Apparel Sale :: Threadless.com Goes from Online to Offline

Apparel Sale :: Threadless.com's
"Everybody Loves a Yedi"

Following in the footsteps of online stores Delias.com and Lucy.com, Threadless has taken their apparel sale from online to offline by opening their first brick and mortar store on Chicago's North Side.  Starting their online business in 2001, the sites snarky t-shirts have flown of the virtual shelves and its sales are expected to be somewhere around $15 million this year.  Not bad for two guys that started with $1000, a t-shirt design contest, and a true guerilla marketing plan.

Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart, both in their early 20's, have made snarky t-shirts big business.  After meeting through, appropriately, a t-shirt designing contest, the two realized they had much in common and after a bit of email exchange, they decided to launch Threadless.com.  With t-shirts named "Everybody Loves A Yeti," and  "Heavy Metal Listening Party," it's easy to see why their site is so popular.  Opening a physical retail space truly does seem like a natural extension of their business.  But the owners admit that they really  had "no good reason" to open an offline store, and they both recognize that actual retail is a different animal than e-tail, but they're fully prepared for the challenge.

But if their retail space is half as successful as their online site, they'll remain in great shape.  Take a look at these web stats:

Apparel Sale :: Threadless.com's         
"Heavy Metal Listening Party"            

As it stands, the store in Chicago that opened in September has already been wildly successful, and they're finding that many of their customers that shop in the store are not familiar with the website so they have no preconceived ideas about what the store should be.  Which brings me to a very important marketing point: with so many website out there, it is often difficult to get yours recognized.  The duo has plans to open additional retail outlets in Boulder, Colorado and San Fancisco and a Threadless Kids is slated to open in Chicago as well.  An added bonus for retail customers is that they will get to see new t-shirt designs three days before the online shoppers; just one more reason to leave your house to go shopping!