It's not as kooky and crazy as I first thought it would be. I guess it's still early in the Labs line. You have to built the foundation before building the house, to use house-builder-person terms.

I think I have 2 Labs shirts.

The choices seem kind of baffling at times. Some of these 6 tshirts right now look as if they could easily fit into Threadless's regular catalogue.

Aren't these just the ones that have made it past the 2 week thing and got a full print. In which case they kinda look like prints which get printed regularly.

Yeah it's disappointing because they've mostly been pretty standard "joke" tees that Threadless would print anyway and would be popular anyway and that's not really how they sold it to us. Stuff like the 2% milk one might benefit from being a Labs because they can print it quickly so it stays current.

agree with everyone else

print more artsy stuff that doesnt make sense threadless 8)

No, not at all what I was expecting from the blurb. I seem to remember reading something about 'experimental' tees.

Mind you they printed Time Crime recently and put it on on the main pages, which was pretty daring I guess.

All of the really 'crazy' ones they've chosen don't last past the initial week-2 weeks they're printed.

I got a few that were a bit risky (on their part) (yours included, James). Some of them had a high quality, some did not. I was happy with mine, yours, and coyote alert's 'The Other Side'. Some of the others didn't have a very good time in the wash.

I was excited that 'Time Crime' printed. That one is definitely 'a bit' controversial, and the artwork is actually 'artsy' by today's Threadless standards.

those designs on that labs page are some of the safest designs i've seen printed here. at least with the select lines diaglouge and debate was sparked. that's usually a decent indicator that an idea has legs.

where did all the labs tees go?
and what the fuck is labs?

is it all direct to garment?

i really think that the idea to have a threadless SUB brand that they initially tried under UPSO was the correct way to go- i think they had it right.

the only thing they shoulda done is completely remove it from threadless and market it to a different demo ie. put adds in juxtapozed and all that good stuff

threadless constantly has the best selection of up and coming designers come through its doors then shat on by the voting teenagers who are looking for low tier pac sun trends

thanks for sharing dudes

yeah the labs range is dtg

josh knows whats up, take heed threadless.

are they still actively doing this labs thing? if so , how often?

wouldn't it be cool lames murphy?!
the threadless talent pool could have a sub brand with EMMENSE POWER AND STYLE!

it could be cooler than RVCA ever was

ahhaha- i accidentally called you lames! sorry dude :s

I think so dude but who knows they might have bailed on the idea, there hasn't been a new lab tee since I made this blog but I imagine it may be because of that gap partnership and the site redesign and what not.

I'm not all that fussed though, it's not like they printed anything that out of the ordinary anyway, except ginetteginettes one.

lames murphy is about right dude I am powerfully lame but thankfully not as lame as the gap! is the gap still cool in the US?

god NO, i think a lot of people here are excited for the exposure, and honestly a lot of stuff that gets printed here is gap demographic- its a good match.

thats where i feel funky about threadless, it keeps on getting closer and closer to the malls- and thats not somewhere i want my work to be.

i know im the odd one out on this stance, but i wanna be an outisider! a rebel! you can't get street cred in the mall

Mall cred!

Got that food court swag

im stealing that for twitter!

A lot of the shirts I liked on Threadless four years ago would probably be a lab shirt these days, which is kinda disappointing (and by lab shirt I mean a test shirt, not really anything similar to what they've been testing.) You'd figure all the exposure they've been getting would mean they'd be able to gamble more. But I think they're moving back to it. There was this long period on Threadless where the majority of stuff were way too safe. But I've seen some cool stuff get printed and it's been good. Wishing for an upward trend. And I'm hoping this weird challenge will get me as excited about the spoiler blog as I used to be. If that one grid design that Aaron made a long while back proved anything, it's that a lot of voters like really boring shit.

With their success they should be looking at ways at supporting the outsider, the underdog, the artist that created their millions and built their company to the powerful creative force it is today.

There has to be a way to take the crowd sourcing element that they practically invented, and evolve it to where they are able to take it to the next step and nurture the budding artist that come through here.

sometimes i just feel like i see them chasing margins, and that bums me out :(