Today, Zwift released changes to their avatar customization tools. Now Zwifters can choose between a male or female face and body, and also customize their body type.
Here’s a quick video walkthrough:
It Starts With the Head
To customize your avatar, go to the “Me” portion of your garage and select a head type:
You have 9 male heads and 9 female heads to choose from. Each gender has 3 head shapes organized into vertical columns, and as you move down the row your skin tone gets darker.
You may notice that the artwork for each head has been tweaked. What’s different, exactly? Larger eyes, for sure! More on that below…
Choose Your Body Type
The head gender you choose will determine your body type options. Males have 3 body types and females have 2. (This is how it’s always been in Zwift. Read this now-defunct article for details.)
Zwift tells us they are aware that females only have two body types, and “We are evaluating the timing for adding a larger feminine body shape in the future to be more inclusive and fix this imbalance.”
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Hair Options
Hair options haven’t changed from previous versions, with 22 options ranging from no hair to longer styles, and 5 color options:
If you choose a male head, you will also see the option for facial hair, which is also unchanged from previous versions:
Old vs New Looks
In rolling out “Choose Any Avatar”, Zwift also updated the artwork for the avatar’s faces to better match the rest of the art within Zwift.
Here’s what the new and old male faces look like (new look is on the top row, wearing Zwift Insider kit):
And the female faces:
How is the new artwork different from the old? Larger eyes with more pronounced eyebrows. More chiseled noses and cheekbones. Yellower skin tone for the “Asian” face styles. Overall, a more cartoonish appearance that is bit less realistic. Which isn’t a bad thing… this may be Zwift purposely staying out of the Uncanny Valley.
Why the change?
Zwift says, “Every person on our platform should be able to represent themselves as they feel they are. This is one step towards making Zwift a more inclusive space as we continue to build a platform where everyone feels represented.”
Questions or Comments
Share below!
I need options for blue/pink/purple hair. STAT! 😊
Same here! I have blue hair!
Your hair is gorgeous! I have blue and purple as well but yours is better!
How about some salt and pepper?
Love being a fat long haired female rider. Really makes me feel seen. Thanks Zwift. *eyeroll*
Ditto. Also with salt-and-pepper hair. It’s really frustrating. I just want to look like a (cartoony) version of me! Other games have always let you be who you want to be! And since they’ve delinked the avatar size from weight, people who DO find being portrayed as larger upsetting can just…not.
(And I’d take a “coiled up braids/bun” long-hair option in a heartbeat if they could just add that as a quick fix to avoid having to deal with long-hair physics.)
Does this mean that the avatar’s body type is no longer determined by BMI?
Correct.
Was useful to identify who the weight dopers were. Will just have to assume everyone that beats me is cheating now. ~~
Slow news day?
toughest people have the softest skin
Trolls use intials instead of real names.
Of all the things we need Zwift to sort out they choose issues which effect a minority of users. It’s shite like this which means it’s definitely time to review my subscription.
most stable internet zwift user
Totally agree.
Welcome to the Panderverse. Rainbow Capitalism at it’s worst.
The old look is much better than the new one.
Exactly. Swing and a miss.
2 genders? So enraged
This is the type of stuff that could go under “Other improvements” after fixing Apple Watch connectivity issues.
This is the type of stuff they could give to the programmer they have to keep on staff but don’t want that person touching anything to do with the game.
Will selecting a larger/smaller body type affect the drag calculations for height and weight? I assume no but would love confirmation!
Did they fix the avatar’s butts? All I ever see when I ride Zwift are people’s Spandex-clad butts. 😜
Yeah! Where is the bike naked option!?
Naked Mile without saddle…👈🤣🤣🤣Just an idea 💡 for 1.69 Update…😝👈
Maybe use a different view than ‘Chase’?
Always wished my real life body looked as good as my avatar’s buff bod. IRL I have an aerodynamic teardrop shape (big gut). Is that a new choice?
Best part of Zwift is there is other better or equal training platform available for less monthly. Fire more employees and let’s get that blue hair!
