Ever found yourself at a party thinking “Wow, there’s way too much Threadless in here?”
If you’re unfamiliar with Threadless, you’ve doubtlessly stuck to clothing purchases along the lines of a heshen sack in recent times. Threadless is an online clothing store which Twitter periodically vomits itself into euphoria over, usually whenever they hold some dinky sale that saves you a scraping of dollars from the regular pricing.
It’s a clever business idea: convince illustrators to provide your inventory for minimal cost, and get hipsters to vote on which slogan shirts amuse them the most, then get everyone to shit themselves and spam their mates on Twitter whenever the prices drop 5%.
But it’s admittedly cheap, and it’s an easy way to obtain interesting looking t-shirt designs. The problem is that everyone under 30 with an operating credit card seems to use the bloody site, so it’s pretty damn common to walk down the trendier areas of town and spot fifteen people wearing the same Threadless t-shirt as you.
I’ve been as guilty as most of my friends when it comes to excitedly getting caught up in the ridiculous flailing that Threadless’ $9 shirt sales seem to sweep everyone up in. There’s a price to be paid, though – you’re essentially guaranteed to run into some douchebag at a party wearing the same t-shirt as you, and it’ll be the kind of hipster that’s really into La Roux and smoking clove cigarettes while they ride around on their fixed gear bike. That’s a recipe for a self-hatred spiral in anyone’s books.
Y’know, I was going to start listing some similar, less frequented online clothing stores to Threadless here. But fuck it! Go check some local independent clothing stores for some cool t-shirts. There’s way more alternative t-shirt printers around locally than you may figure, just take the time to get out and have a look around on your next pay day.
So let’s all kick the habit together. While you’re all rifling around at your local markets for interesting designs, I’ll be quietly stockpiling Fido Dido t-shirts from eBay in the hope he becomes fashionable again.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Problem with your “local independent clothing stores” is a snazzy t-shirt there might run you anywhere from 50 to a hundred and fifty bucks.
A $10 shirt sale seems pretty damn appealing in comparison.
Good point Lauren, and it gives young designers a chance to get their wwork recognised.
P.S. Hessian is spelt like this
This is why I exclusively buy all my t-shirts from http://shirt.woot.com/ Sure, it can be a bit hit and miss with the weekly derbies, but because they only sell the top 20 popular shirts I often get awesome ones that only run for a week and can never be bought again.
Although, I do have 3 Threadless shirts now thanks to some friends who gave me a voucher for my birthday. I tried to pick more obscure ones so it wasn’t so much like “online Jay Jays” walking around town.
I just looked down at the Threadless shirt I’m wearing and felt shame.
Thank you. :(
http://www.teefury.com – One shirt, 24 hours only
Aside from that Ive got 2 threadless shirts. You know what though, I like the design. So screw you :P
I don’t have a threadless shirt.
Does this mean I’m broken?
I went through a big thing with them a few years ago. I feel similarly to you now, but with the cheap factor and quality of their shirts, I am not surprised that they’re everywhere. Actually, they are the only brand that got me to wear tshirts in the first place haha. I think the time has come, though.. you can no longer make a fashion statement with them.