I agree with Big Al - Renaissance is beautiful, and I would place it in the same category as Liberty as far as style and beauty. I’m seriously considering buying this one, even though I can’t afford it. Here’s hoping for more graduation money?
My verdict: 5$

Terrible Wonderful Strange just confuses me. I hope the artist writes a description about it.
My verdict: ???

Surfer’s Paradise is a well-designed tee with a great inspiration - artist Simon Massey di Vallazza says “This illustration spurred from a little day dream of what I wished the real Surfers Paradise was - kept pure, green and natural rather than the Aussie Miami concrete jungle it has become.” Another great tee that becomes even better when you look at the story behind it. It’s not quite my colour scheme, so I probably won’t buy this one, but you should!
Verdict: 5

I mentioned graduation money in my scribbles about Renaissance - that’s because I graduate from high school on Tuesday. I’m super excited. I haven’t decided what I’m wearing yet - we don’t wear robes, it’s a long story - but there’s a good chance it will be Liberty.

Questions, comments, snide remarks? Leave them below.

I received the weekly Threadless newsletter and former CEO Jake Nickell announced they have brought in Tom Ryan as their new chief executive officer. Ryan’s previous experience comes from eMusic, Virgin Mobile USA and EMI Music. From my web research, it’s hard to find Ryan’s detailed background, but working with the aforementioned companies it dictates that he’s well versed in the web and media markets. I’m surprised that Threadless did not go with an experienced executive in the clothing and apparel industry especially one that has worked with brick and mortar stores. In my opinion, Threadless is a t-shirt company first and a web company second. Given their model of high volume, low pricing and quick inventory turnover, you need a chief executive that can increase the company’s overall margins without having to change their successful formula and alienating their strong user base. I hope Ryan’s the one to take Threadless to an even more exciting level.

Threadless is a private company, and figures are not publically available, so it’s hard to guess where Ryan and new CSO and co-founder, Jake Nickell will take Threadless. I have a few predictions as to what will be accomplished over the next few months and years.

My gut feeling is that Threadless will continue to expand their brick and mortar presence. Threadless is unique in a sense that they require their inventory to most very fast. The brick and mortar leaders such as Macy’s or Nordstrom would love to carry Threadless, especially given the brand loyalty of the customers. However, it would be hard for these stores to consistently move the inventory on a weekly basis given Threadless’ new release every Monday. I see the Chicago store as the template for further expansion to a mall near you within the next couple of years.

My next prediction is that Threadless will look into becoming more Dell-like from the inventory perspective. From my experience with Threadless, they are the king of process and operations. That’s why they can sell you great t-shirts at an affordable price. Dells inventory sits on their floor for 2 days or less. Threadless has recently gone from the Fruit of the Loom and American Apparel stock to their own Bangledesh made shirts. This is an indication that if they haven’t already controlled their entire supply chain process they will do so very soon. In addition to controlling the supply chain, order fulfillment can be outsourced to a cheaper alternative. The video footage of watching their employees go through their shelves to fulfill orders will be a thing of the past. Threadless will then film a new short called “Just In Time (inventory) Gone Wild”!

My last prediction under the leadership of Ryan is that he’ll introduce additional products beyond the shirts. We’ve already seen the baby wear and hoodies in addition to their popular shirts. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go beyond this and introduce tank tops, jackets, gym bags or some other crazy item that will capture my disposal income.

Congratulations and best of luck to Tom and Jake in their new roles. I see the MP(3) shirt below as a representation of Tom, Jake and Jacob leading Threadless to new ideas, innovation and an even better product and brand.

Here’s a quick recap of a few shirts from this week’s releases. These are 3 that are definite pickups:

The first one is Renaissance. It brings in the architectural beauty and art inspiration of Florence, Italy. Firenze, as known by the locals, was considered the heart of Italy where many of the world renowned artists originated and found inspiration for the beauty you see throughout the country and all over our planet. I’ve been fortunate to have been to Florence and the Tuscan region of Italy once in my life. It by far is most favorite place of all of Europe. I love the beautiful buildings, bridges, churches and towers. It’s also the resting place of Michaelangelo’s David. I don’t have many shirts with the dark blue background, so I’m really digging the shirt color choice. I’m definitely picking this one up.

