Bare Naked Social Marketing

Ever since I attended the MIT Enterprise Forum (click for Vimeo) 2 weeks ago, I've been spending a lot of time on Threadless.

Those of you who are fans of funny t-shirts and indie-style fashions have probably encountered Threadless designs, even if you didn't know it. In Chicago especially and across the nation, Threadless tees are to Indie culture what the over-sized flannel was to Grunge in the 90's: the quintessential wardrobe item of creative, quirky, and culturally-literate youth.

But what you may not know is how much time, effort, and consideration goes into each design, not as much by the employees of Threadless as by the designers and customers (who are, in fact, largely one and the same).

The business model of Threadless is genius, plain and simple. Before a product is even manufactured, it is painstakingly selected via rigorous voting from a pool of registered users, the majority of whom fall into one of three categories:

1) Artist
2) Buyer
3) Fan

...and each of these people is utterly invested in the vetting process.

The artist votes in order to gain votes for himself. The more visible he is within the community, the more community support and credibility he'll receive in return.

The buyer votes in order to mold the site's offerings to his tastes; the more he votes, the better then chances he'll find a shirt that speaks his language.

The fan votes because the artist wants them to; these are family, friends, and other non-members of the community who join the community in order to support a particular artist.

Because of all of this invested, organic, self-motivated voting, by the time a design even hits the presses it has a following, and the artist has a following, and the shirt sells like hotcakes.

For anyone interested in promoting their business online, Threadless is a must-see. Don't just look at the site; sign up. Score some designs. Create a slogan. Participate in the blog forum. See what it's like to be part of a real online social community that's quite literally unlike any other. This is where every business should strive to go.



Tons of thanks to Flashpoint Academy for giving me the opportunity to attend.