E-commerce assignment

MKTG 4451: E-Commerce

Threadless.com Website Analysis

By

Melissa Oakley

© Melissa Oakley 2009. Used with permission.

Threadless - 2

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 3

Company History ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Business Model .......................................................................................................................................... 4

Web 2.0 & Social Networking ................................................................................................................... 5

Click & Mortar to Brick & Mortar ............................................................................................................. 6

Search Engine Optimization ...................................................................................................................... 7

Website Design & Organization ................................................................................................................ 8

Website Navigation .................................................................................................................................... 8

Online Purchasing & Security ................................................................................................................... 9

Online Consumer Behavior ...................................................................................................................... 11

StreetTeam: Affiliate Program ................................................................................................................. 12

Future Prospects ....................................................................................................................................... 12

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 13

Appendices ............................................................................................................................................... 14

Appendix A: Threadless Revenue (2002-2007) ........................................................................... 14

Appendix B: Threadless Community Members (2002-2009) ...................................................... 14

References ................................................................................................................................................ 15

Threadless - 3

Introduction

Web 2.0 is a term used to describe the harnessing of the collective intelligence and creativity of

the masses through the use of the Internet. It provides a method for the public to generate, control, and

share content through blogs, social networking, message boards, wikis, and other online public forums.

While Web 2.0 was coined in 2004 by O’Reilly Media, Threadless had already been a part of this

phenomenon for four years prior (O'Reilly, 2005).

In 2000, Threadless was founded as an online t-shirt retailer (e-tailer). With four product lines

selling over 90,000 t-shirts per month, the company posted revenues of over $30 million1 in 2008, and

opened two physical retail locations in downtown Chicago (Gilmour, 2007; House, 2008; Lindberg,

2008). Through collaborative commerce, Threadless relies on its customers to submit artistic, witty, and

most of all, creative t-shirt designs. The company’s version of e-commerce is entirely devoted to

community and having fun – a model that has been, and continues to be, incredibly successful.

Company History

In 2000, Jake Nickell, a 20-year-old multimedia design student, visited www.dreamless.org, a

(now defunct) website that was hosting an online t-shirt design competition for the London New Media

Underground Festival (Chafkin, 2008). With his design, Nickell won the contest and the cash prize of

$1,000 (Gilmour, 2007). Moreover, he was exposed to a burgeoning community of thousands of online

graphic designers and artists. As a social outlet, these designers would chat online and critique each

others’ work through Dreamless. Via this community, Nickell met Jacob De Hart, a 19-year old

engineering student. The newfound friends eventually decided to host their own t-shirt design competition

on the Dreamless message board under a thread appropriately titled, “Threadless”. Members of the board

would vote on the submitted designs, and the winning design went to print. The t-shirts were then sold

and the profits were reinvested until 2002, when Nickell and De Hart were able to offer their first cash

prize of $100 to the winning designer (House, 2008).

In 2001, Nickell and De Hart established skinnyCorp, LLC (“skinnyCorp”), the would-be parent

company of Threadless (Gilmour, 2007). According to its mission statement, skinnyCorp is “a technology

company that loves coming up with ideas to foster communities that people can benefit from and have fun

with – online and off” (skinnyCorp, 2009). The firm’s mission is echoed throughout all of its companies,

including bumper sticker producer, I Park Like An Idiot, and home décor and accessories company,

Naked & Angry (skinnyCorp, 2009). However, the star of skinnyCorp is its first subsidiary business and

online community-based t-shirt company, Threadless.

1 All dollar figures are presented in US Dollars (USD).

Threadless - 4

Business Model

Immediately after establishing skinnyCorp, Nickell and De Hart scraped together $1,000 to create

the Threadless website (www.threadless.com). This was done in an effort to fill the void of the closure of

Dreamless (House, 2008). The concept of the Dreamless thread, “Threadless”, became the company’s

business model and namesake. The company takes its name from a play on the word “thread”, which is

slang for a piece of clothing, or a discussion topic on an online message board (Chafkin, 2008).

