It must have been in 2006 when I noticed that there is an online shop which sells T-shirts with unusual designs.
Threadless wasn't that well known back then. I must admit I totally loved the creativity of the designers and the idea of general public voting for their favourite designs to be printed.
The first T-shirt which I got was Allan Faustino's dark blue
Runnin' Rhino. The witty idea of a rhino wanting to be a unicorn lured me. It was nearly sold out at that time. The only suitable size was probably the biggest children's size. The T-shirt took ages to get delivered. It did fit exactly and looked ok on me. The fabric was good quality, reasonably thick. However, it somehow ripped at the place, where sleeve is attached to the main part of the T-shirt. We managed to repair it easily at home. The second imperfection was the print itself. It seemed smudged or cracked in some areas. But looking from further away it seemed ok.
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| Runnin' Rhino |
The second time I ordered something from Threadless was in 2008. This time I selected two designs with a common theme - the heart. The light pastel blue
Follow It by _philip caught my eye due to similarity with underground routes. The second design, Chris Thornley's grey
Where The Heart Is was just too cute and magical to be left behind. This time I got both of the T-shirts in women's large size. Their length surprised me, because we weren't used to seeing longer T-shirts in the shops. Nevertheless, both fit ok and I haven't noticed any major problems. Neither with shipping, nor with the fabric or print. The women's T-shirts seemed a bit thinner, though. At that time, there has been a newly introduced system of collecting the StreetTeam points. They could be collected either by submitting a photo of you dressed in a Threadless T-shirt, or by a purchase from someone else through a unique URL with the name of your Threadless account. I collected a few of them and waited for an opportunity when I could use them next time at a check-out and save a few dollars this way. If I remember well, 2 points were equivalent to $3.
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| Follow It |
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| Where The Heart Is |
The third order came way way later, in 2012. The StreetTeam points were still in use! This time I ordered just one thing for myself. It was Philip Tseng's bright red
We're Not Savages in women's medium. The T-shirt depicts the characters from William Golding's allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. The faded skull in the background is an interesting element without which the main characters wouldn't look complete. The second thing which I ordered was not for me, but for a friend's baby. It was a yellow baby T-shirt for a 12-month old child. It was entitled
What Makes It Go? and designed by Dan Rule. I was in search for a design suitable for both child's and adult's eye. A giraffe operated from inside by tiny people fit my intentions. Both T-shirts came in a good condition. The only thing which I noticed was a worse quality of fabric of the red one. It was very thin, nearly see-through. During the washing, the water got completely red and full of tiny cotton balls. Just as when you'd wash a 5 € T-shirt from H&M. That's a serious drop in Threadless T-shirt quality. Concerning the website, if I'm not mistaken, its design already changed. Threadless also extended the product range to hoodies, iPhone cases, bags and others.
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| We're Not Savages |
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| What Makes It Go? |
It's 2014 now. I returned back to the website. The StreetTeam points do not exist anymore. The photos of people wearing the Threadless T-shirts are gone, too. Out of the above mentioned five designs, two of them (
Where The Heart Is and
We're Not Savages) are completely sold out and one is available only in one babies' size (
What Makes It Go?). Sometimes, the old name of a design is carried by a completely new design by another artist, like in the case of
Where The Heart Is. The usual price is now $25 per adult T-shirt, that's way more than what I always used to pay. Nevertheless, there's a clearance section, where you can shop already for $9.95. I still love the idea of the website and it makes me glad, that
Runnin' Rhino and
Follow It are still popular. Over the years I got compliments for both of them. The remaining two which I purchased were left unnoticed by people which I met. There is probably one more T-shirt which I would love to get. I fell in love with it when I was choosing my first T-shirt. It is a light cream
Till Death Do Us Part by Augusto Reis. It's been most of the time out of stock.
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| Till Death Do Us Part |
