The Threadless Story: How an Internet T-Shirt Company Went XXL

Threadless began as a side project for design student Jake Nickell, a tiny online T-shirt design popularity contest. Ten years later, the site has transformed into the Internet hub for DIY clothing design, with 1.2 million participants and millions more customers, all bound by a common thread: the idea that t-shirts should be art.

The formula has remained roughly the same: artists put their T-shirt designs up to a vote of thousands, and if one is popular enough to get printed, the winning designer gets a cash reward, cred, and coverage on chests around the world.

In this mini doc, Threadless founder Jake Nickell, designer Brent Schoepf, and fans of the community talk about how Threadless went global, what makes the community work, and how kids on computers are the future of entrepreneurial design.