Through the Threadless website, anyone can submit their t-shirt designs online. Users (and

potential customers) can then vote for the submitted designs on a scale of 0 to 5. Visitors also have the

option of leaving comments – constructive or otherwise. Each week, the six designs with the highest

overall scores are sent to print in batches of 1,500 and sold primarily to those individuals in their twenties

and thirties (Walker, 2007). Limited edition runs are also printed on sweatshirts and lithographs for

framing. Today, Threadless receives over 125 design submissions daily and prints their six highest-rated

designs weekly (Chafkin, 2008). Since 2001, the company has had over 133,000 online submissions from

41,666 users across the world (Kanji & Lakhani, 2008).

Artists can create designs about anything they wish. Occasionally, Threadless will host special

contests called “Threadless Loves…”, where the company will select a particular theme for all

submissions to be based upon. For example, in 2006, after the hurricane season wreaked havoc on New

Orleans, Louisiana, Threadless put out an open-call to designers to create a t-shirt for the American Red

Cross. This contest was to celebrate the not-for-profit organization’s 125th anniversary and its efforts in

the south. All proceeds were donated to the Red Cross as part of Threadless’ community engagement

work. The shirts have raised over $100,000 for the humanitarian aid organization, and continue to be sold

today (Bobo, 2006).

The innovative model for acquiring t-shirt designs that Threadless employs is known as “crowd-

sourcing”. Through this, the public makes their designs available for the company’s private business use.

Threadless then owns the designs and their subsequent copyrights, with each designer receiving written

credit on the associated product page, $2,000 cash, a $500 Threadless gift certificate (that can be

redeemed for $200 cash), and $500 cash each time the design goes for reprint (Threadless, 2009b). In

2008 alone, Threadless paid out over $1 million to graphic artists for their designs (Threadless, 2009c).

New Zealand graphic designer, Glenn Jones, is the highest ranked artist with 17 winning designs printed

(Walker, 2007).

The t-shirts cost as little as $5 each and sell for $18 each on average (Weingarten, 2007). Some

shirts are priced for as little as $9 or as expensive as $40, allowing Threadless a profit margin of

approximately 30%. With the company’s use of social networking (see page 5) and affiliate marketing

(see page 11) to procure t-shirt designs and potential customers, the company sells approximately 3,000 t-

Threadless - 5

shirts on any given day (House, 2008). With virtually no advertising costs or expensive royalty cheques

issued to professional designers, Threadless can maintain its high-volume low-price model to grow

revenue by as much as 500% annually, as has been the case in the past few years (see Appendix A - page

14) (Chafkin, 2008).

In essence, Threadless employs a consumer-to-business-to-consumer (C2B2C) model, with

customers effectively selling their designs to Threadless, which the company then prints and sells back to

its customers. The firm operates as a community: without its members there would no designs, voters,

products, or consumers, and thus, no business. Threadless recognizes this with its well-defined mission

statement of being “a community-based tee shirt company with an ongoing, open-call for design

submissions” (Threadless, 2009e). In a way, Threadless blurs the definition of producer and consumer.

Web 2.0 & Social Networking

As a Web 2.0 company, Threadless is renowned for its ability to create community amongst its

customers. Consumers generate and choose the final products to be sold, and as such, they feel like a part

of the company and its culture. This creates a sense of brand loyalty and dedication to the company and

its website. Threadless is about creating community and having fun online and off, and consumers want to

feel a part of that.

Threadless also facilitates community through its message board and members’ blogs. This

allows those same registered users who submit and vote on designs to publicly post about any topic that is

of interest to them. Consequently, people throughout the world are enabled to socialize with one another

through their blogging and comments. They also have the ability to browse one another’s photo albums.

These albums consist of images of the user wearing Threadless apparel, which works in collaboration

with the company’s affiliate program (see page 12).

The Threadless community has grown exponentially since 2002, when it was only a small

gathering of 10,000 members. Currently, Threadless has over 1 million registered users who can submit

designs, vote for t-shirts, listen to podcasts, post on the message board, and blog (see Appendix B – page

14) (Threadless, 2009c). Blogs are the primary tool that members use to communicate with each other,

with over 300,000 articles posted (Walker, 2007). Furthermore, even the Threadless team uses a blog to

release news to its customers.

Additionally, the company utilizes social networking sites like Vimeo, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr,

and MySpace to share information with its customers. Fondly known as “Tee-V”, Threadless releases

entertaining podcasts and videos through Vimeo, which are then syndicated to the Threadless website.

