This week, GTS sat down with the Threadless Marketing Maverick - Cam. We talked about Threadless' plan to dominate the world, family art shows and where to get the best pizza in Chicago.

GTS: Welcome to Gettin' The Skinny everyone. Today's guest is Cam. What's happening, Cam?

Cam: Just the usual... scheming up crazy awesomeness

GTS: From what I understand, you're a recent addition to Threadless employee roster. Correct?

Cam: Yes sir. This is week four.

GTS: And what do you do at Threadless?

Cam: I'm heading up marketing. My mission: make sure everyone who loves design and wears clothes knows about Threadless. Especially the wears clothes part. Aim high, I say.

GTS: That seems like a monster task! How do you plan on getting the good word out to the world?

Cam: Remember the shampoo ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgDxWNV4wWY. All we need to do is add wheat germ and honey to our ink options and we'll be set.

But seriously, the Threadless community has done an incredible job of building awareness of Threadless. Our goal is to empower the community with anything and everything they need to help us get the word out there.

Cam: We're spending a lot of time thinking about how to use the new capabilities of social networks and lifestreaming and sharing sites to make it easy to promote designs, show off your favorites, etc. Power to the people!

GTS: Right on! Where were you/what were you doing before you started at Threadless?

Cam: I've been doing online marketing and web production since the mid 90s. I spent 5 years at Performics, a search marketing agency (where Curlee and Charles Stephens used to work too). The last couple years there were spent helping big online advertisers figure out the social marketing angle.

GTS: How delicate is the balance of advertising through social media?

Cam: It's a really tricky issue for a lot of brands. They want to get people talking but at the same time they are terrified of what the hoi polloi will say. It's ironic that they feel that way because when you think about it, a "brand" is really the experience that people have of a product, what they say about that experience to others and how they share it with others.

Cam: If they are putting out good products, they should be creating good experiences, which build a strong brand.

Cam: Threadless is an amazing marketing story because the brand has been built by fostering a genuine community that designs amazing products. So, I guess you could say, we don't have to be afraid of what you'll say about us!

GTS: Very true. A lot of companies are crowdsourcing, but Threadless does it the best - hands down. Can you drop some hints as to any upcoming Threadless awesomeness?

Cam: Man I would love to tell our community about one or two of the things that are in the works AS WE SPEAK but...I want my career here to last longer than four weeks!

GTS: Haha! Fair enough. What keeps you moving and grooving outside of work?

Cam: The family, number one. My kids amaze me daily (and have been rocking threadless kids for years). My wife Heather inspires me continually with her art. Art, design, music are a big part of it all for me. We do a big annual art party where we turn our whole house into a gallery for the weekend and bring in our favorite Chicago artists.

GTS: That art party looks like tons of fun and your wife's mosaic work is stunning. Whether at home/work, what practices do you engage in to stay creative?

Cam: Thanks! Glad you like it. We're thinking of launching a new line of tshirts printed with glass shards. Think it would sell ;-)

Cam: Great question! I really just try to stay alert to new ideas and opportunities. My wife and I have this mission of always trying to surf the border between chaos and order. Kids are great chaos generators. Add a couple of them to the mix that's about all you'll need!

GTS: Cam - I asked some of my fellow Threadless bloggers to submit some questions for you. Ready for the masses?

Cam: Bring it.

GTS: TheInfamousBaka asked: If you could paint all over any animal to use as a marketing piece, what animal would you choose?

Cam: Wow! Could I time travel back and paint a threadless logo on the cadbury gorilla? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo
Cadbury's Gorilla Advert Aug 31st 2007

GTS: Phiffer asked: What is the best restaurant in Chicago?

Cam: Best recent experience: Avec. Best pizza on the north shore: Union Pizzeria in Evanston. Best organic options and breakfast tastiness and (best mosaics in the restrooms: more spousal promotion ;-)): Uncommon Ground on Devon.

GTS: nathanwpyle at gmail.com asked: Will we ever see a Threadless ad on TV?

Cam: whoa! i like the big thinking. maybe we should do a sham-wow / snuggie spoof ad for tees and run it late night? or sponsor a NASCAR driver... that would totally be us ;-) But seriously, if we ever had the opportunity, it could be really cool to feature community designers with 30 second stories of the design. Would that be cool?

GTS: That would be awesome. I do like the parody idea though. Maybe a combination of the two...fun and campy. Fatheed and Flying Mouse could be swimming in a large pool of money together.

Cam: LOL!

GTS: Alright Cam, it's time to play Pick One™. Are you familiar with this segment?

Cam: Indeed.

GTS: #1 My Two Dads: Heathcliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show) or Dan Connor (Roseanne)?

Cam: Dan Conner because the Big Lebowski is my favorite movie and Goodman is the man.

GTS: #2 Beat The Heat: Lemonade or Iced Tea?

Cam: Iced Tea, canadian style (sweetened)

GTS: #3 Ballin' Football or Basketball?

Cam: Football, canadian style, 110 yds, wide field, everyone in motion, long endzones and nice plump pigskin. (notice a theme emerging here?)
GTS: #4 Modern Masters: Warhol or Rockwell?

Cam: Warhol.

GTS: #5 Sweet Tooth: Brownies or Cookies?

Cam: Brownies.

GTS: #6 Super Powers: Telepathy or Teletransportation?

Cam: Telepathy because it would be really handy to understand what I'm thinking, let alone other people.

GTS: #7 World Wonders: Stonehenge or the Great Wall of China?

Cam: The Great Wall seems like the opposite of my "surfing border of chaos" philosophy, so I'd go with Stonehenge.

GTS: #8 Canadian Comedians: John Candy or Dan Aykroyd?

Cam: John Candy, the Canadian John Goodman?! He did his best work on SCTV if you ask me.

GTS: The Great Outdoors, Candy and Aykroyd together, is simply classic movie magic.

Cam: you got that right, eh.

GTS: #9 Coffee Requirements: Light and sweet or black?

Cam: light and sweet and iced now that it's nice out

GTS: #10 Fashion Faux Paux : Tucking in your t-shirt or wearing a tee with visible, revealing holes?

Cam: tucked in is the worst. my 8 year old daughter is in a tucking-in phase and i'm desperately trying to coach her through it before she's permanently scarred!

GTS: Yikes! Good luck with that, Cam. Alas, this installment of Gettin' The Skinny is about to tuck itself in. Just two more things...first, which Threadless staffer should I interview next?

Cam: CHARLES STEPHENS because we used to work together and because I can hear him typing from all the way over here. Ask him lots of music questions because he has no strong opinions about music whatsoever :-)
GTS: Charles it is! And lastly, please share any parting words of wisdom with the folks at home.

Cam: Can I leave a parting question for the community instead? It would be awesome to get your ideas about what we could/should do 1) to create new Threadless fans and/or 2) HELP create more Threadless fans. Leave comments here or email us at marketing at skinnycorp. You guys have helped us get here... how do we reach the rest of the people who wear clothes?!