever your actual ratio is, no rounding to a stocked profile.
No estimating shoulder from chest. Broad shoulders that taper to a small waist need the shoulder cut accurately or the entire jacket pulls.
Bicep is an explicit input, not derived. 17", 18", 19" sleeves cut to fit, with normal taper down to the cuff.
Squat-built guys: thigh is a separate input. We don't infer it from waist.
A drop-10 build needs aggressive waist suppression in the jacket or you look boxy. We tune the suppression to your ratio.
Especially relevant for athletic builds — a real atelier rep cross-checks the chest/waist/shoulder ratios against your photos before the pattern is drafted.
Free, no signup. The Atelier renders the suit before you commit.