In 2000, Jake Nickell started a thread on the forum website Dreamless, where artists could submit t-shirt designs to share with the rest of the thread. The best few designs were then chosen, and Jake printed them out and sold them. The artists who won received a few free shirts for their contribution. All of the money Jake made from shirt sales was put directly back into printing new shirts. His reason for this project was not making money, it was his passion for design and the art community. He did not even really think about it becoming a real business at first. After this first round, Jake built a website to sell the shirts on, and eventually moved everything to the site when he saw a possibility for a business. He called it Threadless, a spin-off of the name Dreamless. The basic structure was, and still is, that artists submit designs, and each week they are voted upon by the site users. Then the best are printed out and sold. Artists receive money and a Threadless gift card for winning.

Soon after, Jake dropped out of art school to focus on Threadless. During the first few years, Jake was constantly designing new websites and rolling them out to get feedback on them. They would sometimes totally change the Threadless website four times a year. Jake is an artist and a coder, so he had fun working on this, and still does to this day. In 2004, Threadless made $1.5 million in profit, and in 2006 they hit $6.5 million. Then in 2008, Inc. estimated $30 million in sales at a 30% profit ($9 million in profit), and also named Threadless as The Most Innovative Company in America and placed them on the front cover of their magazine.

Threadless utilizes two big tools with their business model – crowdsourcing and co-creation. This means that the customers create and promote the products being sold, which is part of the reason they are so successful. It gets artists involved in what they love to do. They also have a chance to make money from it, so they will go promote it to their friends, which keeps growing the business. Threadless was actually around before the term crowdsourcing came into being, but it was quickly connected with the company.

Threadless also does very well at connecting with their customers and artists. Employees sometimes text the artists, and constantly communicate with them and ask about their experience.

Threadless is truly an innovative company that has become very successful. What has made them successful is their (at the time) unique business model, and their passion, especially Jake’s passion, for the artist community.