I know threadless is huge and design by humans is gaining popularity too. Do you think the market can handle another design by competition site and be successful?
I know threadless is huge and design by humans is gaining popularity too. Do you think the market can handle another design by competition site and be successful?
There are several design competition sites besides threadless and designbyhumans. (Check out the sidebar links at the bottom lefthand side of tcritic.com and here)
There are also several thousand screen printers offline and online. Many of them successful in the same local area.
The key to entering most business markets is setting yourself apart from what's already out there and giving people a reason for using your service either "in addition to" what they already use or "instead of". You also have to have a strong marketing plan to get the word out there.
To answer your question: sure, it's possible. But it won't be easy.
I think Rodney is right about looking for what you can do in addition to what's already there. There's still lots of potential if you can find the right niche.
Thanks for the feedback. I want to pursue that route but am hesitant. Standing apart from the rest of the pack I guess will be the determining factor.
I write a blog about t-shirt competition sites, and while the market is fairly saturated the important thing to remember is that the number of artists who are interested in designing shirts is also growing. So there's definitely room for sites that target a different type of artist.
The major key seems to be, as you said, differentiating yourself from the rest of the pack. For some companies, this is location based (Teetonic has its base in Scottish customers, La Fraise has France, etc), for others it is style based (FrenchLoser is all art tees, A Better Tomorrow does streetwear, etc), some differentiate based on sales model (most sites have a catalog, Uneetee and Shirt.Woot sell one low-priced shirt a day). There are tons of variables, including a lot of combinations that no one has used yet (I'd be interested in seeing a site specialize in one-color designs, maybe with users voting on what color combination gets printed, it might also be interesting to see printed artists choosing designs instead of the community, or maybe a site that focuses on collaborative design between multiple artists on one shirt design, etc.)
Be aware that it can take time before a t-shirt contest site really takes off. Some sites, like Shirt.Woot, are able to enjoy near-instant sales because there is a pre-existing community of potential purchasers. But most sites build really slowly, because a major facet of competition sites is the site community. If you focus on community-building elements (ways for users to communicate and affect the shirts in some way or in some way profit from the growth of the community) you'll probably have the best luck.
In addition to Design By Humans, other recent launches of t-shirt competition sites include Shirt.Woot, GorillaTank and Keydon (which has since abandoned the contest format due to technical issues). If you are considering creating a contest site, definitely keep an eye on those. You can learn from their mistakes and successes.
It seems like start-up tshirt comps these days need to have quite a bit of capital. Threadless, design by humans, shirt.woot and others all have quite appealing prizes for the winning entries. So if you want to encourage artists to submit really cool designs to your site your going to have to compete with the other sites financially.
That also means you will need a slick site, good hosting, lots of product and heaps of promotion to ensure you get the sales to cover all the costs. sounds like hard (and expensive) work to me
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Do you think the market can handle another design by competition site and be successful?
In so much as any market can support a new business (all they have to do is defeat an old business), sure. But realistically? Not really.
T-shirt design competition sites are a total cliché, I groan every time I see a new one. Most of the time the designer will submit to Threadless anyway, so the other sites only end up with the design if Threadless rejects it. Go far enough down the rung and you're printing shirts that half a dozen sites have already rejected.
It's just like the slush pile of the publishing world.
I think mj00 has some very good advice on how a new site could differentiate itself and improve the model/justify its existence, but I still worry that the market will start to get as weary of the whole thing as I am (if indeed it hasn't already).
I suppose if I was to start a company in that vein myself, it would be from that direction: designers are happy to have another potential source of employment, but consumers don't need to waste time joining yet another fledgling community site. I'd focus on keeping the designers happy and building a design community (somewhat like Old Threadless) and trust in the product to bring in the consumers, rather than the stale ability to vote on which product gets produced.
There's still a lot of frustrated and unfulfilled designers out there, so maybe that can be tapped for success.
T-shirt design competition sites are a total cliché, I groan every time I see a new one. Most of the time the designer will submit to Threadless anyway, so the other sites only end up with the design if Threadless rejects it. Go far enough down the rung and you're printing shirts that half a dozen sites have already rejected.
While that can be true in some cases, I feel like there are some pretty easy ways to get around that problem. Since Threadless (and most of the other major players) mainly print punny cartoon shirts, you could go in a totally different direction stylistically. Alternately, you can alter the contest format: maybe artists apply to have their portfolios accessable on the site, and community members vote on which artist to choose for the next shirt (the theme of which could be decided by another vote, by the artist, or by the web site).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solmu
I think mj00 has some very good advice on how a new site could differentiate itself and improve the model/justify its existence, but I still worry that the market will start to get as weary of the whole thing as I am (if indeed it hasn't already).
I suppose if I was to start a company in that vein myself, it would be from that direction: designers are happy to have another potential source of employment, but consumers don't need to waste time joining yet another fledgling community site. I'd focus on keeping the designers happy and building a design community (somewhat like Old Threadless) and trust in the product to bring in the consumers, rather than the stale ability to vote on which product gets produced.
There's still a lot of frustrated and unfulfilled designers out there, so maybe that can be tapped for success.
Definitely right about targeting artists and designers- something to keep in mind is that at contest sites, a lot of the artists are also some of the biggest consumers of the shirts. If your site provides the artists with a unique and clear benefit in comparison with the rest of the industry, they'll flock there. When/if you really start to get serious about this project, think about directly contacting some of the artists that you'd ideally want involved with your project- they'll give you more feedback on what they're looking for in a new competition site.
I think that while the contest thing can be a little tedious for some more veteran internet users, it's still a growing market- recently a bunch of t-shirt printing sites have added contests (including Zazzle, Bountee, and ShirtCity). They work so well because they get customers to really invest in the brand (similar to how some car companies let customers remix their commercials online). The trend for the current youth market is almost constant self-expression (via myspace, facebook, youtube, etc) so I think to them having another community to communicate through is more of a plus (and maybe even an expectation) than it might be for older users.
So, to me, it's totally possible to have a successful competition site in the current climate. Attract artists, have a unique style or market position, and make users feel a level of personal involvement with the brand and you should be golden. Just make sure that you do a ton of market research (know your potential customers and your potential artists like the back of your hand) and be prepared for a slow build.
(Also, not all sites start out offering huge artist payouts- Shirt.Woot offered $200 per design (plus $2 per shirt sold after the first day) for the first few months, and that's well within reach for most companies.)
So I guess more than anything I just hate the fact that a lot of the sites that pop up don't particularly differentiate themselves from one another, rather than the format itself. Food for thought anyway.
Design competition sites 
