Temptation from our sponsors...
Temptation from our sponsors...
This post is about a potential Threadless backlash, I’ve seen a few signs of it in recent months and I’ve aggregated those opinions and added my own. I think Threadless are in danger of peaking. I’ve framed this as “7 reasons why threadless don’t rule (as much as they used to)” in response to the Signal vs Noise post “7 reasons why threadless rule” here http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/68-7-reasons-why-threadless-rules#extended
No doubt there will be a lot of changes now that they are funded by Insight and not accountable to just their community, but to their business backers. Taking VC at some point was probably inevitable and it will open up many more opportunities. It doesn’t mean you have to sell out your principals, but its only natural that people will be watching closely for a on opportunity to shout “sell out”. Especially when you have previously cited your credibility came from not having outside investors:
“We pride ourselves on being DIY. We started with $500 and have worked our way up to here without any investors. Too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the casserole – especially if some of the cooks only care about how many people it will feed and not how it tastes! 
†It also makes for a great PR angle and is a big reason why the company retains cred with its fans.â€
Anyway I don’t see the VC funding as relevant so lets get on with the 7 reasons:
1. The Community is getting messy
I spent many hours categorizing every post that appeared on the blog forum over seven days for my thesis. At that point although there were a lot of off topic posts the breakdown was something like this (these are just separate posts, I did also categorized replies):
497 – Posts
200 – Related in someway to Threadless as a company, designs undergoing scoring etc
197 – Off topic, social posts with nothing to do with Threadless.
Only 16 posts about stp’s at that point, that figure has definitely increased since. 59 of those 197 I classified as being requests for design help, requests for feedback from designs, discussion of designs undergoing scoring.
I bet if I did this again it would be a different picture, one of the commenter’s on signal vs noise summed this up nicely
“I was turned onto Threadless by a designer friend a while ago and when I first visited I found it immensely cool, but I started reading the blog comments and found myself transported to a mall food court. It would be nice if discussions there were more about critique and design, or at least elevated above swapping Street Team Points like spit, but I don’t know how they could moderate that without alienating customers.”
Sure Skinnycorp builds communities, I think it might be time to segregate/regulate them a little more. I loved the design collaboration/feedback part of the model. There’s a shared experience in the design contest model that makes it much easier to form a community. Thats getting lost at the moment. I don’t think an illustrator would get as much support or stimulating conversation as in previous years. Intelligent discussion is getting lost and diluted in stp chatter.
2. Shipping times
I’ve seen the shipping times quoted as up to 9 days, I think it averages around 5? Hire some more staff, its a very scalable business model, I don’t think you should ever have to wait more than 24hrs to have your tee shipped. The forum is littered with posts like this about the length of shipping times. In fairness this is a problem acknowledged by Threadless in a number of places.
3. Bad tee quality
They are much better than they were, but still the quality is much lower than their rivals (in fairness so are the prices ) Why not offer half the print run in AA and the other half the standard brand. Raise the price for the AA ones by $3. If the quality of AA in the US isn’t high (as they suggested at sxsw) then there are plenty of alternatives. I’d rather pay a little more to showcase a great illustration by having it on a high quality tshirt.
Another comment from Signal vs Noise summed this up
“I personally find the quality of the normal (Fruit of the Loom) shirts horrible. The fit is bad, material is uncomfortable and color fades fast. I own about 6 of these and they are all the same. Awesome design, bad canvas. “
4. Artists should be better compensated
Yeah its a sweet deal relative to freelance design wages, but thats not a fair equivalent. If I’m hired freelance theres a good chance that unless my designs a steaming turd I’m going to get paid. At threadless your odds of a payday aren’t high. You don’t need to do it to get better submissions, but it’ll help keep the proposition competitive and increase buy-in. $2000 plus 2% would be enough to blow most competitors out of the water. If not then re-payment on reprint seems a no brainer, if something is popular enough to make it financially viable to reprint it then why not share the love.
The Oddica model is not directly comparable as the exposure offered from winning Threadless is a lot higher, and they sell much less. But its an interesting counter proposition and shows the direction things are heading in, particularly as the technology behind the design contest model becomes increasingly commoditised.
5. Printing too many of each design
I’ve seen at least five other people in Pandamonium, and this is in the UK. I guess this must happen even more in the US? I don’t think there should be reprints, when its gone its gone. I’d like to see more designs printed in smaller quantities. I know this adds complexity and reduces scale economies but tshirt printing isn’t expensive and lead times are short. Especially when its powered by a demand gauge as effective as the threadless community. Print less, of more.
6. Too popular
You can only ever be cool once. This was something I learn’t from working at Microsoft. Its completely true, if you lose it you cant get it back. If everyone loves you you’re on a slippery slope towards uncooldom. I was once on the top deck of a bus in Cambridge with two other people wearing Threadless tees, different tees but still 3 different Threadless tees, one half of a bus. This wasn’t the hipster party bus either it was the park and ride. Maybe this is something that annoys just me? Maybe it even annoys the Threadless guys, I don’t know (link and link)
I see the tshirt market (amongst others) as being made up of two key demographics:
a) Innovators or lead users
You should always aim your product at this demographic. It automatically guarantees that you get regular customers. These guys buy everything, send you their cv every day, post on your blog, mail you requests and ideas, start fan sites http://www.lovesthreadless.com/category/designer-watch/ http://www.threadies.org/
b) Regular Consumers
This demographic follow innovators, but on the whole they dilute the experience for innovators and once everyone else climbs aboard your no longer feel innovative or different, you all become regular consumers. If they aren’t managed correctly they resent the increasingly popularity and will move on the the next thing to get that feeling of superiority or exclusivity that drives them. The regular customers eventually follow as they learn of the next cool party. Threadless used to be like a secret club, zero marketing meant that you were probably recommended it by a friend. It had that kind of exclusive club feel, you probably never saw anyone in a Threadless tee (well in the UK anyway, and if you did you’d probably acknowledge each other for it).
I’m probably totally wrong on my completely unfounded or researched market demographic breakdown, but hey there is a natural cycle to coolness and there is definitely a link to perceived size and popularity.
7. Er, I cant think of anymore
If I was the boss of Threadless what would I do?
Well print less or more mainly. Also and this is probably not an option now they have VC to answer to, but I would gate the community. 400,000 community members is more than enough. It makes absolutely no business sense which is why I think its has to be a good idea, move to the Oink model. You can’t buy anything unless your in the club. If you want in then you have to be recommended by an existing member, or submit a design, or rate 100 tshirts designs. Yeah its elitist, but you don’t have to make the entry barriers high. Keep your active community members as your primary customers and bring back the exclusive feel, demanding not encouraging involvement. They have the community and loyal fan base to pull this off (NOTE I wouldn’t make the cut, despite owning 15 or so tees I’ve never actually rated a design, my interest in Threadless is purely as an interesting case study, oh and place to buy 75% of my tshirts.). It wont make business sense but they are forecasting $15-20m in revenue already. There’s no reason why gating the community won’t allow that to grow and help keep that cool factor for longer.
Disclaimer’s
1) I love Theadless
I owe Threadless a lot, I’ve been collecting tshirts for years but it was my introduction to Threadless from a messageboard link a few years ago that kick started this blog, helped me get an excellent degree classification, my current job. They are like a website version of The Simpsons, absolutely everyone loves them and if you don’t you should rightly be outcast by society like some kind of social leper.
2) I work for a competitor in Spreadshirt/La Fraise
I can see why people would think I’m biased, I’d think that too. All I can say is I wear a Threadless tshirt at least two days a week into work and see at least 5 others during the working day, we are pro Threadless, this is a big marketplace!
