Building a Clothing API with The Product API: A Complete Guide

Introduction to Clothing

Clothing is a fundamental category in retail and e-commerce. From casual t-shirts to formal dresses, finding the right clothing item with the right size and specifications is crucial for any fashion purchase. Whether you're a retailer building a clothing marketplace, a developer creating a fashion app, or a consumer looking for the perfect fit, having structured clothing product data is essential.

Imagine being able to search for clothing items and instantly get detailed information about each piece - from size to type. This is exactly what a specialized Clothing Product API can provide.

What Makes a Clothing API Special?

A Clothing Product API goes beyond basic product listings. It understands the unique characteristics that matter to clothing buyers:

• Size: The standard sizing (XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL) that determines fit
• Type: The category of clothing - shirt, pants, dress, jacket, sweater, shorts, skirt, hoodie, t-shirt, or jeans

With this structured data, you can build powerful features like filtering by size, comparing clothing types, or recommending items based on style preferences.

Try It Out: Search for Clothing

Use the search bar below to search for clothing items. Try queries like "Nike t-shirt medium", "Levi's jeans large", or "Zara dress small". The results will include detailed specifications automatically extracted from product information across the web.

How It Works: Technical Implementation

Now that you've seen the API in action, let's dive into how it's implemented. This specialized Clothing API is built on top of The Product API which is an AI-based product search API that works with any product and any type of query. It responds with structured JSON and supports custom structured responses, allowing you to build specialized APIs for any product category.

The Product API's powerful custom_data_schema feature allows you to define additional structured fields specific to your product category, enabling you to create category-specific APIs like this Clothing API. For more details on how the API works, see the full documentation.

Understanding APIs for Product Data

An API (Application Programming Interface) enables different software applications to communicate. For product data:

• Input: You send a search query (e.g., "clothing Nike t-shirt medium")
• Processing: The API searches across multiple sources and uses AI to extract relevant information
• Output: You receive structured product data in JSON format

The flexibility of a product API means you can customize it for specific categories by defining additional data fields through JSON Schema.

Creating a Clothing-Specific JSON Schema to pass as custom_data_schema of search request

Here's the JSON Schema we use for clothing products:

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "size": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["XS", "S", "M", "L", "XL", "XXL", "XXXL"],
      "description": "Clothing size"
    },
    "type": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["shirt", "pants", "dress", "jacket", "sweater", "shorts", "skirt", "hoodie", "t-shirt", "jeans"],
      "description": "Type of clothing item"
    }
  },
  "required": ["size", "type"]
}
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Using the Category Prefix

When searching for clothing items, we prefix the search query with "clothing" to help the AI understand the context and return more relevant results.

Example Search Queries:

• clothing Nike t-shirt medium
• clothing Levi's jeans large
• clothing Zara dress small
• clothing Adidas hoodie XL

The prefix "clothing" ensures the API understands you're looking specifically for clothing items and not other products.

Complete Example: Making a Request

Here's how to make a request to The Product API with a clothing-specific schema. For complete API reference including authentication, endpoints, and all parameters, see the documentation:

const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/api?search=clothing%20Nike%20t-shirt%20medium&with_image=true', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    custom_data_schema: {
      type: "object",
      properties: {
        size: {
          type: "string",
          enum: ["XS", "S", "M", "L", "XL", "XXL", "XXXL"],
          description: "Clothing size"
        },
        type: {
          type: "string",
          enum: ["shirt", "pants", "dress", "jacket", "sweater", "shorts", "skirt", "hoodie", "t-shirt", "jeans"],
          description: "Type of clothing item"
        }
      },
      required: ["size", "type"]
    }
  })
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.products);
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Expected Response

The API will return products with standard fields plus your custom custom_data field:

{
  "status": "success",
  "products": [
    {
      "name": "Nike Dri-FIT T-Shirt",
      "description": "The Nike Dri-FIT T-Shirt features moisture-wicking fabric for comfortable wear during workouts...",
      "brand": "Nike",
      "image": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
      "custom_data": {
        "size": "M",
        "type": "t-shirt"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Conclusion

By combining the flexible Product API with a clothing-specific JSON Schema, you can create a powerful, specialized API for clothing products. The key is:

1. Define your schema based on what clothing data matters to your application
2. Use category prefixes in search queries for better context
3. Leverage the custom_data field to build rich, category-specific features

The same approach works for any product category - you just need to define the right schema for your needs!

Ready to get started? Create your own product API on The Product API and start building your own category-specific APIs today!

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Ready to build your own category-specific API? Check out our other API preset guides for backpacks, sunglasses, chainsaws, and more!