I don’t know if they do any user testing at Zwift HQ, but it would be clever if they removed any headgear when doing hairstyle for example. Now the hairstyle changes under whatever is on your head, and you have to go to Head Gear to remove it before back to Me to see the hairstyles. Not a big deal in the big picture but this user experience is annoying enough to notice. As this is published as an improved feature I would expect this to be an obvious design choice, but then again: it’s Zwift.
Is this how they are planning their developments to become more profitable ? Is this buy-or-don’t buy feature ?
“Every person on our platform should be able to represent themselves as they feel they are” – as long as you identify as a cartoonish character it seems. I honestly think the old style avatars looked better.
lets be honest. there’s a huge portion in the zwift community which are older fat dudes. can we bring in the belly and love handles !
We look.like thin faced angular looking men .
“men”
Avatars are now bug-eyed Disney characters. Not an improvement.
I hadn’t even noticed.
If you’re that worried about how your avatar looks, are you pedaling hard enough? I can barely see my stats most of the time, through the sweat…
What a waste of cycles which could be better spent improving things like Clubs and the event banding issue, new routes, integration of steering on 3rd party platforms (Stages sb20 specifically). But instead we waste time appeasing the minority “woke community members” . If this is why Zwift is currently facing financial difficulties then I guess they should put there money to better use.
I’m pretty sure that a bit of code that gives people more choice when it comes to what their avatar looks like has absolutely nothing to do with why Zwift is currently facing financial difficulties.
This is absolutely no different to other times they’ve updated avatar designs or choice. If you don’t want to change yours, then that’s fine – stay as you are.
Why are people such babies about this kind of thing?
ill tell you why it’s an utter waste of time. Zwift has more significant issues to deal with like those I mentioned. And where is the belly bod! If they intended to be inclusive then they should look at real games for avatar customization. This is just woke BS. Period full stop, so you can get off your brainwashed soapbox, cause I am not buying.
New features come with new bugs that need fixing. When you are strapped for revenue and resources, adding new features with very limited user-benefit is a waste of recourses, not only before release, but also after. Basically they are generating more work for less people with minimal return since the user-benefit is very small; this will only deepen the financial and technical difficulties Zwift currently has.
It’s barely a new feature. It’s just increasing the choice of avatars that a given user can choose from. They’re not even introducing new avatars linked to this change.
Compared to all the other changes they make with every update it’s absolutely trivial. It’ll be nothing compared to the amount of design work it’d have taken to revamp all the avatars, for example.
But this is the change that some people are up in arms about, rather than any of the changes that would have taken up much more coding and design time.
When you kick off about the development overhead involved in a minor change to the range of avatars that you’re allowed to choose from, but don’t seem fussed about much more significant changes, it’s almost like it’s not *actually* the poor coders that you’re worried about.
Feels more like you just don’t like some people being able to choose the avatar that they’d prefer to use, and you’re looking for an excuse to justify that.
Trivial is nothing when commiting time and resources to programming changes.
Maybe they could have spent this time on giving us the ability to steer with a keyboard or game controller?
Zwift will be bought out by 2026. And they did it to themselves with stuff like this.
I’m underwhelmed with the avatars. They all look the same age. I know a lot of Zwifters like me are over the age of 50 or 60 so why not let us look like it. I’m not THAT vain! 🙂
I agree, we need avatars with wrinkles.
I’m surprised they didn’t add a bald head in this update. When I got my father-in-law onto Zwift and he went through the avatars he actually said “none of these faces represents me”.
I know they’re normally covered with hats/helmets, but it makes a difference to how included people feel.
It would also be nice if the eyebrows matched the hair color, got a nice head of grey, and brown eyebrows
It looks to me like what they’ve really done here is dramatically reduce the polygons used on the faces.
For anyone not happy with any of the new faces, remember that the use case is usually looking from behind. The face-on super close up previews are pretty misleading (and largely irrelevant) to what the in-game experience will be.
Also, doesn’t everyone wear shades anyways? In which case who cares how good/flat the eye shapes/textures are?
Fewer polygons being allocated to faces and eyes no one will ever see should in principle lead to more stable/better performance and polygons available for scenery, etc. That’s assuming they don’t waste them all on something else.
You’re joking right, if a couple of face polygons throttle the server then perhaps Zwift had better go back to the meshing code. Faces would be insignificant.
Especailly as the entire platform is likely hosted by someone else’s hardware, not Zwift’s.
