How did Threadless start?

The Origin Story

Threadless was born in 2000 from a simple $1,000 investment and a passion for community-driven art. Founder Jake Nickell and co-founder Jacob DeHart launched the concept as a design challenge on dreamless.org, a forum for digital artists and coders. The name Threadless actually comes from that original forum thread where the duo invited users to share their work with the promise of printing the best designs on high-quality tees.

This experiment turned into a mission to give back to the creative community by providing a real-world canvas for independent artists. In 2025, we celebrated our 25th anniversary. Read more about how Threadless started and what we've done over the past 25 years here.

From Hobby to Global Community

What started as a side project quickly gained momentum. Shortly after the first shirts were produced, the founders launched a dedicated website and introduced the iconic 1 to 5 scoring system, allowing the community to decide which designs made the cut.

By 2002, the vision had grown so much that Jake Nickell left art school and his full-time job to focus entirely on the platform. The production pace tells the story of its success. In 2000, new designs were printed every few months, and by 2004, high demand pushed production to a weekly schedule.

Following that breakout period, Threadless evolved far beyond just t-shirts. Over the next two decades, we expanded into a massive catalog of apparel, home decor, and accessories, while developing Artist Shops to give creators even more control over their own brands. What began as a single forum thread has grown into a global marketplace that has paid out millions of dollars to independent artists. Threadless continues to thrive as a community-led effort, fueled by the same spirit of participation and word of mouth that started it all.