Case study of innovation at Threadless. Combined with giveaways to the audience of popular Threadless designs throughout the presentation, and ended with an activity where everyone wrote down ways they could "be awesome" in their work.
2. Who is Jake Nickell?
2
25 year old zany punk brat
College dropout
Nouveau riche
3. “coolest dude on earth”
3
Google it.
Jake comes up 1st
…and second
…and third.
Why? What did he do?
4. Just ask Eric von Hippel, MIT
4
“…a perfect example of a
new way of thinking and
innovation.”
“Most product innovations
do not come from corporate
R & D labs, but from the
users themselves.”
6. A small first step,
a revolutionary idea.
6
Jake, 20 yrs old,
day job at CompUSA
Design was his hobby,
dreamless.org his community
Enters a shirt design contest,
and wins!
He wins no $, no shirt,
just satisfaction
An hour later, Threadless was born.
The Gaming Revolution
Sean Mort
7. The concept.
7
Designers submit their original work.
Designs are rated for 7 days by members.
Threadless prints the most popular designs.
Users buy the designs.
The winning designer gets some $.
U.S.S. Awesome - Joshua Kemble
9. By the Numbers
9
2002
10K members
$100K revenue
2006
700K members
$18MM revenue
2009
1 million members
$30MM revenue
1.5M Twitter followers
100K Facebook Fans
50 employeesThe Gaming Revolution
Sean Mort
I got $5 on it
Tim Shumate
10. Rock and Roll
10
Funkalicious
Christopher Golebiowski
No advertisements
No sales force
No design staff
No modeling agency or fashion
photographers.
30% profit margin
1000 new designs per week
42,000 citizen designers
Every product sells out. Never a flop.
13. Brick & Mortar
13
Only 20 Designs Sold
No shirt sells more than 2 weeks
2nd floor is exclusively art, not product
An event venue, community hangout
Art exhibits, Photoshop workshops
Physical manifestation of culture
Turned down Urban Outfitters & Target
14. Community Interaction
14
“Almost no one was simply consuming. They
were all (95%) participating.” – MIT study
370 Threadless Meetup groups worldwide
Street Team tools and perks system
Flip cameras to top designers
A blog for every member
Threadspotting – movies, tv, music videos, etc
Employees as models
“Awesome Time” for employees
U.S.S. Awesome - Joshua Kemble
Birds Of A Feather
Ross Zietz
15. Concepts at Work
15
Crowdsourcing
User-driven innovation
Rapid prototyping (i.e. Airbike)
e-Tribalized Marketing
The Customer as…
Designer
Quality Control
Tester
Recruiter
Sales force
Brand Ambassador
Marketing staff Childhood Garden
Rachel Caldwell
17. In the Founder’s Words
17
Why wouldn’t you want to make the products
that people want you to make?
Our skill is to never stop thinking like users
No marketing efforts have been as effective as a
really engaged community
We constantly ask,
“Wouldn’t it be awesome if ___________?”
U.S.S. Awesome - Joshua Kemble
Cookie Loves Milk
Jess Fink
A big deal. 30 years studying innovation. He had Jake come in and talk to executives from some of the biggest brands, across industries.
Interesting note – Jake turned down swanky dinner with titans of industry, to get to a threadless customer meetup.
Note – the development of the threadless website was an attempt to show they could build an ecommerce website, so they could get more web design work. They didn’t realize the power of their model.
The ‘fame, friends’ is as important, if not more so. It’s like an ‘American Idol’ for designers. Each year, the weekly winners compete for the best design of the year, and $20,000. The critique corner is for designers to get feedback and suggestions to improve their design before submitting to be voted on. Winning designers are also part of an exclusive alumni club.
Birds of a Feature design captures the essence of the designer community
The ‘fame, friends’ is as important, if not more so. It’s like an ‘American Idol’ for designers. Each year, the weekly winners compete for the best design of the year, and $20,000. The critique corner is for designers to get feedback and suggestions to improve their design before submitting to be voted on. Winning designers are also part of an exclusive alumni club.