iThnk.com

Threadless & Co-creation

Threadless.com is an amazing example of what a Co-creative platform can achieve in business. They describe themselves as a community-based tee company with an ongoing, open call for design submissions.

How it works.

The diagram below really says it all. Designs can be submitted by anyone with a great idea for a Tee. These designs are then voted for by anyone on the site,  any design with enough favourable votes gets made. Designers whose Tee’s are made receive $2000 initially, and then $500 if the design sells out and is reprinted. The Threadless community is  incentivised  to promote Threadless. They receive $1.50 credit for sending in photos of themselves and their Tee’s. Link sharing is encouraged through the StreetTeam, where sales that come from linking to Threadless are rewarded with Threadless credit. Everyone is rewarded, everyone is happy, and Threadless sells loads of great Tee’s.

On top of this Threadless runs monthly “Besttee” competitions, design challenges, hosts community blogs and forums, posts interviews with designers and runs Tee-V – a Vlog about what’s going on at Threadless.

So What Are The Advantages?

• A loyal loving community that designs, critiques and perfects the product.
• Social Media and Community link sharing instead of advertising – amazing ROI.
• Brilliant inventory management – community forecasts demand before Tee’s are even made – no gambles.
• Low overheads -  no professional models, designers, photographers, trend scouts, or physical stores (although they’ve opened one now).
• Consistently trendy products – due to voting.
• Serving the long tail of demand.

If you want to remix your business to gain some of the Threadless benefits try…

• Requesting feedback
• Relinquishing control
• Re-investing in relationships
• Rewarding those who help
• Responding to what people want
• Re-examining your pricing strategy
• Revealing everything – transparency breeds trust
• Re-focusing on giving back – you live in a gift economy
• Realising that your customers have always owned your brand
• Remixing your service to provide a platform where consumers can help themselves and each other

Would love to hear about your experiences with Co-creation, Threadless or both.