Threadless: Ten Years of T-shirts from the World's Most Inspiring Online Design Community - Softcover

Jake Nickell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810996103 ISBN 13: 9780810996106

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2010

Synopsis

Threadless.com is the phenomenally successful T-shirt company with millions and millions of tees sold since it began in 2000. It pioneered the online business model of crowd-sourced or community-driven design, in which people submit designs that are voted on by the site's 1 million users and printed. Over the past 10 years, the company has amassed a vast archive of very cool, very hip, and often very entertaining designs, and Threadless is a spectacular showcase of 400 of the very best T-shirts created by the community--a barometer of art and design over the past decade.
 
Much more than a book of extraordinary graphics, Threadless tells the extremely interesting story that inspired Inc. magazine to hail Threadless.com as "the most innovative small company in America." There are also profiles of individual designers and "think pieces" from influential admirers, including design guru John Maeda, Jeff Howe of Wired, and bestselling business/marketing writer Seth Godin.

About this title

About the Author

Jake Nickell was born in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1980. In 2000, while a student at the Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago, he entered an online t-shirt design competition. Fired up by winning, he set up his own contest--and Threadless was born. Since then 4 million t-shirts have been printed and sold, and the Threadless community now has more than 1 million members. Jake lives with his wife and two children in Boulder, Colorado.

From the Back Cover

The book also features contributions from:

• Scott Belsky, founder of the Behance Network and author of Making Ideas Happen
• Seth Godin, author of twelve international bestsellers, including Purple Cow
• Jeff Howe, contributing editor at Wired magazine and author of Crowdsourcing
• Karim R. Lakhani, assistant professor, Harvard Business School
• John Maeda, president of Rhode Island School of Design
• Blake Mycoskie, founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS Shoes
• Karen Wong, curator, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY

From the Inside Flap

Threadless is a global t-shirt phenomenon. It's also one of the internet's most creative and vibrant communities. Threadless users--and there are more than one million members--submit designs, talk in its forums, blog, upload videos, and check out the latest artist interviews on the threadless.com site.

It's a t-shirt store, but that isn't really the point. The important part is how the tees are chosen--by the Threadless community. You submit a design, have it critiqued and voted on by fellow Threadless members, and the t-shirts with the most support each week get printed. Simple, and awesomely successful.

The genius of the idea has won admirers among some of the world's foremost business and marketing gurus, and Inc. magazine called Threadless "the most innovative small company in America." But for cofounder Jake Nickell it's always been about "real community, friendships, and working on a fun, cool project together."

Threadless is celebration of that first mind-blowing decade, from an office in the corner of Jake's Chicago bedroom, to a warehouse so big they need go-karts to negotiate it (seriously). Along with Jake's own account of the Threadless story, profiles of the community's favorite designers, and contributions from influential admirers, including Seth Godin and John Maeda, this book brings together 300 amazing tee designs in a year- by-year showcase. Funny, clever, beautiful, totally insane--the best that the Threadless community has created and inspired since 2000.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810996103
• ISBN 13: 9780810996106
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224