Smile… My Shadow brings back a lot of childhood memories. I remember as a kid my greatest fear was the boogeyman hiding in my closet. My boogeyman looked like Grimmace, the purple blob friend of Ronald McDonald. I remember in my nightmares that this purple blob would be chasing me throughout my house. The character in this shirt reminds me of that. Oh… the memories!

Self Destruction also reminds me of the pop culture I was exposed to during my childhood. I recall playing Super Mario Bros. 2 on my Nintendo and one of the characters of the game was a walking bomb that would ignite itself and explode in front of Mario. I believe the character’s name was Kaboom. I would play this game for hours on end. Picking up the bomb guys and throwing all at other enemies. As far as the t-shirt itself, I like the scribble design of the bomb and the incorporation of a Zippo-like lighter. I probably would have printed it on something other than the olive green shirt. A definite pickup!

I thought I’d drop a quick note before the weekend. I was surfing through the design submissions and I came across a couple submissions that caught my eye. Maybe I’m old school or maybe I’m interested in the lost art of Polaroids.

I haven’t held a Polaroid camera in probably 15 years. One of my co-workers turns out to be a huge instant pic fan. I came across her desk and her pile of Polaroid pictures that she took on her way to work. It brought back so many childhood memories. Nowadays we have the digital camera, so you can see your picture immediately. Polaroids were digital camera version 1 in the instant gratification department. It’s a little nostalgic to remember that old time feeling that you had when you took a Polaroid picture, waited a few minutes, waved it around and then magically saw that shot you just took.

The design name Sad SX-70 won’t mean much to the everyday person, but from my research it looks like this camera was a revolution device for Polaroid aficionado’s and the world of instant photos. The design is dead on like the camera on a black shirt. The only error that one Threadless commenter caught was that the picture is coming out in reverse. If they adjust that, this shirt will be great!

Verdict: 5$

Here’s another Polaroid inspired submission with a little inspiration coming from Harper Lee. The latest buzz here at lovesthreadless.com has been the Liberty shirt. I finally received my shirt and I love it. I think a lot had to do with the maroon color. I don’t own too many dark red shirts and I think the choice of shirt color makes To Spill a Mockingbird an awesome shirt. It also brings a little crime scene investigation theme. I like it!

Verdict: 5$

Hi All,

I just want to introduce myself. I’m Big Al. I’m a late 20-something Threadless fan. The whole way Threadless does business is awesome. It’s fun and addicting. Over the last few months I tried to become as involved with the Threadless lifestyle. I came to know one of Threadless guys in Chicago and Chris of lovesthreadless.com. Since this is an introduction of myself, I just want to drop a few t-shirt that are really special to me:

One of my friends gave me See You At The Show. It’s a Type Tee on a Fruit of the Loom shirt. It’s a really loud design on a natural colored shirt. This is what started my Threadless love.

The Battle of E-5 is the first shirt that I ever purchased. I was looking for a dark colored shirt and the whole detailed chess theme caught my attention. It has a fallen bishop on the side, knights coming out of the King mobile and it has tank wheels! So much detail. I also was curious about the Threadless tee. I’m a fan of American Apparel cloth and the Threadless tee material is just as good, if not better.

This last t-shirt You Sank My Battleship is one of my first reprinted t-shirts that I ever purchased. I liked the whole Battleship game concept and the design was offset on the upper-left of your chest. I’m a big fan of offset designs.

