Crowdsourcing To A Tee
I have always been fond of a good t-shirt with a clever/humourous tag or design. I often find myself looking for my favourite tee at music festivals and outdoor gatherings, even distilling it further in my mind to giving top honours in both male and female categories. And for those who've followed my blog, you will know I enjoy the concept of crowdsourcing.
I stumbled upon this WSJ article on Threadless, a Chicago-based t-shirt business that solicits designs from the best and largest design team anyone can have: the online community. The two teenage start-ups, Jake and Jacob, ask for submissions, have people vote for them online and then print only the most popular designs. Nothing like accessing the distributed knowledge on the Web, from design to focus groups.
From an initial investment of $500, they now have a business with an annual revenue of $15M. Nice work.
The question is whether crowdsourcing is a collaborative endeavour or simply a way to find people with great skills for a great price.
Threadless receives about 150 design submissions a day. Each one remains posted on the site for a week and those winning the most votes from more than a half-million registered users are chosen. Winning designers get $1,500 in cash and $500 worth of merchandise. Threadless has received 150,000 submissions to date, with only 1 percent of those chosen for production. Even famous designers who have entered the contest have failed to win.
I like their t-shirtin' style.
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