Threadless
Encyclopedia
Threadless is an online community of artists and an e-commerce website based in Chicago, Illinois since 2000. Co-founders Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart started the company with $1,000 in seed money after entering an Internet t-shirt design contest.
Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online; the designs are then put to a public vote. A small percentage of submitted designs are selected for printing and sold through an online store
. Creators of the winning designs receive a prize of cash and store credit.
On occasion, special challenges — known as "Loves Threadless"—run in association with various sponsors. These challenges set a theme for designs, with a selection of additional prizes being awarded to the chosen winner; special prizes often relate to the sponsor.
The success of this concept led to several spin-off
projects by the same company, including ongoing design competitions for t-shirt slogan
s at OMG Clothing and necktie
s and wallpaper
at Naked and Angry. The competition from OMG Clothing was later integrated into the main website with the introduction of Threadless TypeTees. Multiple other companies have adopted the community model created at Threadless. Nevertheless, in mid-2006, Threadless expanded in a more traditional direction, adding shirts designed by selected artists. These designs, known as Threadless Select designs, are not subject to the voting process.
In the open source
community, a Threadless t-shirt or design is considered to be crowd sourced
because the designer and the company retain all rights to the design. As the "source" of a design—i.e., its vector graphics
file—is not available for download, it cannot be considered "open source".
Threadless shirts are run in limited batches. When shirts are sold out, customers can request a reprint. However, reprinting occurs only when there is enough demand, and the decision to reprint is ultimately up to the company. New shirts are released on Mondays.
kid-
sized t-shirts and onesies
. In March 2007, Threadless launched ThreadlessKids.com, a site exclusively featuring these products.
or American Apparel t-shirts using fonts courtesy of T26.com, the result of the integration of OMG Clothing into Threadless.
t-shirts, with the usual restrictions on designs extended somewhat to permit the use of more colours, foils and metallics.
to allow users to submit "tweets" to be voted on by the community. The winning tweets are designed by and printed onto Threadless shirts. The winners receive $400 and a $140 gift card to the Threadless.com family of sites.
In August 2007, Threadless announced the grand opening of a retail store, located at 3011 North Broadway in Chicago. A variety of shirts from the website are available in the store and change every Friday. In the upstairs portion of the store is a gallery, in which customers may sign up for design classes.
In 2008, Threadless Kids opened its own store front, but closed in 2011. In addition to featuring the new t-shirts for the week for adults, it had a constant rotation of onesies, infant tees, & kids tees. It was located at 1905 W Division in Wicker Park, Chicago.
Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online; the designs are then put to a public vote. A small percentage of submitted designs are selected for printing and sold through an online store
Online shop
Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods or services from a seller in real-time, without an intermediary service, over the Internet. It is a form of electronic commerce...
. Creators of the winning designs receive a prize of cash and store credit.
Operation
Designers upload their t-shirt designs to the website, where visitors and members of the community score them on a scale of 0 to 5. On average, around 1,500 designs compete in any given week. Each week, the staff selects about ten designs. Each designer selected receives $2,000 in cash, a $500 gift certificate (which they may trade in for $200 in cash), as well as an additional $500 for every reprint.On occasion, special challenges — known as "Loves Threadless"—run in association with various sponsors. These challenges set a theme for designs, with a selection of additional prizes being awarded to the chosen winner; special prizes often relate to the sponsor.
The success of this concept led to several spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
projects by the same company, including ongoing design competitions for t-shirt slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
s at OMG Clothing and necktie
Necktie
A necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck...
s and wallpaper
Wallpaper
Wallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of homes, offices, and other buildings; it is one aspect of interior decoration. It is usually sold in rolls and is put onto a wall using wallpaper paste...
at Naked and Angry. The competition from OMG Clothing was later integrated into the main website with the introduction of Threadless TypeTees. Multiple other companies have adopted the community model created at Threadless. Nevertheless, in mid-2006, Threadless expanded in a more traditional direction, adding shirts designed by selected artists. These designs, known as Threadless Select designs, are not subject to the voting process.
In the open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
community, a Threadless t-shirt or design is considered to be crowd sourced
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
because the designer and the company retain all rights to the design. As the "source" of a design—i.e., its vector graphics
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
file—is not available for download, it cannot be considered "open source".
Threadless shirts are run in limited batches. When shirts are sold out, customers can request a reprint. However, reprinting occurs only when there is enough demand, and the decision to reprint is ultimately up to the company. New shirts are released on Mondays.
Threadless Kids
Selected winning designs printed on American ApparelAmerican Apparel
American Apparel is a clothing manufacturer in the United States. It is a vertically integrated clothing manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer that also performs its own design, advertising, and marketing...
kid-
Child
Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...
sized t-shirts and onesies
Onesie
An infant bodysuit is a garment designed to be worn by infants much like a t-shirt; they are distinguished from t-shirts by an extension below the waist, with snaps or Velcro that allow it to be closed over the crotch. The purpose of the opening at the crotch is to facilitate access to the infant's...
. In March 2007, Threadless launched ThreadlessKids.com, a site exclusively featuring these products.
TypeTees
Winning slogans printed on standard Fruit of the LoomFruit of the Loom
Fruit of the Loom is an American company which manufactures clothing, particularly underwear. The company's world headquarters is in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It is currently a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.-Company profile:...
or American Apparel t-shirts using fonts courtesy of T26.com, the result of the integration of OMG Clothing into Threadless.
The Select Series
Designs contributed from Threadless designers who have previously won the main competition four times or more, bypassing the usual voting system, printed on American ApparelAmerican Apparel
American Apparel is a clothing manufacturer in the United States. It is a vertically integrated clothing manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer that also performs its own design, advertising, and marketing...
t-shirts, with the usual restrictions on designs extended somewhat to permit the use of more colours, foils and metallics.
Blik Wall graphics
In August 2007, "surface graphics" company Blik began producing a line of decals based upon selected Threadless designs.Prints
In May 2008, Threadless announced that they would be printing selected designs on high quality paper.TwitterTees
On May 19, 2009, Threadless partnered with TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
to allow users to submit "tweets" to be voted on by the community. The winning tweets are designed by and printed onto Threadless shirts. The winners receive $400 and a $140 gift card to the Threadless.com family of sites.
Retail store
In 2008, Threadless Kids opened its own store front, but closed in 2011. In addition to featuring the new t-shirts for the week for adults, it had a constant rotation of onesies, infant tees, & kids tees. It was located at 1905 W Division in Wicker Park, Chicago.
Book
In October 2010, Abrams publishers released a ten-year retrospective of Threadless t-shirt designs and the company's history.External links
- Official site
- Better Business Bureau Reviews
- Open Source Softwear, WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
feature - The Customer is the Company - Inc. - magazine feature
- Threadless on DesignChat - video interview
- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6607681 - Web T-Shirt Company Builds a Community, Business, NPR
- http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/06/01/100050978/index.htm - 'Project Runway' for the t-shirt crowd, CNN Money