I was sitting down with one of my friends and we discussed the philosophy of reprinted t-shirts. His belief is that Threadless should not reprint t-shirts. He feels that part of the fun is to buy t-shirts when they come out and be rewarded with that somewhat rare shirt that nobody else can ever get. If a shirt is so popular, it raises the bar for other designer to create an even more kick-butt design. I agreed with my friend. I used to collect Air Jordans and it didn’t sit too well that they reissued (aka retroed) the older Air Jordans. The shoes that I kept in prestine condition now became less special because people could walk into the store and pick up almost the same exact shoe. As I become more attached to my t-shirts, I feel that I will have that same feeling once some of my older shirts get reprinted.

Big Al

It’s Monday, and you know what that means! We all need more coffee. Oh, and there’s 9 new Threadless shirts – 7 new prints and 2 reprints.

This is a really clever, thought-provoking shirt. While the colour scheme isn’t what I’m used to, it works well with this print, and it all comes together to tell an important story about our society.
My verdict: 4$

This one’s just cute. It’s a very simple one-colour design, but it looks good!
Verdict: 5$

Judging from the comments, this one is a must-have for chem students and anyone who works in labs. And it’s great for anyone who likes cute Threadless shirts.
Verdict: 5$

Questions, notes, snide remarks? Leave them in the comments.

So I was excited this morning to get an email saying that a tee I’d voted 5$ for had been printed. But once I got a look at it, I wasn’t quite as excited…

Attack of Literacy! is definitely a clever shirt, but it just doesn’t quite do it for me. I guess I’m in a different mood today. If it’s your thing though, go check it out!
My verdict: 3

I’m much more fond of one of today’s reprints, Pessimistic or Optimistic?. It’s a cute design, and if I had the spare cash I’d definitely go for it. It’s cheap for a new tee at $15, although from the comments on the site there’s some concerns about quality on the original print – and one poster points out that it doesn’t have the chino additive for softness that most new tees do. Still, if you like the design it’s worth a look.
My verdict: 4$

That’s all I’ve got for you today…stay tuned for more updates in the future!

Hi everyone! My name’s Tonei (not Torei, although it’s an interesting idea!) and I’m going to try to write a bit while Chris is off on his adventures. I’m a high school senior in Alaska, and I have I think twelve Threadless shirts.

A few of my favourites:

I bought BEarth at the Chicago retail store back in October. It was my first Threadless tee, and I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on it. It’s been out of stock for a while.

Penguins on Holiday is an adorable shirt that I picked up during the holiday sale. There is only one left in all of Threadless, so if you like it and you wear a guy’s medium, go pick it up!

Damn Scientists is a witty tee that also gets lots of comments and tons of people stopping me to read my chest. There’s still some girly Smalls and Mediums left for just $5.00 right here.

I’m waiting to get Liberty in the mail – we’ll see if I like it as much as Chris does.

I’ll post another entry shortly about this week’s releases. Feel free to leave questions, comments, or snide remarks in the comments!

Hey guys. As mentioned earlier, I’m on vacation starting tomorrow all the way through the 19th. Excitement abounds—I’m going on a transatlantic cruise. From St. Maarten, it takes 5 days to cross the Atlantic to Funchal, Madeira in Portugal.

So I’ve started a single-purpose blog called 5-Across to document my trip on the Carnival Freedom. I hope to be able to fill it with pictures of fun stuff, but I’m guessing the internet on the cruise ship will be battling me every expensive minute of the way. (65 cents, 45 if you pay in advance.) Needless to say, I’ll be “burst-surfing” a lot; checking my email and blasting a post and signing off real quick.

If you’re at all interested, head on over and check it out. In the mean time, I’ve added a few others who I think are going to start posting here and keeping it interesting, so look for Torei and Big Al’s content soon!

5-Across: A Travel Blog

Yeah, You’re Right –Probably Too Controversial

Young Guy, trying to hit on a girl: I’ve been thinking about starting a blog.
Girl: [silence.]
Young Guy: You know, if I were to start a blog, I’d make it about t-shirts.
Girl: [silence.]

–Magnetic Field (Bar) on Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn

Hah. (Thanks, Luke!)

