I think Alvaro sings songs and cooks steaks for everyone. Not sure what else.

Threadless steak night sounds amazing.

Outback Steak Haus.

I might pass on the steak but I'll stay along for the songs... campfire? :)

anyway, who are the ambassadors now? I saw Evan, but I didn't see any others yet

What exactly will these Ambassadors do?
Aled, Evan, Alvaro, and Ian will be working with the Threadless Community Team (aka Mimi, Rachel and Charlie) to bring you more Threadless awesomeness including sassy blog challenges, projects like helpful tutorials and coloring books, welcome kits for new members, and even hosting Threadless meetups!

So it sounds like they'll basically function as a mishmash of community event facilitators, friendly Threadtour guides, assistants, and thinktanks.

Amber, the Ambassadors are : Alvaro Alvarejo, Ian Leno, Frickin Evan, and Aled Fatheed.

Sam beat me to it.

I should probably have linked to it above but heres the blog post announcing them! whoop

Congratulations Aled Lewis aka fatheed, Evan Ferstenfeld aka FRICKINAWESOME, Alvaro Arteaga aka alvarejo, and Ian Leino aka Ian Leino!

Aled, Evan, Alvaro, and Ian will be working with the Threadless Community Team (aka Mimi, Rachel and Charlie) to bring you more Threadless awesomeness including sassy blog challenges, projects like helpful tutorials and coloring books, welcome kits for new members, and even hosting Threadless meetups!


Aleds already working on the threadless blog which is awesome, I'm just looking forward to seeing what everyone else is doing.

Also I realised that I shouldnt critise (although thats probably the wrong word, I'm curious) when I havent done anything all that big for the community in a good while "ask not what your community can do for you ask what you can do for your community.

I'm coming up with a few idea's now.

and chefs.

Yeah Olie and that sounds great, I was just hoping for specifics a sneak preview of the projects in development.

I assumed that TL is just getting bigger and needing more "staff". Have you ever heard Rachel say what she does in a day--holy crap, i'm surprised she has time to sleep. And who better to help than those dedicated members of the TL Community? I think it's great. :)

I figured it's mainly volunteering for the Threadless community?

oh yeah they're not paid positions right now as far as i know but i'm pretty sure TL will be taking good care of them :)

wtf is a threadless ambassador?

should I get some ferraro rocher in?

1. if they are doing this for free why doent threadless just hire someone properly and just do things through official means
2. If they are being paid then how do we know if we are really getting something worthwhile and perhaps we should of been allowed to choose who represents us rather than having people chosen for us
3. Does it even matter? I guess not but I do think there were certain few people who would be far stronger choices but they said they will be choosing some others so I guess that means wait and see.
4. A female ambassador is needed for reals

I can agree with 4. Was a bit bummed to see the list, even though they all make great ambassadors.

Gumbolimbo put yourself forward, would be an epic addition

I cant answer all those questions Randy and I'm kind of with you on the election front (though maybe it will happen later) so I'm going to skip to question 3.

A lot of people have been arguing that the community is dieing and whilst i think thats not right offline, maybe it has a ring of truth to it online. Threadless has been listening and their trying to do something about it, one of the solutions was to get the staff blogging which has helped, the problem is I'm not exactly sure how committed they are to it because its forced attentions are going to wane eventually.


I think the ambassador are another solution their trying out, the idea being their the voice of the community and with the staffs backing they do awesome projects that encourage people to try and get people to vote on their stuff and actually be a community.

We've lost a lot of what made us awesome and their just trying to do whatever they can think of to re kindle it, I'm just worried this position might become more symbolic than one that actually makes a difference.

Yeah, I agree, Esta - love the choices, but would have been cool to have a girl in the gang. And you would be a great addition!

It's not a paid position, that much I do know.

I also know that they are taking it seriously, Aled has been having weekly skype calls with Mimi and Joe, so I am sure you will see the product of their labour soon.

Thanks, but I don't think I'm much suited to being an ambassador, Randy.
I really hope valor&vellum gets added to the crew, if she wants to do it.

I wasnt even sure if the money thing was even an important thing to question really but anyhow, for example with aled my concern would be what has he done recently that really screamed community (london meet?) but obviously if hes gonna make some magic now hes in this position is doesnt even matter, I feel too out of the loop to really question this properly anyhow

I have to admit I havent been all that sure about some of the choices made this year for several things, as much as I like Evan what exactly did he do to get blogger of the year?

What about Nestor/soloyo? He goes to the store every week without fail and takes photos of all the tee's released in the store then idenifies them and posts them for the blogger community to have a sneak peak at, he's done this for almost two years running.

What would you like to see the ambassadors doing? I guess it's easy to say 'you are in the role, now do something' but it's a new thing and it's up to the community how this works.

