Walk into SkinnyCorp’s Irving Park headquarters, and you may feel like blowing off the rest of your day. The 25,000-square-foot warehouse looks more like a recreation center than an office, complete with ping-pong tables, arcade games and a set of recliners arranged around a big-screen TV in video-gaming configuration.
This is the chill home of Threadless, SkinnyCorp’s Web-based retailer lauded by media and industry watchers for its T-shirt designs and innovative business model.
The clothing site allows anyone to submit shirt designs that site members then vote on. Each week, Threadless prints a limited quantity of reasonably priced T-shirts (typically between $15 and $17, depending on the design and material), which showcase six to 10 of the highest-rated designs.
Now the executives at Threadless are hoping to transfer their online success into their first retail store, planned to open at 3011 N. Broadway by late spring.
Groups of customers already wander in and out of Threadless’ warehouse at 4043 N. Ravenswood Ave. There, they test out the orange beanbags and order shirts on Threadless’ free-access computers; they can then pick up the shirts immediately at the warehouse. The orders placed there, along with those online, total about 80,000 every month, estimates Jeffrey Kalmikoff, the company’s chief creative officer.
On the other side of the room, Threadless employees also are logged in, keeping an eye on the BlogForum and fan sites. Like its laid-back office, Threadless’ Web site, threadless.com, feels less like a retail space than a virtual living room, with the company’s execs regularly chatting up site users to stay on top of what people want from them.
Fans like Chris Cardinal, a 21-year-old Web designer, keep coming back because “they don’t have the evil corporation thing,” Cardinal says.
“They created a very strong community forum,” says Cardinal, who started the fan site, lovesthreadless.com. “We have a bunch of twentysomethings who really want to chat and a lot of artists who want to exchange ideas. I do feel like it’s a little club.”
The relatively rare shirts and many opportunities for user participation have resulted in a close-knit online family.
The executives at Threadless–President Jake Nickell, Vice President Jacob DeHart and Kalmikoff–make themselves readily available on AOL Instant Messenger and MySpace. They aren’t above hanging out with fans in person either; Threadless frequently holds user events and contests to fly out site members for a visit to its headquarters.
“It’s leveraging your customers to pick products for you,” says Sucharita Mulpuru, a senior analyst at Forrester Research in New York. “It’s something I think more companies will probably start doing the future.”
Since Threadless’ debut in 2000, small online companies have taken the interactive model and made it their own. Spraygraphic (spraygraphic.com), a 2-year-old T-shirt shop based out of Tempe, Ariz., also encourages graphic design submissions and user participation in its selection process on its Web site.
“We’re not trying to be another Threadless,” says co-owner Matt Krise. “What we’re trying to do is get people to think about the art and to make people think about the messages behind the art.”
Because Threadless depends so much on community discussion instead of conventional advertising to generate interest in its label, Cardinal worries their increased brand recognition through a retail store will break down the sense of intimacy fostered on its Web site.
“One of the draws is its uniqueness,” he says. “I have a terrible chance of ever running into anyone else with the same print on his T-shirt.”
Kalmikoff insists the plan is to keep Threadless’ down-home feel in the company’s retail space and to make the store a community gathering place rather than an outlet for in-your-face retail sales.
“[Shirts] will be the only thing that will make it a retail store,” Kalmikoff says.
The company also plans to use the space to offer workshops, art showings and discussions with popular shirt designers.
Though Threadless is still in the early stages of construction, he says the company’s plan for future stores isn’t to force a “Threadless model” into every neighborhood.
“The aim isn’t to be in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Every store will take into consideration the vibe of the city it’s in,” Kalmikoff says.
“We’re opening a Chicago store first because we’re here, and we want everyone to have time to hang out there,” he says.
MORE THAN TEES
SkinnyCorp’s online endeavors include more than just T-shirts. Check out its bartending site, extratasty.com, to exchange drinkmaking tips with other users, or yayhooray.com to discuss just about anything.
Other plans in the works include Naked & Angry, an upscale clothing and lifestyle line designed by popular Threadless artists, and iparklikeanidiot.com, where you’ll soon be able to buy bumper stickers to vent your auto frustration in four languages.
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vfine@tribune.com
