I’m really intrigued by the T-shirt voting craze. I only knew of two sites, Threadless and LaFraise, when I started shopping online for tees in 2005. There are now at least 8 sites out there, with newcomers perhaps inspired by LaFraise’s success as it tweaked and adapted an existing model to a different market.
Why did the LaFraise concept work? The buzz of a French startup and the interactive space certainly spurred a cult-like following for the site. But I think the chief catalyst at the outset was that LaFraise made French-themed tees, a by-product of having a French site. Considering that such products were few and far between at the time and that the French are proud of their language and culture, there was bound to be a huge market for this.
Now, the good folks at Spreadshirt, the new owner of Lafraise, have bigger ambitions. They’ve recently rolled out versions of the site in four other countries and maybe more are in the works. Can the company as well as other newcomers in the business mirror LaFraise’s achievement in France? Their success, in my opinion, will depend on the following three factors.
Enticing designers
There are two ways to get designers. You can either try to poach them from other sites or find graphic designers who’ve never used a T-shirt voting site. Artists would participate depending on the prize money offered, the probability that the artwork gets printed, and the prestige of being selected by a popular site.
Mobilising the electorate
This is the million dollar question - how do you get traffic and encourage people to vote? It’s pretty tough to find T-shirt addicts that are not constituents of Lafraise or Threadless and have the time to go at least each week to exercise their democratic right to get fine tees.
One option is to try to convert people who aren’t T-shirt addicts into one by offering prizes based on their level of participation, which most companies do. But the risk is that that’s all they’ll do. You need customers too. Nonetheless, I think there are opportunities albeit very small windows, as discussed below.
Differentiating the product
It’s interesting how Lafraise and Threadless each have their own particular style. Because that’s what the voters like, graphic designers will perpetuate this by adjusting their work to reflect the style that’s en vogue. One opportunity is to shoot for a different kind of look by finding the right artists to submit work.
Another possibility is to differentiate geographically by building a voting and design community from the grassroots level. But you have to pick the country carefully. For instance, I don’t think a Threadless type of community would work well in Japan because what’s usually cool in fashion over there are things that are not made in Japan. I just can’t see people voting and commenting on things they don’t understand.
One country I can see it work very well is Spain, where few people speak English (compared with say Germany) and many wear T-shirts (considering the warm weather they enjoy). Italy would be another possibility but most guys tend to wear collared shirts.
Anyway, I’m eager to see how things will unfold this year and see just how wrong I am.
T-shirt voting sites
A Better Tomorrow (Germany), www.a-better-tomorrow.com
Camiseteria (Brazil), www.camiseteria.com
LaFraise (France, Germany, UK, Norway, Finland), www.lafraise.com
Just 4 T (Belgium), www.just4t.com
Koalala (Belgium), www.koalala.net
Split The Atom (UK): www.splittheatom.com
Threadless (US): www.threadless.com
Teetonic (Scotland): www.teetonic.com
Source: research, HipHipUK.
Note: This post is back-dated (couldn’t get Internet access yesterday).
