I have finally managed to start unboxing all our collected shipping container cruft that recently arrived from England and this book from Threadless was right at the top.
If you don’t know Threadless then you should have a browse around their site. It is a real treat just to explore, even if you do not buy anything. It is a buffet of smart, inspired and cool “crowdsourced” t-shirt designs.
But I didn’t get a T-Shirt in the post (hey Threadless, what’s up with that? heh) but a … book.
A book about t-shirts? Yes and no.
Here is the Amazon description:
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 300 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.
So it is more of a coffee table book that would be of interest to anyone fascinated by design and also a great insight into a very modern startup and their place in the current world of online business. I like just looking through the dozens of fantastic t-shirt designs, along with the notes, photographs and narrative.
Who is this book for? I would suggest it would make a great gift for an entrepreneur with a short attention span or the design lover in your life 🙂
Check it out at Amazon: Threadless: Ten Years of T-shirts from the World’s Most Inspiring Online Design Community (not an affiliate link by the way). ISBN: 0810996103
I have just one question. Can a 10 year old company still be called a startup?