Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week | Hacker News Reader

Threadless is shutting their iOS app down next week

itunes.apple.com

47 pointsdvydra56 comments

Hi. I lead the Digital team at Threadless and we're shutting down the app because doing so allows us to spend developmental energy making the experience of our main app better for everyone. It served the purpose at the time, but as our focus shifted more into the Artist Shops platform over the last two years, maintaining and updating the native app proved to not be the best use of time or resources for the team. The web and phones have come a long way since we launched it, and we feel that pulling it now is better than letting customers use something that we're not giving our full attention to.

I really think having a dedicated native app is a huge hassle for most businesses today. The web has come a long way and is no longer plagued by the perf issues of old. I'd imagine having to support both, sync up features and styles would get extremely difficult both logistically and financially. Far easier to just have a responsive site and be done with it. Probably save a bit of money on the payroll side too, frontend engineers are usually cheaper.

The problem is most of the companies think that what they are doing is too important for the user not to use the app. They think that Push Notifications are the holy grail to keep people engaged and bring the users back.

It will be good if Google allows developers to list pure progressive apps in the AppStore. Since for many non-technical users, PlayStore is how one is supposed to install apps, decision makers think it's important to have the apps.

It's a good point about listing progressive apps in the AppStore, and I think Microsoft has done a great job at taking the lead here. I imagine a world where users don't have worry about the tech behind the UX they're experiencing, they go to the AppStore, a 3rd party site, a URL simply to find "experiences".

I also wonder if we can move from the Store-Driven model on phones to something more transient perhaps that leverages the URL and natural links of them (since obv. don't want to be typing urls). Thought experience: What if your homescreen icons were managed by the OS (and can be Apps, PWAs, etc.) ordered by last accessed. You can then overide and "pin/install" the experiences you want.

One thing I can't firgure out is why reddit is pushing me to use their app when the site is better. I dont even understand why they want to.

A reason might be because it's harder to block ads in an app than it is in a browser?

As far as I know it isn't possible to block ads inside the Android Chrome browser? Only way to do that is using your own DNS, but that would work both on native and progressive apps.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I'd love to block ads inside my Chrome browser.

It's not possible in Chrome on Android, but it is in Firefox.

Ah right. I don't know about Android, but it's possible on Safari on my iPhone.

Idk, it actually prompted me to download a new browser to try to block the 'ads' for their app.

You get more ad targeting and messaging powers via native apps than web apps.

I doubt that's going to last much longer now that they're rewriting the whole website, or at least I hope that's the case. (see the huge pro/contra CSS discussion)

Generally this is true. Apps are for situations where the user has a higher level of engagement.

Shopping is one of those things - such as Amazon or RedBubble - but Threadless is too specific for that use case. The majority of people simply do not shop for clothing online frequently enough to justify it.

I think that problem persists even with a progressive web app - it just does not warrant the real-estate on your phone. Technically the app launcher on Android makes this cheap but I think that's where apps often go to die - out of sight, out of mind.

On iOS or the sadly near-death Windows Phone, it's just eating more space than it can justify.

I don't think this is a problem of tech or cost but a problem of viable engagement.

Threadless just doesn't need a spot on anyone's phone.

Personally, I'm waiting for Apple to include push notifications via browser. I'd much rather receive them via my browser than need yet another native app for it. And it feels like it isn't as widely used as it could be because iOS doesn't provide this feature.

Example: I removed the Facebook native app, but still get my push notifications via the Chrome browser.

Yeah, no more working offline or in places with poor internet connectivity. Instead of small efficient applications we run multiple instances of web browsers, each instance consuming at least 1-2 Gb of RAM (even just to show text chat, like Slack), and they constantly do something even when they are not used. My CPU indicator is always at 5-10% CPU load even when I'm not doing anything, because all these apps are constantly downloading something or doing some mysterious background work that I don't need. My notebook cooler is almost always spinning.

Thanks, that's a great future!

This comment is so off the mark for this context.

1) Responsive site == a site you visit in your native browser, no one is talking about Electron or similar technologies. ecomm/retailers would never use that.

2) Electron is missing the point...why even use native at all of you're a retailer when you can have a website that does both?

HN...always missing the point and going off on some off topic rant.

For small teams, this can definitely be true. At least in the beginning.

For better or worse, the native app UX advantage still pays off massively in real dollars. And with walled gardens like Facebook and Google AMP growing so quickly, building a native app of your own is often the best chance to capture an audience.

Threadless has an iOS app?

I don't mean to be snarky, but I love Threadless and I had no idea, so maybe that's why they're shutting it down.

Doesn't feel that notable. The friction of a native app download vs just using the web means that an app is rarely the right answer for shopping. Makes sense to ditch the app and focus on web.

Time to build a Progressive Web App? ;)

If Apple supports progreasive web-apps this decade I'll eat my hat.

It does nothing for their business and cuts off their revenue streams. It's simply a bad idea for them.

I'd be curious to see what WASM means for progressive web apps on Android, however. There Google does benefit but it does weeken their platform by making competing hardware like Samsung's Tenzen or the near-death Windows Phone far more viable.

