[Jasonda]

Hi all,

I came across this interesting article about Threadless. Enjoy!

http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/cs/2006/06/pure_unadultera.html

 

[Solmu]

Thanks for the link. This bit is probably particularly of interest (nothing new, but it's good to get the same data confirmed in different sources):

When I talked to him this morning, Threadless Creative Director Jeffrey Kalmikoff told me the company is selling 60,000 T-Shirts a month, has a profit margin of 35 percent and is on track to gross $18 million in 2006.

I do think his thesis that Threadless could scale in either direction is completely false though. If they scaled down to doing 15 shirt print runs, their printer would change their pricing policies (i.e. it currently works because it's mutually beneficial and Threadless don't abuse that, if they started to it couldn't last forever), and if they scaled up (read: "sold out") they would lose a lot of their designers and community.

 

[Dave G]

Nice article, thanks!

 

[Solmu]

Hmmm... I just took another look at those numbers...

60,000 shirts per month = 720,000 a year
$18,000,000 per year / 720,000 shirts = $25 per shirt

Not all their shirts are Select tees, and the (more expensive) hoodies only got one run. It's possible the $18m is based on expected growth over the course of the year, or based on revenue from other streams, but it doesn't seem to quite add up.

$18,000,000 / $15 = 1,200,000 tees = (very) approximately 60% growth over the course of the year. Which I guess is perfectly reasonable since they expect 300% growth in 2006 over 2005. So I guess if it's a projection it does add up, which does make sense.

 

[m26gil]

I think Threadless it's one of the most succesfull idea ever.

To make money without even creating your own designs... boy, and what amount of money!

 

[monkeylantern]

Maybe the $18 million is Skinnycorp in total?

 

[Dave G]

It could be the total but don't they really only have threadless and then naked & angry?

 

[Xenyo]

Thanks for the link.


Most interesting.

 

[Solmu]

It could be the total but don't they really only have threadless and then naked & angry?

I thought maybe it was the Skinnycorp earnings, but they were talking about Threadless specifically and it does make sense as the projected earnings (I mean really why would you give out a yearly earnings that didn't take into account growth, I don't know why I thought it would be otherwise).

Skinnycorp is a lot more than Threadless and N&A. I doubt the other companies make much/any money (though I could be wrong), but who knows how much private design work they do (heaps, none, or anything in between). They said they stopped doing that kind of thing in general, but if they took on the occasional huge client...

From an external perspective (i.e. no inside scoop) is looks like Naked and Angry is a total failure. They admit themselves they haven't given the project much attention, and I think it shows. Threadless is the real cash cow; I think the rest are more vanity projects they can afford to take risks on, which may or may not pay off in the end.