Friday, December 8th, 2006
""jake, why do you not open a Threadless store directly in Europe ?"
oh we will"

Jakes website

chicago buisness article on the store

Threadless.com to open store in Lakeview
(Crain’s) — Threadless.com, the Internet-based T-shirt retailer, is about to materialize into a Lakeview store.

Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart, co-owners of skinnyCorp LLC, the Chicago-based parent of Threadless.com, have signed a lease at 3011 N. Broadway Ave. and plan to open sometime in spring.

“Our goal is to do something different than a retail store,” Mr. DeHart said. “It’s going to be more like a showcase or a gallery.”

He hesitated to reveal specifics except that the store will not sell all the T-shirts available on Threadless.com.

The Lakeview store was made possible by a recent capital infusion into skinnyCorp from New York-based Insight Venture Partners; that financial injection could lead to more retail outlets in the future, Mr. DeHart said.

“It’s always possible, but we don’t have any plans right now,” he said.

Since its 2000 launch, Threadless.com has thrived in cyberspace. It racked up $6.2 million in sales in 2005, and its 2006 sales will be about 2½ times that.

Threadless.com operates off a business model that delights the MBA community in its simplicity and the Web community in its participatory nature. Each T-shirt design submission is voted on by the site’s registered users and the most popular four to six in each weekly contest get printed on 1,500 shirts that sell online for $15 a pop. Winners walk away with $1,500 in cash, $500 in Threadless.com merchandise and bragging rights for a quasi-underground creation that typically sells out.

Threadless.com fans, posting comments on various blogs, have mixed feelings about a retail store. They fear that a physical storefront will dilute the concept of Threadless.com. One poster was already lamenting having seen Threadless.com shirts on several classmates.

Mr. DeHart said the store will stay true to Threadless.com’s roots.

“We’re not opening a retail store to make millions, but to showcase Threadless.com,” he said. “It’s more of just showing people what Threadless.com is about.”