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Comment by tedmiston | Hacker News Reader

Something else not mentioned in the article is that graphic tees have fallen in popularity in the past decade vs plain t-shirts.

I'm just one data point but having purchased from Threadless a few times, I haven't bought one graphic tee in the past five years or more. The novelty of a graphic tee wears off quickly. I'd rather have a more expensive but high quality plain shirt I'll like for years to come.

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Have they fallen in popularity or have you aged out of the target market?

Same "single data point" disclaimer, but most of my peers lost interest in them mid-college when they began dressing more mature. The high schoolers I know still wear graphic tees but for whatever reason Threadless never connected with the next generation.

"for whatever reason Threadless never connected with the next generation"

This is super insightful, and shouldn't be missed here. For them to stay successful for 17 years amongst a 5-10 year age group, they would need to completely refresh their customer base 2-3 times. That type of cultural relevancy is extremely hard, as anyone watching FB/Instagram vs Twitter vs Snap can attest.

This. I can attest that graphic tees are not "out of style".

This is a great point. Clothing styles go in and out of fashion on a cyclical basis that is multiple years long.

And there are professionals who focus on exactly this. I'm sure Threadless employs some, but maybe the wrong ones.

once people run out of space for their tattoos they will have to go back to graphic t-shirts

Same single data point here.

Even setting aside the point that graphic shirts are a bit unfashioned, I have not seen a lot of good quality shirts at the very low threadless price.

Good shirts (good materials, fit, no sweatshop, last a long time) are way costlier.

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