Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Happened to Threadless?

racked.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 112 posts

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#71

Post by acomjean »

matthewn wrote: post #69
kawsper wrote: post #4

> Concerns about controlling quality make sense given that artists on Threadless’s forum complain that they’re unable to promote their work because the print quality has dropped to the point that designs flake off after a few washes. Reviewers say the sizing, feel, and weight of Threadless’s shirts is inconsistent and getting worse over time, with some customers reporting that shirts bought five to 10 years ago are s…

Same here. I have a couple of ancient (roughly ten years old) Threadless shirts that still look good, and I have a couple of recent ones (within the last two years) that never fit the same and have not held up. Since many (most?) designs that are on Threadless are also on Society6, and since Society6 shirts are still relatively high quality, I order from them now instead.

Interesting. I haven't brought a shirt from them in a while, but was wearing an old one. Someone liked it and asked me where I got it. It was a Threadless shirt, they make a comment that the quality of the shirt seemed too high to be threadless...

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#72

Post by coldtea »

josephjrobison wrote: post #66
strebler wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it so surprising? From both the designer and shopper perspectives, the Old Way does seem better. With the Old Way: Designer: does N work to create a design and has X% chance of winning $2500. They focus on what they love (i.e. design) and can get a nice quick payout if they're good. This is even better than a lottery, because it has the same excitement, but talent is also a factor which is very motivating. The…

Well, recreate the old Threadless idea for your own startup and make the millions!

Yeah, because every criticism is justified only if the critic can replicate the same work better... /s

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#73

Post by Y_Y »

misiogames wrote: post #67
dkarl wrote: post #48

Threadless announced Artist Shops in 2015 and rolled them out to Threadless’s general community in early 2016. Artist Shops, still in existence, allow designers to sell items printed with any design (allowed by Threadless’s terms and conditions) directly to customers and receive royalties on each sale.... The shift to a more equitable royalties and rights model removed the gamification elements of Threadless that mad…

isn't that the way the "American dream" works?

You make an excellent, if cynical, point.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#74

Post by soniman »

_puk wrote: post #59
soniman wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a t-shirt business, it's a marketplace where designers sell their designs and the designs are placed on t-shirts, mugs, carpets, stickers, etc. So basically these sites are like eBay but for artists. Like any marketplace business, it takes a long time to build up both sides of the marketplace but once it's in place, it's very hard to compete with.

As with much of this, I can see amazon eating it all [0]. They have the marketplace and the tooling already, just artificially limiting scale. 0: https://merch.amazon.com/landing

There has to be an element of cool and fun. These are artists, they want to be where the cool people are . . . and that's not Amazon.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#75

Post by aaronbrethorst »

dkarl wrote: post #48

Threadless announced Artist Shops in 2015 and rolled them out to Threadless’s general community in early 2016. Artist Shops, still in existence, allow designers to sell items printed with any design (allowed by Threadless’s terms and conditions) directly to customers and receive royalties on each sale.... The shift to a more equitable royalties and rights model removed the gamification elements of Threadless that mad…

This sounds no different to the startup ‘dream’ lots of people in the Bay Area have sold themselves on.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#77

Post by bsder »

kawsper wrote: post #4

> Concerns about controlling quality make sense given that artists on Threadless’s forum complain that they’re unable to promote their work because the print quality has dropped to the point that designs flake off after a few washes. Reviewers say the sizing, feel, and weight of Threadless’s shirts is inconsistent and getting worse over time, with some customers reporting that shirts bought five to 10 years ago are s…

> some customers reporting that shirts bought five to 10 years ago are still holding up better than those purchased this year.

This isn't just a Threadless problem. All T-shirts now seem to be made out of this thin stretchy garbage material--good if you are an Italian model, bad if you are a normal 40 year old.

I'd kill for a supplier that actually still uses nice solid cotton material that drapes rather than stretches.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#78

Post by aaronbrethorst »

misiogames wrote: post #67
dkarl wrote: post #48

Threadless announced Artist Shops in 2015 and rolled them out to Threadless’s general community in early 2016. Artist Shops, still in existence, allow designers to sell items printed with any design (allowed by Threadless’s terms and conditions) directly to customers and receive royalties on each sale.... The shift to a more equitable royalties and rights model removed the gamification elements of Threadless that mad…

isn't that the way the "American dream" works?

The American Dream is a middle class lifestyle. Post-World War II America saw a vibrant middle class. Post 9-11/Great Recession America has replaced its vibrant middle class with the ‘gig economy’

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#79

Post by GVIrish »

soniman wrote: post #55
GVIrish wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that as if there's a guarantee that the upstarts will find a way to be profitable once they've spent several years losing money. The barriers to entry are pretty low in the t-shirt business so it's not like there's some golden goose to be captured after millions of dollars of capital are set on fire.

It's not a t-shirt business, it's a marketplace where designers sell their designs and the designs are placed on t-shirts, mugs, carpets, stickers, etc. So basically these sites are like eBay but for artists. Like any marketplace business, it takes a long time to build up both sides of the marketplace but once it's in place, it's very hard to compete with.

Let's say the core business is to put customer designs on various products and sell them in a marketplace. So like Etsy, but instead of the artists making everything, the artist makes the design and the marketplace business produces it.

Becoming the number 1 player in that market could be profitable if said company could implement innovations that are difficult to replicate by others. But it's not the type of business where a network effect is going to shut out competitors. Customers will go to where they can get the best balance of price, quality, ease of use, and speed.

Spending a lot of VC funding selling dollar bills for 50 cents is not the only strategy, and it risks running out of money before getting to the promised land.

Running a profitable business doesn't mean you can't come to be the best in a market segment either. Profit can be reinvested in the business, and decisions can be made based on what makes sense for a sustainable business.

Re: What Happened to Threadless?

#80

Post by munificent »

jasongill wrote: post #15
soniman wrote: 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…

> Maybe there is mismanagement, or poor decisions, or just not staying ahead of trends in the market

Or perhaps we need to consider the idea that it's actually OK for a company to not live forever. Threadless had a good run, made a lot of money for the employees and made a lot of consumers happy. It's not a failure if they don't continue to do that in perpetuity.

Post reply on HN