In what other industries or areas would Threadless’ community-driven product development model work well? And not so well?
I think that Threadless’ business model would work pretty well with other articles of clothing, or art, posters, or anything else that requires artistic touch for design, but yet can still be produced on a semi-significant scale (not neccesarily mass produced ala something you might find at Wal-Mart, but you need some volume). It might also work with some IT products as well, specifically video games.
It would not work well with commodities, made-to-order goods, or products that don’t require a lot of design work. The benefit in the model is in having people work for you, and sharing the rewards if they have good designs. None of those above categories can give you that.
