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What Happened to Threadless?

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11–20 of 112 posts

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#11
post #5

Are there any alternatives to Threadless? Tees from my last order have a completely horrible quality.

Expanding on that - what's your go-to T-shirt shop inside the EU? Ordering from Threadless (US) to the EU is quite expensive (shipping + taxes) and I haven't found a quality EU alternative yet.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#13

Is there a good company to order printed t shirts?

I have had good results on several recent orders using CustomInk.

You may also want to look locally. I came across a place that is local to me whose prices are competitive with CustomInk and it's nice to support the local business. Also no shipping. I'm sure they also do remote orders, so you can check them out too: http://eastcoastembroidery.com/

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#14
post #11
post #5

Are there any alternatives to Threadless? Tees from my last order have a completely horrible quality.

Expanding on that - what's your go-to T-shirt shop inside the EU? Ordering from Threadless (US) to the EU is quite expensive (shipping + taxes) and I haven't found a quality EU alternative yet.

Side question: is that print t-shirt trend a mostly US thing ? and does it exist meaningfully in small(5-10M people) countries ?

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#15
post #2

The article fails to mention that there is a ton of competition and Threadless has been trounced by Redbubble, Society6, Teepublic, etc. Plus, t-shirts alone is not enough to sustain a site. Stickers, iPhone cases, mugs, etc etc. Threadless is a good example of the dangers of premature profitability.

"premature profitability"? I think it's easy to sit on the outside of a business and judge it smugly, but considering that the estimated net worth of the founder is north of $50mil (https://www.fundera.com/blog/successful-entrepreneurs), I don't think he would say that there is anything wrong with their "premature profitability".

Maybe there is mismanagement, or poor decisions, or just not staying ahead of trends in the market - but putting millions of dollars into the pockets of the business owners is the intent of all businesses. Knocking that as "premature profitability" seems silly

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#16
post #2

The article fails to mention that there is a ton of competition and Threadless has been trounced by Redbubble, Society6, Teepublic, etc. Plus, t-shirts alone is not enough to sustain a site. Stickers, iPhone cases, mugs, etc etc. Threadless is a good example of the dangers of premature profitability.

"premature profitability"? I think it's easy to sit on the outside of a business and judge it smugly, but considering that the estimated net worth of the founder is north of $50mil ( https://www.fundera.com/blog/successful-entrepreneurs ), I don't think he would say that there is anything wrong with their "premature profitability". Maybe there is mismanagement, or poor decisions, or just not staying ahead of trends i…

Society6 and Redbubble are still losing money but they will also crush Threadless by the time it's over. This is a winner take all marketplace business, not a t-shirt business.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#17
post #11
post #5

Are there any alternatives to Threadless? Tees from my last order have a completely horrible quality.

Expanding on that - what's your go-to T-shirt shop inside the EU? Ordering from Threadless (US) to the EU is quite expensive (shipping + taxes) and I haven't found a quality EU alternative yet.

Pampling is something I have used but did not like their quality after a few washes.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#18
What isn't quite clear to me from the article: are they still places around doing the competition/selection thing, or is everyone now offering "stores" to everyone?

EDIT: Limited production runs (maybe originally needed because of printing tech, but also a possible marketing move) where also quite popular for a while.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#19
post #7

I really loved Threadless back in the day and this was an interesting read. While it did a good job of covering what changes Threadless made that ultimately changed the culture around it and led to its fall, it didn't cover the why. Was their model no longer profitable? Were they facing outside competition (and what was that competition doing better?). Did they take money and have to grow big / fast and therefore sta…

There is https://www.qwertee.com for more "nerd-oriented" stuff. But I never used them, only looked at some designs.

I have quite a few and I'm happy enough with them. They also have some sizing issues but all it usually mean is that one tshirt will be a bit tighter/looser than other of the same size (the fact that I'm between two sizes doesn't help) but the print quality is decent.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#20
post #11
post #5

Are there any alternatives to Threadless? Tees from my last order have a completely horrible quality.

Expanding on that - what's your go-to T-shirt shop inside the EU? Ordering from Threadless (US) to the EU is quite expensive (shipping + taxes) and I haven't found a quality EU alternative yet.

I usually go to qwertee (https://www.qwertee.com/). As I've said in another comment I've had some minor sizing issues but the print quality is decent enough.
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