These video clips are produced about and by Threadless. They help to keep the website’s visitors updated

in regard to what is happening within the physical offices of Threadless. As of November 6, 2009,

Threadless - 6

Threadless had 1,352,092 followers on Twitter, 85,218 Facebook fans, and had released 212 video clips

with thousands of user-posted comments. The interconnectedness of the Internet and the advent of social

networking have allowed Threadless to reach its customers, and market to new ones, without spending

inordinate sums of money.

Click & Mortar to Brick & Mortar

Conventionally, businesses will move from brick-and-mortar retailing to click-and-mortar (or

click-and-brick) retailing to reach new and untapped markets. Brick-and-mortar retailing refers to when a

company conducts its business through traditional physical locales; whereas, click-and-mortar retailing

describes a business that conducts a portion of its commerce activities through the Internet. Threadless

took the opposite approach of what is the generally accepted norm and initially began as a web-based

company. For Threadless, this was only natural given its online evolution and reliance on Web 2.0

technology to conduct its business. With this method, customers would purchase online and Threadless

would ship the t-shirts accordingly.

Since its inception, Threadless has been approached by many large-scale retailers, such as Urban

Outfitters, Target, and Old Navy to stock Threadless t-shirts (Chafkin, 2008). Nickell declined these

offers in an effort to preserve the grassroots culture of the organization. However, in September 2007, the

company sold a minority stake to Insight Venture Partners, a leading private equity and venture capital

firm, for an undisclosed sum (Chafkin, 2008). With the added expertise and encouragement, the company

opened Threadless Broadway, a 1,700 square-foot-store in downtown Chicago (Gilmour, 2007). Shortly

thereafter, another Chicago store, Threadless Division, was established (Threadless, 2009d).

In addition to the ability to browse and try on the physical products prior to purchase, the

Threadless stores provide customers with an increased sense of community. During business hours, both

the Threadless Broadway and Division shops host graffiti artists to work in-shop and perform live

demonstrations (Threadless, 2009d). Customers will come to Threadless simply to chat with the

employees or watch the artists work. When they do make purchases in store, consumers receive free

reusable tote bags. Customers are then encouraged to bring these environmentally-friendly totes with

them during their next visit to receive $1 off each non-sale item (Threadless, 2009d). For those consumers

who are in the area, it makes financial sense to visit the retail locations to receive this discount.

Nickell hopes to open several more shops in Austin, Seattle, and Minneapolis in the future

(Chafkin, 2008). With Nickell’s goals of having stores located throughout the mid-west United States and

California, Threadless has the potential to become the t-shirt shop for everyone – not just its current target

market. Threadless must be cautious of its continued expansion in an effort to not alienate its original

consumers, consisting of stylish and educated individuals in their twenties and thirties. This demographic

Threadless - 7

are considered trendsetters – they determine what is popular and tend to abandon brands when they

become mainstream. Threadless is about uniqueness and creativity, and wearing a Threadless t-shirt

promotes that. If, while walking down the street, a Threadless consumer sees someone else wearing the

same t-shirt, the concept behind the company and its clothes will have been lost. However, by planning to

open stores located far away from one another, Threadless can alleviate this issue. Continuing to invest in

retail locations is a worthwhile risk, given the shops’ abilities to form greater community amongst

customers. In addition, with the expertise of Insight Venture Partners, and the Chicago stores as a

template, Threadless’ new retail locations will provide an opportunity for the company to increase sales

by sourcing consumers who may not be willing to purchase online. There is also the possibility that this

would lead to increased web traffic as Threadless gains in popularity. With that being said, Threadless has

no intentions of abandoning its roots. The company continues to maintain its successful e-commerce

website to reach customers from around the world.

Search Engine Optimization

Currently, with limited physical retail locations, it is nearly impossible to find Threadless t-shirts

offline, unless one lives in the downtown Chicago area. However, with the marvels of the Internet and

search engine optimization (SEO), it is an easy process to find, visit, and purchase from Threadless. SEO

is the process of increasing the ranking of one’s website among search engine results lists. The higher a

website is on a list, the more likely it is that a visitor will click on and visit said website. The owner of a

website has the ability to associate keywords and terms with his or her website to allow for the highest

ranking among search engines and thus, increased traffic.

Google Trends shows that search queries for “Threadless” spike at the beginning of summer, at

the end of summer, and during the winter holiday season. This can be attributed to consumers’ desire to

purchase t-shirts for the summer, back-to-school wardrobe, and as holiday gifts. It can also be credited to

the large sales campaigns that Threadless hosts during those same periods of the year (Chafkin, 2008).