Some of you may have noticed that my beloved Thriftee Alert system’s AIM/SMS bot had a terrible time staying up and active. This kinda sucked and made the whole thing sorta useless. Never fear, I’ve spent some time further hacking together a system that should fail-safe and trigger the script repeatedly. I had it doing this before, but it was leaving zombie processes on the server and it would eventually fail. Nevertheless, it now cleans those up as it goes and the end result is that the AIM/SMS notices should now ALWAYS go out, no excuses.

Should something fail in an epic manner while I’m on vacation (from 4/25-5/13), just go ahead and unsubscribe using the manage option on the page. If you email me to unsubscribe, that won’t get you anywhere.

If you haven’t set up a Thriftee notifier account, head over to the Notify Me page and get cracking. I’ve hammered out all the bugs I’ve found and I’m pretty confident it should just work from here on out, so long as my computer stays online and internet-happy.

Create $10 Threadless Thriftee Alerts for your specific desired size and shirt design!

This week brings some cool new shirts like the above Elephas Maximus. Fun times for those who love elephants indeed.

The blog will also be going dark for a bit as I’m heading off on vacation for about 3 weeks and will be out of the country and away from the internets. If you’re at all interested in blogging here in my stead, hit me up at: chris [at] lovesthreadless [dot] com.

I’ll be back on the 13th of May and then we’ll get some new and exciting contests a’cookin’.

Get shopping in the meantime before this weeks hot picks sell out!

Everyone has their favorite shirts with Threadless. No surprise, I tend to own a bunch. But some I bought on a bit of a whim or thought they were merely cool. Others have surfaced to the top of the pack and really have their place in my heart as favorites.

I’m wearing Liberty right now, which I received yesterday and it’s an absolutely awesome print. The full bleed is nice and the glow detail is perfect on this. The print just is visually stunning and I’m so glad I bought it before it sold out.

My favorites? Let’s see…

1. Liberty
2. Away From Home
3. Decay
4. Flowers in the Attic
5. Miss Scarlet in the Hall with the Revolver

What are your favorites?

Check out today’s new shirts, including The Season Has Landed, pictured above in awesome faux-process. The new Threadless printing options have really opened things up and it’s way exciting to see what the community is able to produce. It’s also a great deal more fun to watch the styles shift away from the cartoon elements from before with the newfound abilities granted to the artists. There are a lot of elements available to the community now, from glow to embroidery and simulated process and more, and it’s only going to get better.

This shirt’s a steal at $18. You should go pick it up now.

And check out the others from this week. And explain to me why S’more 101 costs $20. Srsly. (Ali suggests the fact that it’s a colored shirt?)

Get shopping! And don’t forget the reprinted classic You Sank My Battleship!

I’ve got to say, Peaceful Future is one of the more visually impressive shirts I’ve seen in awhile. While I’m typically over the armageddon/wwIII stuff, this is a clever dichotomy and a well-executed design that looks just really good. My only complaint is that the vertical dot-lines are a bit distracting. (A word of warning: The shirt appears to be the army/green color in the design pic on the left, even though the product pic shows the blue version. Not sure what’s up with that.)

And if that weren’t enough, there’s also Liberty—a kind of noeveau riche, avant garde Flowers in the Attic. (They’re completely different, but it recalls Flowers for me at least.) It’s a particularly sexy design that really works great against the maroon. AND it glows. What more could you ask for?

Finally, Threadless rounds things out for the cool kids with a reprint of the classic Ctrl+Z, one of my favorite shirts. (Really. That’s my car.) I’m considering picking this one up just because of the crackling that’s befallen my print from overuse. It’s also one of the first sets of reprints on the new Threadless tees, so it’s extra comfy.

Check out the rest of this week’s prints and other tasty goodies and get shopping. Or, now that the sale’s over, sign up for Thriftee notifications to get in on some dirt-cheap-deals. (We tell you when your shirt & size rotates into a $10 Thriftee.)

Get shopping!