Consumer Driven Design: "Threadless" Dot Com Is Inspired Ecommerce

At the beginning of the new millennium, two young designers got together to create an entirely new way of doing business. It was the quintessential meeting of creativity, commerce and the Internet, and this year, skinnyCorp will make an estimated seven million dollar profit -- primarily from the sales of t-shirts, designed, selected and purchased by consumers.

It all began in late 2000, when two young designers met online and became friends. While keeping their "real" jobs, they conceptualized an entirely new business model that became threadless.com, a web based t-shirt design competition. On threadless.com, consumers submit their own original t- shirt designs. Each week, the community votes and a limited number of each winning design is printed and sold on the site. In 2001, the two launched threadless.com with six designs. By 2002, the pair had quit their day jobs, formed skinnyCorp and acquired office space.

Working with this new business model -- community as designers and customers -- the company continued to grow, with sales quadrupling every year.

According to Jake Nickell, President of skinnyCorp, threadless.com is unique to what might be called the "Internet generation." "We're all about creativity, invention, youth, insight, determination, fun, intensity. And it works because this unique community can come together on the Internet in ways never before possible."

Today, threadless.com has 215,000 users, growing at the rate of 2% per month. Some 20,000 designs are submitted per year and each design is voted on by 15,000 unique visitors. An average of 60,000 t-shirts are sold every month.

Nickell, VP Jacob Dehart and creative director Jeffrey Kalmikoff, have become the in-demand speakers at universities across the U.S. They've turned down offers from Fortune 500 companies, eager to capitalize on their business model and their ability to build community via the 'net.'

Nickell believes the possibilities are virtually endless. "In the beginning, we wanted to create an outlet for designers, a place where we could showcase what we do," says Nickell. "It turned into this great business and now we've extended the model to ties, music, cocktails and we're thinking about housewares. In ten years, who knows where we might be?"

skinnyCorp sites: www.threadless.com ; www.nakedandangry.com ; www.15megsoffame.com ; www.extratasty.com ; www.omgclothing.com ; www.skinnycorp.com

Contact: Tanya Thomas Truth Be Told 212.477.8090 Email Contact