Intro

To begin with and I wasn’t one so I’m making assumptions, the early Threadless community were probably hard-core t-shirt junkies, designers etc people most likely considered as early adopters by marketers. I’m not one of these but when I think of how many people just I’ve promoted Threadless to, its a large amount. Threadless attracts this kind of loyalty because it offers it back to its community - by finding ways to involve its users..

 

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Involvement & Mass Customisation

The Spreadshirt model on paper offers an even higher level of customisation (see the Mass Customisation literature for more on this) and I find the contrast between the two really fascinating (I’m trying to schedule an interview with Miles from Innertee whose model is a sort of hybrid between Threadless and Spreadshirt). I want to talk about the make your own model because I’m not really brought into yet and hopefully what they are proposing will overcome some of what I consider to be the problems teh Spreadshirt model which I’ve outlined below:

1. They are largely interchangable, when you’ve seen one you’ve probably seen them all with the exception of a few features. This again lowers that stickyness and loyalty I’ve been harping on about.

2. People like buying into a brand

Ant said it in our Split the Atom interview (link) and I think its a key point, our economy is built on the brands, repeated trade through companies that we build up trust and associate with. I like it when very occasionally someone in teh street says is that a Threadless T? It doesnt happen often and I wouldn’t wear them if it did but when it does its like meeting someone else with similar ideals or interests whose brought into the brand like I have. I dont see how Make Your Own sites offer that sort of experience or have that buy-in potential.
A key point here is that they dont have to, I’m just one type of consumers and its a huge marketplace. There will always be people who want to easily make a T-shirt for themselves or club etc. I just think that the really influential consumers, those early adopters and connectors (for Tipping Point fans) will be less attracted to this model of production. Selecting from pre-set design elements or uploading a jpg is not the printing your own tee. If anything it actually offers less customisation and involvement that the old days when we brought those kits and made embarassing Turtles or whatever the fad was at the time t-shirts on canon printers.

3. I consider a t-shirt to be a piece of art. I’m not an artist, some designers are incredibly talented and buy purchasing one of their tee’s I’m buying into that and rewarding them

4. Shared identity promotes community, if every experience is unique how do you have that shared base with which to form bonds with other people to create the sort of community that builds spin-off sites like
- http://www.threadies.org/
-http://www.lovesthreadless.com/

“Without exception, the innovating community members we surveyed do not innovate in isolation or secrecy; they receive important advice and assistance from other community members.” (Franke & Shah 2002:158)

Go and look at the Spreadshirt or Cafepress forums, you’ll see the majority of posts are by store owners not customers. Store
Owners are the only people who have that shared experience on Spreadshirt, they can share tips and advice on running and promoting a store.

A 2001 study found that 79% of Internet users identified at least one community with which they maintained regular online contact (Rainie & Packel, 2001 - well before Myspace!). I think that sites that aren’t trying to build this community or encourage interaction between customers aswell as between the store and customer are missing out.

I’d welcome your comments and I’ll definetely invite Miles from Innertee and anyone that wants to offer their input, feel free.

Sources

Franke, N. & Shah, S. (2002) “How communities support innovative activities: an exploration of assistance and sharing among end-users.” Research Policy 32; 157-178

Rainie, L., & Packel, D. (2001) “More online, doing more.” Pew Internet & American Life Project.