Crowd-sourcing in the fashion world

What is crowd sourcing?

A relatively new concept, crowd-sourcing is slowly becoming a popular tool marketers use to connect and get involved with their audiences. Chances are you are unfamiliar with the name but have at one time participated in some form of crowd-sourcing without even knowing it. I'll explain; when company has a problem or an idea that needs to be tested, they release the information to an unknown group (that's us common folk) to gain advice and help. And of corse we don't mind helping out our favorite companies (especially if there is a cash prize involved). Once the challenge is presented, we log onto our online communities and try to tackle the challenge by offering solutions. These solutions are then voted on and reviewed by the company and the winner is given a lovely prize. And the final step for the company is to hopefully make some sort of profit with the new ideas given. Crowd-sourcing can really be broken down into 8 simple parts, shown here by this map. It is a rather new process that most companies are just starting to appreciate the value of but others have been using this tactic for a long time.

Oh those tricky consumers...

The average consumer is quite possibly the most difficult person to predict; it is a challenge to know how people will engage and react to a new product and service. There is no industry who knows this better than the fashion world. No matter how much work, love, care and craftsmanship goes into designing a piece, it is next to impossible to predict whether it will be the "hot item of the year," or if it will be doomed to waste away in the back of the sales racks. Crowd sourcing is one of the best and easiest ways people in the fashion industry can get a handle on what their consumers really want to wear. Unfortunately, it is not a tactic that is used by many big fashion houses...yet.

Tweets on a Tee

Threadless Clothing is not unused to the concept of crowd sourcing, in fact their entire company is based off crowd sourcing. An online store since 2000, Threadless Clothing allows independent artists to upload their tee shirt designs to the forum, members of the Threadless community then vote on their favorite designs. The best and most popular designs are then chosen to be printed and sold through the online store. The lucky creators of the winning designs receive a cash prize as well as store credit. Theadless Clothing is selling exactly what their consumer wants to buy simply because the consumer is telling them what to sell! It seems like a simple and easy concept but most companies do not utilize it as they should.

Recently, Threadless Clothing formed a relationship with Twitter and together launched Twitter Tees by Threadless. By involving a popular social media network, Threadless Clothing has taken their crowd sourcing model to the next level. They were founded on the idea of community involvement and Twitter is one of the largest online communities and it continues to grow, it seems only logical that these two super giants would form a partnership. The idea around the Twitter Tees is very similar to Threadless' entire business model. Twitter users can submit or nominate their favorite tweets that they've stumbled across online. The community then votes on their favorite and the winners are turned into tee shirts. With over 500,000 users on Twitter, they certainly have enough material and a great jumping off point for the new line.