Well yes, if you believe it’s all magic elves drawing pretty pictures on your IPAD/PC/whatever screen, then yes, faces might be insignificant — or at least we’d have to ask the elves.
Sorry to see the direction chosen by this sports application. Without criticizing wokism, I’m not sure it has a place even in this type of application. After the races reserved for black people:.. white forbidden ? Now “come on trans avatars ! ” You have to be happy: No, I just wanted to ride my bicycle:.. I don’t go on zwift to be re-educated and unfortunately it really makes me want to try other apps…
Happily say bye to you Frederic
I’ve got a couple stale Bud Light beers for you if you want them. I was just going to flush them anyway and recycle the aluminum into a bike frame.
Hi Frederic – I think the avatars are a miss. I like seeing other “overmuscled” avatars struggling up hills with me knowing we are going to crush the downhill – my skinny son calls it the fat attack.
But having people feel like their avatar represents themselves or how they see themselves doesn’t mean you get “re-educated”. I may not fully understand others peoples’ deal, but it shouldn’t change what they get to choose.
When I see a person that I think looks like me wearing a dress and makeup? I think it’s gotta be harder for them than my uniform of a side part, khakis, checked shirt, and comfortable dark shoes.
I want my zwift avatar to look old, gray, ruddy, overweight, and slow – just like my real life – just like everyone else.
Oh dear. There were no races just for black people. There are no trans avatars. Stop misrepresenting reality and being such a snowflake, desperate to be offended by things which you can ignore if they don’t apply to.
You go WOKE – You go BROKE! Strange as Rouvy’s App start to suddenly knock to all my social Platforms… Also, FUNNY as you got -25 thumbs down 👎 for your comment, just from the starters, as if Zwift was looking if there will be at least 25 NORMAL thinking Zwifters to Level you UP to EQUATION! 🤔 I’m pretty sure Wendy will come along as soon as she shave HER legs…😝👈
I have long wanted a pony tail for my avatar. None of the female heads/hair combos seem to allow for long hair. Can you fix this please? I can’t be the only one…
Lets layoff people and spend our precious resources on pressing the woke culture rather than doing something useful like making new worlds, new courses, publishing actual scenery to the climb portal or fixing the numerous other user complaints.
Duke absolutely agree with you! Obviously there are 12 so called wokes trying to force there agenda by downvoting anyone with a. Contrary but equally valuable viewpoint! Cheers
Agree with you both.
Hilarious – so anyone downvoting is a “woke” trying to force their agenda. What are the people upvoting doing? It’s not an agenda, it’s an opinion and we all have one.
Gave MyWhoosh a try based on this and general “woke” obsession of Zwift. Unfortunately, continues to be the best working platform so Zwift continues to get my money… for now
This is why I havent canceled, it would hurt them as much as me sadly. I also do Rouvy and its not woke but doesnt have the race and social seen of Zwift. Its like Disney, itll take years before the pig starts to feel it.
It won’t be that way for long as MyWoosh is concentrating on real advancement at a rapid pace, trust me the financial difficulties of Zwift will continue unless they start paying attention to the forums and addressing real client concerns instead of satisfying the voices of the few vocal woke folks. In a nutshell how does messing with avatars make for a better riding experience…
MyWoosh is a great platform and it will eclipse Zwift in due time. I think the biggest hang up for it at the moment is the system requirements. The recommended hardware is very high-end.
WHERE’S THE MULLET?!?!
Damn right!
“Yellower skin tone for the “Asian” face styles” is wildly racist. It’s 2024 do the white guys at zwift not realise?
Someone better tell the CEO about the racist “white guys” he employs 😂
LMAO! That Wildly racist CEO!
So brave, stunning and bold! Glad we got this instead of the ability to steer with a keyboard.
I’m hoping they come out with cat and dog avatars next! Maybe instead of the Coffee Break, they can implement a Litter Box?
Nearly want to drink a Bud Light now!
I guess this is why I went in to change my hairstyle yesterday and all of a sudden…I was a guy. I didn’t see the female options, guess I didn’t scroll down enough. I thought it was a bug and decided to have fun with it and grow a beard, but now that I know, I’m going back to being just a girl…unless it comes with extra watts?