So the question becomes, is Google invested in Android specifically or simply the existence of mobile that they can profit from?

Threadless shirts are hands down the worst quality clothing I've ever bought online. Great designs, terrible quality.

I didn't know shirts could be sewn up with so little material. Felt like I was wearing a light handkerchief.

I instantly returned my shirt and had to cover shipping, sneaky bastards.

They used to print on American Eagle tees, when they started making their own shirts I stopped buying them - the quality seemed to be okay last time I bought one, but the fit was weird.

*American Apparel

oops, thanks.

I guess they are living up to their name: less threads.

Maybe they should branch out to other products and compete in other markets like Headcase (phone covers) and Stickermule.

Fun fact: "less" means "without", not "fewer", which is what you meant when you said "less threads".

Is that the company's definition? Or the standard English definition? I thought the standard English definition was "fewer". I never looked up the word, but just assumed from the context other people have used it during my lifetime. Either way, I think it is an example I am lousy at comedy and the English language :(

Sidenote: "Nickell and DeHart invited users to post their designs on a dreamless thread (hence the name Threadless), and they would print the best designs on t-shirts." ( dreamless.org, a forum where users experimented with computers, code, and art) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threadless#History_of_the_comp...

(I'm not arguing. Just curious. I was like, "Was I using 'less' improperly all my lifetime? Well, it probably is not the first time I misused a common word.")

The difference is between "less" as a stand-alone word, and "less" as a suffix.

Thanks for pointing that out. I see it now. Sorry for the confusion.

Oh... Now I understand. You're right. Disregard my previous comment below. Thanks.

It's my fault. I probably should have written "-less" to make it clear I was talking about the suffix.

As for the "fewer" vs "less" thing, I'd say most people get that wrong.

Must've changed since the early days when I bought 20+ of their shirts. Ended up wearing most gardening, etc and never had any tear or feel flimsy at all. Been many years since I bought from them though.

Yeah, I still have some shirts that I bought from them around 2004. The prints are a bit weathered, but the shirts are still in great shape.

They changed from American Apparel to in-house (read: crappy overseas garbage) a few years back. Quality went down the drain, as did the fit.

That is disappointing to hear. I have bought years ago from Threadless and the American Apparel shirts still hold up well.

The more RAM devices have, the more widespread web apps will be. A lot of niches, originally covered only by native apps, lost their luster for native development. Web does it all nowadays. See things like Basecamp, Tidal - their apps are web based and they work just fine on recent devices. By a pure coincidence, those apps have an outstanding quality. So web stack is a thing nowadays.

Darn. Hope this isn't a reflection of their business health. Was hoping the trend of individualized and/or unique clothes would swing back in their favor.

Can't remember the last time I wore a shirt that had a logo or graphic on it, but think the world be slightly more interesting if people were just a little more individual in what they wear.

Love their business model, technology and collaboration for something tangible.

Edit: they still have it nice and big on their home page. And the landing page seems a bit dated or neglected with the dislaimer "* iOS 7 only"

https://www.threadless.com/app

If you have a decent number of iOS users, why pull the app? Why not just let it spin out into deep space, and stop supporting it with updates?

That's an honest question, by the way.

They may have a decent number of downloads, but none of us knows how many users they have. I don't know how long the app has been on the store, but it only has 53 ratings which indicates very little engagement.

There is almost no incentive to rate app. They can't reward user and why should someone leave a comment? This is why I like what Amazon does with comment.... but if most of these are real users I think the app did a good job.

Because you lose control over your product for those percentage of users. What happens when you want to run an A/B test and a huge chunk or your users is on a platform you can no longer create tests for? What if the A/B test is wildly successful now you can't even ship those changes to a chunk of your users?

Anyone know how they handled payments in the app? If it wasn't through Apple I wonder if Apple was coming after them to get their 30%.

Apple only takes a cut from the sale of digital goods, not physical ones.

And even that can really fuck with a business. 30%.

Only if it's applied to you after building your business model and releasing your product.

If you're not factoring the platform cost into your product pricing, well, that can really fuck with a business.

That's not uncommon, Valve takes on average a 30% cut on all store sales on Steam along with a cut from item selling on the community markets for skins. Like Apple they can get away with it thanks to the size of their user base and the fact that there is now even a subset of users who will not buy a game, even DRM free ones, unless it comes with a steam key.

Okay, but that has nothing to do with the original conversation we were having.

I don't see how it doesn't? This was a discussion about a company shutting down, and this particular sub-thread was regarding speculation that the shutdown was the result of Apple 'coming after them' for their 30%... Your comment that it was only for digital goods, while true, required further elaboration that even that can be hard on a business. This comment is directly related to the sub-thread's speculation on why Threadless shut down.

So what's the backstory? The only thing the page says regarding the shutdown is:

> We will be shutting down the Threadless iOS App on June 5, 2017.

I have no idea. I'm hoping by posting here I might find out too.

I wonder if Apple Pay for the web has something to do with this.

They have an app‽ I've always used TeeFury for the quality.

The app has had about 200k all time downloads~

Same day as WWDC keynote? Coincidence?

Harper

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