Case #1: Threadless.com

As technology takes over our lives, we find that mass marketing is diminishing. Products are now tailored to fit the needs of the consumers. Instead of consumers having to search for the perfect product, they can create one. Companies such as Dell and Nike have adopted mass customization model. Another company that is taking Web 2.0 to the next level is Threadless, found at www.threadless.com.

Threadless, founded in 2000, is a company based in Chicago, which has a great online following at threadless.com. The company combines an online art community with a successful “community” e-commerce marketing model. The website allows anyone who registers as a member, which is free, to submit t-shirt designs. The designs are then posted and members vote for their favorite new design every week. There are about 1,500 designs competing during any given week. Each week, the top voted design gets printed and sold on the website, so every week the number of t-shirts available on the site changes and grows. The t-shirts sell because the community chooses what they like most, guaranteeing profits. 

Compensation is given to the winning designs in the amount of $2,000, with further money prizes awarded to those whose t-shirts get reprinted, giving contributors an incentive other than recognition. Students take note- if your design wins, you can win a $3,000 scholarship instead of the $2,000 cash, no water what you are studying! Watch the video to see how Threadless got started and how customers run the business.

Through their mass customization and community business model, Threadless became so popular online that they were able to open two retail stores, both located in Chicago, and also allow wholesalers to apply to sell their t-shirts.

Threadless employs both the openness and sharing principles of wikinomics, which creates mass collaboration and economic value based on peer production. These principals are reached by allowing an open door policy at their warehouse, giving customers the opportunity to stop in and look around. Also, other sites would usually shut down or put limitations on rogue competitions that they can’t sanction, but Threadless encourages them! There was a Threadless minimalism contest that had about 50 participants.

Several years ago there was a Threadcakes competition, where bakers made cakes based on Threadless tees. Threadless thought that the idea was so good that they sanctioned it and helped run the competition, giving cool prizes and inviting judges for the contest.

After the success of Threadcakes, Threadknits was created- a contest based on kitting designs based on Threadless t-shirts. These designs were crazy! A community knitting woolly mammoths and  cows jumping over a moon is pretty awesome if you ask me.

As explained earlier, the entire company survives because consumers share their ideas with the company. While starting off with a small investment and not charging a usage fee, the company was able to encourage a large peer-to-peer network, encouraging collaboration without a formal hierarchical structure, which in the wikinomics model is called peering. The success of the sharing process is evident in the fact that for the first 8 years of business, Threadless didn’t do any type of advertising. Their community was built on word-of-mouth marketing, and continues to thrive the same way.

Threadless also has an international following, with community members not just from the United States, but also from Europe to Australia to the Domincan Republic to Canada to Germany. Threadless is still growing, but they are already acting globally! In a recent project, Threadless sent flipcams to community members across the globe, letting them record how they feel about Threadless.

Threadless is taking advantange of all things Web 2.0 and doing a good job at it! Not only do they know how to market on the internet, they create a great product; unique, well designed, affordable t-shirts (for men, women, children and babies), as well as hoodies, water bottles, bags, display art, and other good stuff.

Threadless broke new boundaries and bridged communication outlets by releasing a book in October of 2010, which was a ten-year retrospective of Threadless t-shirt designs and the history of the company.

Also, you may have seen Threadless on tv show Community recently, where Danny Pudi, who plays the character Abed, sported a Threadless t-shirt called “Water Balloons”, as well as the  “Infinity MPG” zip-up hoodie.

(These are the designs that are on the t-shirt and the hoodie. Click the link above to see Danny wearing the Threadless designs)

So what exactly does Threadless do for their community of designers, artists, consumers, and fans?

          - Well to start you can get paid $2,000 to do something you probably would have done for free, post a piece of your art online (only in this case it’s on a t-shirt). Designers can make an extra $500 for every batch of reprinted shirts.

          - You have the opportunity to vote on what you would like to see made and then purchase whatever you voted for.

          - If you are a member of Threadless, then you can earn Threadless store credits by linking to Threadless from other websites or through email, if the referral results in a sale. You can also earn store credits by submitting a photon of yourself wearing your Threadless tee (only 1 photo per t-shirt).

          - If you are a student than you could win an extra $1,000 for turning your cash prize into a scholarship prize and Threadless gives you materials to help convince your art teacher to work Threadless into the curriculum.

          - You can participate in other cool Threadless ventures such as Threadcakes and Threadknits.

          - You get to be a part of a community that is so cool there was even a contest for Threadless community members to submit soundtracks for the warehouse to listen to on 8tracks.com.

          - You can look at crazy cool art and buy some t-shirts for your wardrobe.