I’m a big fan of Threadless, and I consider it the “granddaddy” of crowdsourcing web 2.0 business models.  The site does an awesome job of getting visitors to participate, without necessarily buying a product.  Of course, once that intial participation happens, it is a lot easier to later convince that visitor to purchase.

Without ever purchasing a shirt, print, or whatever, visitors can submit designs, submit slogans, blog (forum post really), and vote on existing designs and slogans.  These offerings help foster the sense of community and empowerment that is the cornerstone of crowdsourcing.

Another aspect of Threadless that impresses me, is the ability to add your customized information from other networks to your profile.  It enables you to pull in your del.ico.us links, your Flickr photos, Last.fm recently played, MySpace info, and anyother RSS feed you’d like to include.  This personalizes your profile more than the standard info (city, website, avatar, etc.) that most sites include in their profiles.

But the whole point of all of this is to sell t-shirts, so we can pay the developers to write the code that taps into all those APIs, and handles the design uploads, and all that other stuff.  The Threadless Street Team is the participatory aspect of Threadless that has a direct impact on sales.  I refer to these types of programs as the members-as-affiliates programs.  Every Threadless member has a link in their account that is clearly visible in the left navigation; the link contains their Street Team id.  The member can put the link anywhere, and they will get credit for any sales resulting from referals – just like an affiliate program, but every member is an affiliate.  You’ll notice I used it in the initial link to Threadless in this post; go buy a shirt and I’ll get $3 credit that I’ll be able to use for my next purchase.  Unlike an affiliate program, Threadless doesn’t have to pay any cash for these referrals, they just need to discount product.

The other way to earn Street Team points is to upload a picture of yourself (or your kid) in a shirt (onsie) you’ve purchased.  This gives customers a “return” on their purchases, and allows them to have fun putting a face to their username and profile.  Its an excellent way to increase the sense of community, and incent more sales.

Threadless got a facelift recently, the biggest noticable change being a new level of heirarchy in the navigation, that allows visitors to switch between Threadless, Type Tees, and Select.  There are some other minor changes also.  Check it out, especially if you haven’t been on the site for awhile.  Threadless seems to be doing quite well with their sales and growth.  They’re a great site for crowdsourcing based businesses to look at as a model of how to carefully combine participation, community, and merchandising all in one package.