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

by Jake Nickell

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art Design, Design, Art, Pop Culture

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

This book is on the inspiring success story of Threadless, told chronologically through its founders and the designers who submitted T-shirt art on the site.

It's really interesting to read about the stuff that happens behind the scenes, the highs and lows of starting a company, the reaction of the community, and basically just building something big from small through trial and error. You also get to see how T-shirt printing from Threadless has evolved over the years with new technology in printing. If you're interested in entrepreneurial stories, this book is for you.

On Threadless, the community votes on the T-shirt designs they like. In this book, the selection features not just the highly rated ones, but also the badly rates ones as well, some of which are included because they are highly controversial.

Most of the designs are pretty cool, and you get to see a wide spectrum of work and quality. Through the ratings, you can see that the highly rated ones have great concept and makes use of the T-shirt medium really well. I saw one titled Three Keyboard Cat Moon created as a spoof to the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt on Amazon. Some inclusion left me scratching my head though.

The story of Threadless is inspiring. Highly recommended for designers and the entrepreneurial types.

[Deirdre · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a Studio Art Teacher, this books proves as an excellent resource for students doing design assignments. The value of the book comes with the stories which accompany the inspiration for these creative designs.

[Zach Olsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool art, would have liked more details on how the company was made.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounded up.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long been a fan of Threadless (A t-shirt design/sales company)... but I did not realize they had been around quite long enough to have a 'decade of threadless' book out already! I was really surprised and pleased to see this sitting on a bookshelf at the local Library, and checked it out to read.

One of the best parts about this book, is that it doesn't just tell the story of how 'Threadless' got started, or of it's creators and artists... it doesn't just show the designs as they have changed over the years... it tells all of that and FAR more- it gives you a picture of not just what, but most importantly of all, WHO the people are, from fans to artists to owners, of the Threadless company.

This book took me almost a WEEK to read because it was so facinating- profiles of artists and thier commentaries on the shirts shown on some pages are just facinating and often amusing. It affirms what we all knew inside: if art comes FROM you, people will like it. Once they like something, they will happily pay for it, to further the one peice, and to gaurentee more keep coming.

Threadless is a company that is both phenomenon and had a heart. As I type this, I have on one of thier best-evar shirts (in my opinion)- it was sold to raise money for Haiti after the big disaster there, and in graphics, reads in creole, "men anpil chay pa lou" which is a local idiom meaning, "many hands make the load lighter"... truly it is so both there and at Threadless, where they do such amazing work out of pure creativity and heart. Awesome read, the best 'company bio' I have ever read, and a fantastic book about Art in general! Bravo!

[Amy Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book kept catching my eye on the library shelf each time I walked by. I finally had to check it out, and I'm glad I did! It has broad appeal, and it's made up of several different parts: pictures of tees and blurbs about their creators, creator features/interviews, articles from professionals--from CEOs, authors, innovators, reporters, artists, and more. All these parts are split up and divided and then woven back together with the story of Threadless, as told by its cofounder, Jake Nickell. I like that it's chronological so you can see the evolution of the company and its designs.
It's part business and part graphic design, and lots of fun!

[James Targett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. Not sure it told me anything I didn't already know, but it did have me regularly going online to look at what Threadless are up to know. As well as tempting me to spend my cash on T-shirts, it also has me wanting to learn how to draw, get to know Photoshop better, and learn how to use Illustrator. So in that sense, it is inspiring.

[Mingli Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Came across this book while browsing at the library, never knew the story behind threadless though I have bought some t shirts from them. Easy reading to understand how the company started and grew to its state today and resonates once again with the fact that the Internet has revolutionised the business models of companies.

[Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant book. You’ll love it if you’ve had any sort of interaction with the Threadless community, but also if you like t-shirts. It features the backstory of the creation of the company, along with plenty of beautiful color shots of the artwork, and even comments from the artists themselves!

[Marco Mérida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro que nos explica los orígenes de la compañía y como sin querer esta se hizo de un excepcional modelo de negocios, una lectura entretenida y muy recomendada aparte de poder ver diseños geniales, podemos aprender mucho de como puede que se manejen los negocios en el futuro.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

No details about the running of the business or the technology behind it. The author seems to think of this as the boring stuff, and focuses instead on the designs and the activities of the online community.

In retrospect this obvious from the title.

[Jason Bagley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Design orientated book with tons of pics and short stories about the history of Threadless. Great book to browse through.

[César · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring.