Online t-shirt retailer Threadless has become a ginormous success since Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart founded the enterprise with just US$1,000 in 2000. Today, the business – which manufactures and ships its t-shirts, hoodies and other products to a voracious audience around the world – claims more than two million artists have submit their designs to the site.
Fairfax Media interviewed head of marketing Todd Lido to find out how you go from start-up to behemoth and still maintain the integrity of the brand. Lido will be visiting Australia in March for the Ecommerce Conference & Expo Melbourne.
Threadless has a massive cult following, how were you able to achieve this?
Through the amazing products we sell, designed by real artists. There are thousands of designs submitted to Threadless every day and great stories happening in the community all the time. So we’re able to present really entertaining and engaging social content.
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If you start out with a small but passionate community it will snowball. If the enthusiasm is there for what the community is all about, they will build relationships, share their experiences and that community will grow every day. So I’m grateful to the people who have been participating in Threadless for years and helped build that momentum. Having an open forum is really important to the community and the business
What are the three most innovative marketing initiatives you have undertaken?
Getting involved on new social platforms as early as possible has been really important.
We got in really early with Twitter and Instagram and have really great communities on both platforms, with more than 2.2 million Twitter followers and 213,000 followers on Instagram.
Towards the end of 2013 we launched a following and notifications feature on Threadless that really connects the commerce and community sides of the experience. You can follow any other user and receive notifications about their activity. So if you have a shirt you love, you can be notified when that artist submits a new design or is printed again.
I don’t know how innovative this was, but it sure was fun. We did a short film, a zombie invasion of the Threadless warehouse in conjunction with an October sale. We went way over the top. We had two professional makeup artists, spent about five hours on makeup and filmed until 2.00am two nights in a row. We put so much detail into it and we weren’t thinking, “Gee if we spend an extra half hour getting the makeup right, we’ll sell so many more t-shirts.” We just wanted to do something really entertaining that was a reflection of who we are and put our hearts into it. In this video I’m the zombie in the blue tuxedo jacket and ruffled shirt.
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Image: threadless.com