Annually, searches reach their highest peak at the end of August and beginning of September as students

return to school with the need for new clothing.

Using the Google search engine, www.threadless.com is the first result for the queries of

“Threadless” and the variants of “t-shirt” (“t-shirts”, “tshirt”, and “tshirts”). It is the 7th result listed for the

query “shirt”. Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing search engines also show the corporate website as the first

search result for the term “Threadless”. However, these engines have notably poorer results when the

variants of “t-shirt” are searched for, being the 84th and 8th result, respectively. Given that Google has

67.5% of the global market share for Internet searches, these dismal results are not something that

Threadless needs to be overly concerned about (comScore, 2009). Overall, Threadless is well-positioned

and has excellent search engine optimization

Threadless - 8

Website Design & Organization

Once the customer has arrived at www.threadless.com, he or she is greeted with a clean and well-

organized website. While it is basic in design, without elements of Flash or animated images, the website

still feels cutting-edge to the visitor. Sparse and simple, www.threadless.com’s two column layout

embodies modern website design and organization principles. As a result, the website views properly

when browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome are used. With a color palette

of white, various shades of blues, and grass green, Threadless’ website feels as fun and creative as the

company itself.

The company website lets the product images be prominently featured. Over twenty new colorful,

artistic, and witty t-shirts, released over the past three weeks, are presented on two-thirds of the homepage

in a vertical manner. The shirts are organized by release date in a blog-like style. This enables frequent

visitors to the website, and potential customers, to quickly review Threadless’ latest designs without

having to scour the entire domain. The releases can also be viewed in an RSS (rich site summary)

syndication feed or through any one of the company’s numerous social networking outlets. Each shirt

posted on the homepage is tagged with the design title, designer, and price. Also identified is whether the

t-shirt has been newly released, is on sale, or is a reprint of a past design. These quick summaries of vital

product information can be very helpful for encouraging the sale of items.

The other third of the homepage is dedicated to important information regarding the company.

This includes (in order) design challenges, the company mission statement, how to submit a design, social

networking portals, and t-shirt sales. This arrangement is not ideal given the current economic climate.

Sales should be brought to the top of the list to encourage purchases. In times of economic uncertainty,

people want to save as much as they can, so they may not be inclined to buy full-priced items, but rather

those that are at a reduced cost. That said, Threadless does an excellent job of promoting the company’s

call for design submissions through boldfacing and increasing the font size of the potential royalty that the

designer could receive. At effectively no cost, people have the ability to win at least $2,500 cash by

merely submitting a t-shirt design.

Website Navigation

At the top of the website, there are two rows dedicated to product organization. The first row

links to Threadless’ four different apparel brands: Threadless Tees, typeTees, Threadless KIDS!, and the

Select Series. Threadless Tees was the company’s first line of witty and artistic t-shirts and acts as

www.threadless.com’s opening homepage. typeTees capitalizes on the draw of the hilarious slogan t-shirt

with phrases such as “Nerds 22 Ever” emblazoned across the chest. Threadless KIDS! provides the same

creative designs as Threadless Tees, but in an assortment of bodysuits, t-shirts, and sweatshirts for infants

Threadless - 9

and children. Finally, the Select Series is a limited edition line featuring the designs of celebrated and

renowned graphic artists. Each brand’s main page is consistent with Threadless Tees and follows the

same design elements. The exception to this, however, is typeTees, which comes off as overwhelming

and cluttered. The brand’s site should reflect the minimalism of typeTees themselves. This could be

achieved by simply using the same template as Threadless Tees.

Also in the first row is Threadless’ website search engine, powered by Google. The engine allows

visitors of the website to search products, blogs, users, and design submissions. This is an incredibly

helpful tool given that Threadless has over 250 designs at any given time (with countless variations in

size and color), almost 300,000 blogs, more than 1,000,000 users, and over 125 daily design submissions

(Edelstein, 2009; Threadless, 2009c; Walker, 2007). However, the primary issue with the search engine is

that it is only located on the homepage of Threadless, and does not exist on any other page. When a

customer is browsing through the website, and then decides that he or she wants to search for something

specifically, he or she must revert back to the homepage to do so. This has a negative effect on user

experience and is something that Threadless should consider correcting.

