Threadless marks a major milestone with a celebration honoring its global creative community and a quarter century of helping artists succeed.
CHICAGO, IL – March 31, 2025 – Threadless, the pioneering online artist community and design marketplace, is proudly celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025. What began in 2000 as a small t-shirt design challenge on an internet forum has grown into a global platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of independent artists to share their work with millions of fans around the world.
Threadless was founded by Jake Nickell with just $1,000 and a simple idea: invite people to submit their t-shirt designs online, and let the community vote for which ones get printed. That early experiment in co-creation sparked something bigger than they could have imagined. The name “Threadless” is a nod to its origins on a thread in the now-defunct forum dreamless.org.
By 2002, Threadless had outgrown Jake’s Chicago apartment and moved into its first dedicated office and warehouse space, marking the beginning of its evolution from a side project into a full-fledged business. As the community grew, so did the company’s influence, helping define the model of crowdsourcing long before the term became mainstream. In 2006, Inc. magazine featured Threadless as a revolutionary brand where customers helped shape every aspect of the business, from product development to marketing.
Today, Threadless remains true to its roots while continuously evolving. Now a fully remote company, they offer a massive online marketplace featuring artist-made apparel, accessories, and home decor. In 2015, the company expanded with the launch of Threadless Artist Shops—a free platform that allows independent artists to create their own stand-alone online merch stores. While the Threadless marketplace brings together curated designs from artists around the world, Artist Shops give creators full control over their branding, pricing, and product selection, all with the support of Threadless’s on-demand fulfillment and global customer reach.
“When we launched that first design challenge, we never expected it would grow into something like this,” says Threadless Founder and CEO Jake Nickell. “For 25 years, this community has been the heart of everything we do. The artists, the fans, the collaborators—they’re the reason Threadless exists. We’re here to celebrate them and keep pushing what’s possible when art and technology come together. Weird art on t-shirts was barely a thing when we first got started, and I never thought there’d be millions of other people out there that would be into that sort of thing.”
Throughout the past two and a half decades, Threadless has:
- Helped hundreds of thousands of artists earn money from their art
- Paid out millions of dollars in artist earnings
- Expanded to offer over 100 customizable product types
- Acquired artist-driven shoe company Bucketfeet in 2017
- Launched Threadless Causes, connecting art to activism by donating a portion of proceeds to nonprofits
- Transitioned to sustainable, print-on-demand production to reduce waste and support independent creators
In 2025, Threadless will celebrate its anniversary with special artist features, the return of classic Design Challenges, a look back at 25 years of creative milestones, and new tools to help artists grow their brands and reach wider audiences.
At its core, Threadless remains driven by one mission: to help artists succeed. That commitment continues to fuel everything from platform innovations to community events, and the next 25 years promise even more opportunities for creators to thrive.
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