Exciting Commerce // Unlimited

Threadless wants to bring back NakedAndAngry

In a recent interview, Threadless founder Jake Nickell disclosed his plans for 2008.

Amongst other things, the crowdsourcing-based enterprise wants to shortly relaunch its sister site, NakedAndAngry for new product areas.

"We've been putting a lot of work into Naked and Angry the past year and starting this spring we plan to release a new product every month through that project."

Also of interest is a recent video from Frank Gruber from the Threadless headquarters in Chicago.

At the beginning of the week, Threadless bestowed the first Bestee Awards for the best shirt designs of 2007.

Originally posted in German, translated by Jason Soo

New Business Models Based on New Production Methods.

All too often are The Long Tail discussions about online commerce limited to expanding the selection of mass-produced goods.

Far more interesting, however, is the enhancement of the product range by various forms of (mass) customization, being driven at the moment especially by Amazon.

In particular, future changes to production processes will provide more possibilities for novel and exclusive product offerings, to the benefit of specialized and smaller providers primarily.

"The next decade will see a fundamental shift in how we view and define manufacturing.

Just as advances in information technology have changed how we accomplish and define knowledge work, new manufacturing technologies and methods will change the nature of producing goods.

Small business will reclaim a significant segment of on-demand, specialized manufacturing, enabling knowledge artisans, craftspeople, and others who ‘make things’ [J1] to expand their markets and be viewed as ‘manufacturers’."

The report (PDF) from the Institute for the Future covers a wide range of topics: from Open Source equipment, to mass customization (also up-and-coming in the electronics area!), to sales and distribution platforms like Etsy or Amazon.

More from Frank Piller

Originally posted in German, translated by Jason Soo