The second row at the top of the website allows for the easy navigation of Threadless, with drop-

down menus for community participation, company information, and men’s and women’s catalogues. The

“Participate” menu enables visitors to score and submit designs, browse the blog forum, review design

challenges, find information on the affiliate program, and watch Tee-V. The “Info” menu provides links

to news and updates, order status, frequently asked questions, career postings, and contact information.

Finally, the “Guys” and “Girls” menus allow the site visitor to view the full design catalogue,

stock chart of each design, sales ($9, $12, or $15 shirts), art prints of the t-shirt designs, gift certificate

information, and membership information. The full design catalogue can seem overwhelming at first, but

a customer’s search can be refined through identifying men’s or women’s shirts, price, color, collection,

popularity, and interest category. Given the extensive breadth of designs offered, these classification

systems help to make searching the catalogue an efficient and organized process.

Online Purchasing & Security

For each t-shirt, Threadless provides detailed and ample information. This includes product

description, designer biography, other shirts created by the designer, offered sizes and sizing chart,

offered colours, price, visitor rating, customer reviews, and stock and backorder information. Threadless

can provide current stock and backorder information as a consequence of the organization’s in-house

inventory system. However, this entails high storage and holding costs for the company with a decreased

responsiveness to customer demands. Currently, if there is no stock of a particular item, customers must

put in a request for the product. When there is sufficient demand, Threadless will order another batch of t-

Threadless - 10

shirts for print. If the company could outsource its printing system and order fulfillment, Threadless

would be able to provide more designs at reasonable prices to a larger customer base on and offline. This

would help to increase both customer satisfaction and sales.

Each product page also has at least two high-definition photos of models wearing the t-shirt and a

close-up image of the design. In addition, customers can submit photos of themselves wearing their

Threadless t-shirts. These photos are then displayed on their respective product pages. This is part of

Threadless’ StreetTeam affiliate program (see page 11). Being able to see the t-shirts on “regular” people,

rather than on professional models, lets customers know what the clothing will realistically look like on

their body types without having to physically try the article on.

All of this information provided by Threadless helps to encourage a sale. Customers can

accumulate items in their electronic shopping carts until they are prepared to check-out. Prior to purchase,

customers can see a sub-total price of all of their items, without shipping rates. Based on the information

provided by the customer, the shipping rates are then added with speed of delivery and distance taken into

account. The company ships to most countries and provides order tracking. This enables customers to

follow their purchases while en route to final delivery.

Threadless accepts all major credit cards as forms of payment, but will not accept PayPal

transfers. Customers are not notified of this until the third stage in the checkout process, which is

something that may cause the abandonment of the purchase. However, with the TRUSTe Privacy Seal

Program Verification and the entering of the consumer’s three-digit card security code, a customer can be

assured that his or her credit card information will be secure (TRUSTe, 2009). In addition to this,

Threadless offers a full privacy policy that states that Threadless does not “rent, trade, or share [p]ersonal

[i]nformation with third parties except to provide products or services [that the customer has] requested,”

with his or her permission (Threadless, 2009f). Threadless has taken proactive steps to protecting the

privacy of their customers, which facilitates trust and future sales.

If customers have issues or questions during the checkout process, they can refer to the “Service

& Help” link at the top of the website. By clicking on this link, users are taken to a comprehensive list of

frequently asked questions (FAQs). The difficulty with doing so is that this link opens in the same

window, thereby losing the customer’s stage in the checkout process. This can be very discouraging

initially. However, if or when the customer decides to continue checking out, he or she will find that his

or her personal information is not lost within the form fields. It would be helpful if the FAQs launched in

a separate window to avoid this initial frustration that the customer endures.

Threadless - 11

Another method that customers can use to have their questions answered is through filling out a

web form. Threadless admits that it may take between one and three business days to reply to inquiries.

While this is clearly not ideal customer service, one can appreciate that Threadless is a small organization.

In 2008, 60 employees managed to operate a warehouse, creative studio, website, and two retail stores,

while posting revenues of over $30 million (Chafkin, 2008; Lindberg, 2008).

In addition to the online form and FAQs, Threadless also offers e-mail and regular mail options

as contact methods, as well as in-store support. To improve the company’s communication with its

customers, Threadless could add toll-free phone support and live chat. This would likely be something

that Threadless would have to outsource as the company does not have the organizational capacity to

handle any kind of significant call volume.

