there are way to many tshirt design contests sites out there.
Its sick that people are making money off of them and yes as everyone knows its awesome to own something that is limited print and all that jazz, plus getting the recognition of them.
I dig all the sites that are out there now, but please people your over saturating the market waaayyyy to fast. Its like if when coke came out, then a day later there was pepsi, a day later something just like those, the next day another one, the next day another one.
I fully understand it is a great marketing strategy because the site gains huge popularity because of the issues with little overhead for the clothing companies because you are not designing the shirts or paying for the designs, be please please slow down! Its basically a snowball business which is awesome. You win, tell your friends, they buy a shirt, want to try their luck, tell their friends... aka grows exponentially.
I dunno, im done with my rant. I love threadless, design by humans, artfury(this could be a neat one to follow), shirt.woot, wooshka but everyone else that is thinking of starting up a tee contest site, please wait a while! Not only are you contributing to the over saturation but in the end its just hurting designers more.
... I'm sure someone is going to get mad at me over this but I know I am not the only one thinking it. Not trying to start anything, just voicing an opinion. And more power to you if you do this business model and have it work!.. be sure to let me know about it so I can follow it for the blog.
16 Comments
heroes said 2 months ago
i kinda agree with you up until the point you said its hurting designers
these sites wouldnt work without the designers input so if the designers dont like them the sites will die
justgeoff said 2 months ago
Yeah, I don't get all those site. I'm on DBH and have never even submitted a design. I'm lame I guess.
Jon Kruse said 2 months ago
If you can make money with a t-shirt design contest site more power to you. I think it's getting harder and harder to do that though because of all of the competition out there.
Joe said 2 months ago
I think it's a pretty hard business model to pull off. You need a large community to really do it successfully, and that's hard to get. There have been a lot of competitions that have kind of stagnated because they couldn't grow their user base. At least, that's been my impression. The most successful non-Threadless ones seem to fill a niche, for example:
DBH: 'artsy'-er
La Fraise & All Mightys: European
Camiseteria: Brazilian
Shirt.Woot: cheap (and they had a pre-existing user base)
cajun metal said 2 months ago
I substitute "design contest sites" with "clothing companies" and I'm with you on the over saturation tip.
However, if people got as serious about design as they are about starting a company in general I'd feel a lot better about both.
thebutcher said 2 months ago
I agree. There's way too many now and I don't understand how they can be successful. People trust Threadless & DBH as they have been around, thus designers are more likely to pitch designs there where money, etc. are standard.
What makes someone want to go to a lesser known site with less users, etc. in comparison to one of the giants with higher payout?
It's a social networking, web 2.0 craze and there are way too many late movers. Look on craigslist and see how many people want myspace types of websites built! Heck, I even have seen ones asking to be modeled after Threadless!
At the same token, I feel as if Threadless & DBH has taken over the site design wise as well as threads ie. vote for me.
That's my 0.02$ though.
wotto said 2 months ago
There are way over 50 out there but as one pops up anothe rone dies. 2 died last week.
hunty said 2 months ago
here here! This has been my train of thought for a while now - someone should really come out and try something new...
edword said 2 months ago
how does it hurt designers? If threadless or DBH don't pick up a design it's nice to have another option.
RikkiB said 2 months ago
Oh crap, what died last week?
wotto said 2 months ago
I hate saying this incase they aint completely dead but:
icecreamt-shirts
and
gorillatank
hunty said 2 months ago
It's all market forces at the end of the day though isn't it?
So if people launch and are successful others will try it... If those others fail, well... this just stops inspiring people to think that they can be a success.
Swings & Roundabouts.
(It ain't stopping me from keeping on though...)
brett_district said 2 months ago
not to overly extol the virtues of market forces, but its pretty clear that those contests which have something unique to offer both designers and consumers will survive, and all of the imitators will not. With so many well established sites already, it is impossible for a start-up to succeed without bringing something new to the table.
Every good idea in the history of ideas has been copied multiple times, but unless the copier can do it better or diferrent(in this case better design, nicer shirts, niche themes or styles) they don't usually stand a chance. Ultimately though, i think that the proliferation of design contests only helps designers and consumers alike by creating unique market niches. Look at how many designers complain on this site about not having a chance at winning on threadless, because it is either not their style, or is just too competitive. The new contests provide a platform for more designers to get out there, and let the market determine whether or not they have the skills.
RikkiB said 2 months ago
Gorillatank has been gone for a while as far as i know, that's sad about Icecream though :(
quixotic said 2 months ago
wait... are you saying that coke and pepsi taste the same?
njonas said 2 months ago
i think it's a good thing for those of us with our own brands. flooding the online-tee market with these contest sites will (hopefully) push these consumers to search for unique brands that have a strong image..
It's not really "cool" to wear a DBH shirt because DBH doesn't represent a particular style or image; however, wearing a Rockett shirt or a Johnny Cupcakes shirt tells more about a person...I have a feeling people will start getting sick of these t-shirt contest sites with their mediocre shirts that SOMEtimes award a shirt you MIGHT like and will start looking at solid brands that represent a specific STYLE...