In case you've been living under a rock you probably know that the threadstaff unveiled a new program designed to help give the community a new lease on life called the threadless ambassadors, a position where outstanding members of the community will work with the staff to create super awesome projects.

In my previous blog I asked what the Ambassadors were actually doing. It was pointed out that the program was evolving and that in order for it to work we should tell the Ambassadors what we want.

So here are my ideas.

competitions

Bring back the threadlemanss

It was an awesome event because it encouraged people to be creative in other ways and the video was fun to watch (maybe this time you guys could live stream it).

holiday competitions

Some of the best things that have come out of the community have been holiday themed like the Halloween carving competition, or we could make threadless themed christmas tree decorations.

creativity for creativity

e.g drawing exercises, or photography comps that are just fun and there to get us inspired and try something new.

Community

Rewards

Dont get me wrong, the blogger of the year award was something that was needed, theres way more to threadless than just tee shirt designs but we only give that reward out once a year.

what if we could give out smaller prizes for outstanding members of the community on a more regular basis?

There are lots of people that do a great deal for the community, like Nestor who goes to the store every week to give us a sneak peak of the tee shirts, the blogger raiser crew who help raise thousands of dollars to get a few extra members of the community out to the meet up who cant afford it, or the awesome people that have been putting out design tutorials.

The prize doesnt have to be major, something like a gift certificate and maybe a medal (like the alumni one?) but I think its important to recognize those people who work hard to help the community.


Community gallery shows

There are a lot of talented people on the threadless blogs, artists, sculptures and photographers and threadless has its own gallery over in the threadless store, why not let the community submit work that could be put together into a gallery show?

It could happen fairly regularly and we could have themes.

And for us film makers we could submit short films and have a screening.

More staff involvement in projects such as the blogger raiser

My thoughts on this one are far less formed, its a bit random and more like a train of thought.

The blogger raiser team are amazing but it always seems like an uphill battle for them to get the funds they need to get people to the event.

First off I think the staff need to talk about it in the newsletter, on teevee and the staff blog, the more people that hear about it the more money they'll raise.

But the big thing is couldnt threadless donate like $500 or so to the cause? I know it sounds like a lot to ask but threadless has had competitions where the prize is a flight before could you guys do the same for the bloggeraiser? (people to have to write an application in order to win)


design/collaborations

holiday comps

Please can you tell us how far in advance a design needs to be submitted in order for it to get printed in time for a holiday, e.g Halloween, Christmas and so on, I know people have tried to do those designs before but have completely missed the deadline to be in with a realistic chance.

collabs

On a similar note I love the massive community collabs where each person submits a small design element that gets combined into a massive design, its the only reason I can legitimately claim I'm a printed designer.

I'd love to see more of these and I think holidays might be a good way to encourage them.


Funding/grant

I decided to give this its own category rather than putting it in website because its a fairly big idea

One of the things I'd really love to see is an artistic grant to help people with their creative projects that people could apply for, I'd also really love for the community to have some extra funds to do awesome things (I know vague).

Its too much to ask threadless to give out a large amount of their own money but I was wondering if an extra feature could be added to the shopping cart?

Basically what would happen when you got to the check out would be you'd be asked to add on an extra

10 cent
20 cent
50 cent
or a $1

to your purchase, that money would be collected together and be used in a way that the community deems suitable/given out as a grant.

Projects and ideas could be put up for voting and the winning ones get part of the funding.

Were only asking for small amounts of money from individual shoppers but it would mount up given the amount of people who buy from threadless regularly and it would be completely optional.


general/website


ambassador emails.

The ambassadors need individual email address'es, it makes more sense to get in touch with the appropriate ambassador rather than a general email address.

ambassador profiles

I realise this is still being worked out but it would be really helpful if we knew what exactly each ambassador had been recruited to do.

more integration between causes and the main site

Threadless causes is an amazing way that we can do what we do best (design) and help the world but its tucked away in a little corner, hidden underneath a series of boxes.

Take it out of hiding and have a button on up top like we used to do when the sites were split into type tees, twitter tee's and so on, right now you have to go search for it and its a pain.


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Phew, that blog ended up being way longer than I intended, so those are my ideas, feel free to tell me I'm wrong and go a head and submit your own but...