Despite these issues, Threadless has customers coming back again and again. On a typical day,

Threadless sells 1,550 t-shirts through its website (Weingarten, 2007). The company also offers one day

blow-out sales, discounts through the StreetTeam affiliate program (see page11), and membership to the

exclusive 12-Month Tee Club, where members receive a special edition t-shirt every month for a

reasonable price. The company’s unique designs and community spirit also help to retain customers and

have them visit www.threadless.com on a regular basis.

Online Consumer Behavior

Tracking how consumers behave online provides Threadless with detailed information that the

company can then use to adjust its website design, service offerings and product selection. Particularly,

Threadless makes use of cookies, which are data files that are stored on users’ hard drives to collect

information about their activities (Threadless, 2009f). Threadless has cookies enabled on its website and

embedded into its weekly newsletter. The newsletter is something that customers can sign up for to

receive weekly updates directly to their email inboxes regarding the apparel company’s newest designs. It

is delivered to over 370,000 e-mail addresses per week with 75 percent of recipients actually opening the

message (Weingarten, 2007).

Threadless informs consumers that their behaviour is tracked online through the corporate privacy

policy (Threadless, 2009f). The policy details that users have the ability to disable cookies, but doing so

will substantially inhibit their ability to shop on the website. Given that most websites utilize cookies,

consumers accept this loss of privacy for the convenience of shopping online.

Threadless - 12

StreetTeam: Affiliate Program

Threadless does not use any form of traditional advertising, but rather capitalizes on the viral

nature of the Internet. Through its affiliate program, affectionately referred to as the StreetTeam,

Threadless indirectly markets itself through its customers. Consumers of Threadless can create member

profiles, which will provide them with uniquely identifiable Threadless links to post wherever they see fit.

Links can also be shared with friends through social networking websites like Facebook, del.icio.us,

Digg, MySpace, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and Kaboodle, or posted directly to the user’s personal website.

For every click, a user earns one point, which is equivalent to $1.50, toward the purchase of a Threadless

t-shirt (Threadless, 2009a). If the clicking of a link results in a sale, the member receives two referral

points, or $3.

Users also have the ability to upload photos of themselves wearing Threadless t-shirts to receive

one point (Threadless, 2009a). Ten points are earned if that user’s photo is used as one of the main images

on the product page. About 1,200 buyers have uploaded images of themselves wearing “The Communist

Party” t-shirt alone. This is one of the company’s best selling t-shirts and depicts the most infamous

Communist leaders drinking from red plastic party cups and wearing lampshades on their heads.

The StreetTeam is beneficial for both the company and its consumers. First, it provides

Threadless with the ability to advertise to its target market at a significantly lesser cost than it would to

advertise using traditional methods. By having consumers recommend products to their friends,

Threadless gains direct access to its market. The StreetTeam also has a clear benefit for members:

discounts on apparel purchases. The user with the highest point score is “Captain Obvious” with 57,718

points, which translates into $86,577, or 4,810 Threadless t-shirts priced at $18 each (Threadless, 2009a).

Future Prospects

Threadless’ success as an offline and online retailer looks incredibly promising. As a result of the

current economic climate, it may not be reasonable to expect the same kind of astronomical growth that

the company has experienced in the past. However, respectable growth can still be forecasted. With the

expertise of Insight Venture Partners, and the continued imagination of its loyal designers and consumers,

Threadless has the ability to create intelligent and entertaining products that will appeal to the overall

public.

Among its four brands, Threadless already offers a wide selection of t-shirts, sweatshirts, infant

wear, and art prints. However, many of the designs featured on these products are so universal that they

have the ability to be easily transferred onto other goods. The managing director of Insight Venture

Partners, Jeff Lieberman, agrees: "[t]o say [that Threadless is] just a t-shirt company is absurd… [it is a]

company that happens to use t-shirts as a canvas" (Chafkin, 2008). Possible future products could include

tote bags, tank tops, and hats.

Threadless - 13

As an e-tailer first and foremost, Threadless must continue to harness the power of the Internet to

continue to promote its apparel. It is important that the business do so in order to effectively interact with

its customers in a relevant, convenient, and improved manner. With new online tools being created every

day, it can only be imagined what resources the company will have at its disposal in the coming years.

