The inspirational story of Threadless
January 17, 2007
Like thousands of others, I’m a self-proclaimed Threadless addict. Over the past year I probably mentioned them a couple dozen times. If you haven’t heard of them, take a look at their website before you read any further.
Instead of retelling their story, I’ll let two of their owners do it themselves in a video clip I just stumbled upon.
How Threadless began and operates each day is as inspirational a story as you can get. If you’re looking for a role-model or attitude to imitate, Threadless is the best, as many universities who study them will tell you as well.
Please don’t watch this video and decide that you want to open an online t-shirt shop, because there’s no question, you’ll fail. You can’t clone what they’ve done in their industry, or expect to produce and sell a product that you’ve never designed for or worked with.
But you can learn from the community they’ve created around a business, the laid back nature of the Threadless brand, and how they’ve created a work environment that resembles a playground.
7 Comments
Aaron said on January 17, 2007...
bottom up business models are the 2.0 of business.
Eric said on January 17, 2007...
I don’t know about them being your best bet if they were public, that sounds like the fan-boy in you speaking. But they do have a kick ass product at an even more kick ass price.
Show us your collection Travis!
Aaron said on January 17, 2007...
I agree probably not the best public company. However I think if they keep their culture alive they will always be a great private company.
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Bottom up or User Determined business models are the 2.0 of the business world. If you want to get ahead of the curve find niches that appeal to this market.
chris.pund said on January 17, 2007...
Very cool story, this is the first time I have really heard much about them. Thanks for the vid!
mojaam said on January 17, 2007...
Ah I remember threadless. Not an avid user but I remember submitting just one design back in 2004 and buying a couple of shirts there. Never got it printed and being the person I am I already gave up submitting anymore haha. But yeh, they are a cool company.
ben hanbury » Interview with the owners of Threadless said on January 17, 2007...
[…] My collegue Neil sent me this interesting video of an interview with Jake Nickell and Jeffrey Kalmikoff - the owners of the excellent online tshirt shop Threadless, interesting to hear how it all came about, their thoughts on the community aspect behind the internet and reasons for not selling out to larger companies. Link […]
Ross Hill, Geelong Web Designer said on January 17, 2007...
The interview seems a bit awkward for them, but their website and business model are awesome.
Get people to give you their designs, ask your customers which ones they will buy, sell them.. does it get much better than that?
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