I would think that each of them will end up doing very different things, so for Aled, a big part of it is helping with the tumblr and twitter stuff and promoting artists' work through these channels, whether it's their threadless stuff, or outside work.

And in case it isn't clear, this is just my understanding of it, I'm not speaking for Aled, so don't take anything I say as gospel.

I think Evan was a good choice, I always see his name pop up in submission comments, with considered opinions on the design, not just a 'cool', which must take a lot of time. He also seems to have done a lot in the slogan part of the community and works with a lot of artists on collaborations.

I am sure if you asked everyone here, you'd get a hundred different answers as to who should have won that, but I can't criticise their choice.

shall I order this platter of ferraro rocher or not?

Abbie, thats a fair point (though I would point out that I haven't really commented on Aled because his projects already taken immediate effect).

I guess the biggest problem with the community right now is were too contest focused, in that everyones totally obbessed with getting their designs printed which means talking about how to improve designs and begging for votes.

I'd love to see a return to the older days where we did creativity for creativities sake because I feel all sorts of projects just evolve out of it.

I liked it when everyone designed sandwich cars, or when label held a photography contest for the sake of holding a photography contest, I'd just like to see more stuff that are less focused on winning the competition.

Yes please. And if you could put a bowtie on before serving them, that would be great.

omg ferrero rocher YES

I get where you're coming from - I'm only commmenting on Aled because he's the only one that I live with.

Dan, go for it.

Abbie, maybe thats my fault for not being all that involved with that side of things, i just didnt see what he was doing.

Haha - Dan, you're the third Brit to mention Ferrero Rocher. There will be some at the next reception/meet-up.

surprisingly effective marketing from a dubbed euro-commercial

so just writing what you think on every design =blogger of the year, im sorry but a lot of his art based comments come off as ill informed or redundant

^If you would like other people added to the crew, mail Threadless and suggest these people to them.

you said you didnt wanna do it!

I'm not saying I agree with all his comments, I'm saying he takes the time to offer his thoughts, in a positive way, which not many people do.

As I said, if you asked everyone here, you'd get a lot of responses, but

Awesome! whens the next meet up?

Oops, I deleted half the last sentence. Stupid fat fingers.

I was trying to say, that's not what this blog is about.

Yeah I kind of derailed my own blog, I just want to talk about what the amassodors are doing and maybe make suggestions of what they could do to help the community.

And by the way guys no matter whats said in this blog, credit to you because your actually taking the time and effort to try and make a difference with what kind of seems like little reward.

Ferrero Rocher are one of the worlds few perfect foods and an instant improvement for any situation.

As its been suggested earlier, the Ambassador program is a new thing and will be shaped by what the community needs. Details are still being worked out, but I do know that each of us will be focusing on a different area to help build up the fun, community aspect of Threadless.

One of the areas that I'll be helping out with is facilitating competitions like the ones that stubby43 mentioned above, so if you have suggestions, feel free to contact me anytime.

randyotter for ambassador.

He's one of the few people that speak their mind about everything.
Whether other like it or not, he tells it like it is and doesnt sugar coat what he has to say.

I'd make the worse ambassador ever

You'd make the second worst ambassador ever.

lets have a worst ambassador contest

Ian do you guys have a threadless email address we can contact you with, right now the only way to get in touch with you guys seems to be through the community email which is just a general one.

Maybe having individual email address's will help, if your the guy that helps run community contests it makes more sense to speak to you directly than say Aled who helps promote subs.

I appreciate that not everyone is going to like all of the appointments - and that some people will really dislike them. I guess Threadless want to eventually have a broad mix of people representing them from all over the world and not everyone is going to be everyone's best buddy.

As mentioned -there are other people who would make strong candidates and it's clear that there will be further additions down the line.

As for myself - I accept that I haven't done as much as others in terms of online community organising recently - but I don't think that this role simply needs people who are community organisers. Other than the fact that I am immediately helping out with the Tumblr - I see it much more as a collaborative role where Threadless can bounce ideas for community-centred initiatives off us and bring better cohesion to the forums. I know the Threadless staff reasonably well (I'm in the office right now!) and I think it's fair to say that broadly speaking, we have shared sensibilities. I've never been afraid to offer constructive criticism when I felt that something could be improved or made fairer and I've always done it in the interests of the artists and wider community.

I would also strongly defend the selection of the the other 3 candidates. Not only are they stand-up blokes but between them they know this community inside-out and I know that they (and I) will work hard towards making this place even more awesomerer.

Furthermore - it's only been a few days since the announcement. Something Ambassadorial might even happen today. WHO KNOWS??!

stubby43 on May 09 '11 at 8:47am

Maybe having individual email address's will help.

iknowrite? We should each have skinny emails. :D

where's all the black lesbian ambassadors? it's a disgrace