Threadless is well-equipped to handle this challenge of staying abreast of the latest technology if past-

performance is any indication of its future.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Threadless must continue its dedication to creativity, quality, community, and

perhaps, most importantly, fun. The Chief Creative Officer of Threadless, Jeffrey Kalmikoff, put it best:

[Threadless is] constantly striving to make all our projects as great as they can be… I never go to sleep satisfied that what we’ve been working on is done. It’s never done – it’s just “as far as you can take it today”. That – mixed in with thinking about new projects, new ideas, new everything – keeps me up at night. My three cats aren’t any help either.” (Kawasaki, 2007)

By maintaining this commitment, the company will be able to constantly improve upon its interactive

website, unique retail stores, and winning collaborative business model to provide excellent returns. It is

this constant innovation that makes for Threadless’ ongoing success as a click-and-brick retailer.

Threadless - 14

Appendices

Appendix A: Threadless Revenue (2002-2007)

Source: (Chafkin, 2008) (Weingarten, 2007)

Appendix B: Threadless Community Members (2002-2009)

Source: (Chafkin, 2008) (Threadless, 2009c) (Walker, 2007)

0

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

25,000,000

30,000,000

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Threadless - 15

References

Bobo, J. (2006, August 7). Jake Nickell (Threadless) interview. Retrieved November 6, 2009, from

http://goodproduce.net/blog/?page_id=271

Chafkin, M. (2008, June 1). The customer is the company. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from Inc.:

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080601/the-customer-is-the-company.html

comScore. (2009, August 31). Global search market draws more than 100 billion searches per month.

Retrieved November 3, 2009, from comScore Press & Events: http://www.comscore.com/

Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/8/Global_Search_Market_Draws_More_than_100_Billion_Se

arches_per_Month

Edelstein, E. (2009, January 15). How big is the Threadless community? Retrieved October 31, 2009,

from http://ericedelstein.com/2009/01/15/how-big-is-the-threadless-community/

Gilmour, M. (2007, November 26). Threadless: From Clicks to Bricks . Retrieved November 3, 2009,

from BusinessWeek: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_48/b4060074.htm

House, L. (2008, May 16). Design that fits to a tee. Retrieved November 4, 2009, from AIGA:

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/design-that-fits-to-a-tee?pff=2

Kanji, Z., & Lakhani, K. (2008, May 12). Threadless: The business of community. Retrieved November 3,

2009, from http://courseware.hbs.edu/public/cases/threadless/transcript.pdf

Kawasaki, G. (2007, June 5). Ten questions with Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Chief Creative Officer of

skinnyCorp/Threadless. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from How to change the world:

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/06/ten_questions_w.html#axzz0VwjQaqMa

Lindberg, O. (2008, May 28). The secrets behind Threadless' success. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from

TechRadar UK: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/the-secrets-behind-threadless-success-

602617?artc_pg=1

O’Reilly, T. (2005, September 30). What is Web 2.0. Retrieved November 4, 2009, from

http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

skinnyCorp. (2009). Awesomeness. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from skinnyCorp:

http://www.skinnycorp.com/

Threadless - 16

Threadless. (2009a). StreetTeam. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from Threadless:

http://www.threadless.com/streetteam

Threadless. (2009b). Submit a design, earn $2,500. Retrieved November 3, 2009, from Threadless:

http://www.threadless.com/submit

Threadless. (2009c). Threadless. Retrieved November 6, 2009, from MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/threadlessdotcom

Threadless. (2009d). Threadless Retail Stores. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from Threadless:

http://www.threadless.com/retail

Threadless. (2009e). Threadless Tees. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from Threadless:

http://www.threadless.com/

Threadless. (2009f). Threadless.com Privacy Policy. Retrieved November 2, 2009, from Threadless:

http://www.threadless.com/privacypolicy

TRUSTe. (2009). skinnyCorp, LLC. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from Click with confidence:

http://clicktoverify.truste.com/pvr.php?page=validate&url=www.threadless.com&sealid=101

Walker, R. (2007, July 8). Threadlines. Retrieved November 4, 2009, from New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/magazine/08wwln-consumed-t.html

Weingarten, M. (2007, June 18). 'Project Runway' for the t-shirt crowd. Retrieved November 1, 2009,

from CNN Money: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/

2007/06/01/100050978/index.htm