Threadless Competition Process

Threadless was the first t-shirt company to successfully implement the crowd-sourcing competition model. Instead of hiring designers directly, they hold a contest where any designer can enter. These designs are then scored by the Threadless community (more crowd-sourcing). Designs that do well go to Threadless staff, where it is then chosen if the design will get printed or not. If the design does get printed, the designer gets a good hunk of cash and often times a bunch of cool prizes.

The user voting process at Threadless

Threadless essentially changed the t-shirt game with their innovative model. It made it possible for them to cull the best designs from a huge pool of various designers. It also makes for a unique batch of tees every Monday–while a certain “Threadless style” has developed, there is still a huge deal of variety between the many t-shirts they sell.