Guy Is Nude No More

I recently visited the worldwide headquarters of Threadless in Chicago and took a boatload of pictures. I’ve been to the offices of many startups, but few compare to Threadless’s offices in coolness.

Walls covered with graffiti.

An “office” in an Airstream trailer for recording podcasts.

Inside the office recording a podcast.

Interior offices.

Multiple ways to kill/maim/amuse yourself with motor vehicles.

Many ways to amuse yourself when you need a break.

Various macabre things.

Lots of things lying around

.

Various parts of the human anatomy.

Even some shirts.

The world’s largest non-retailer collection of coffee flavors.

The Threadless sticker collection.

My debut as a model.

The shirt is called “Sacrifice,” and it was designed by David Habben

Comments

[Jeffrey]

"Do they have their office set up like that to help them recruit Gen Y candidates, retain their Gen Y employees, both, or something else?"

We have our offices set up like this because that's how we like it! That question makes it seem so contrived. We almost never hire (except for the warehouse) and almost never lose employees. Beyond that, we've never really had to attract anyone. 99% of our hires were people we already knew. Some comments on here make it seem like we have our office this way for a "reason" but the reason is really "why not?". Our good friend is an amazing artist and we have tons of walls so we let him do his thing. The rest is a mix of crap we've bought over the 7 years we've been around. As far as getting work done - it takes a special type of person who can concentrate in chaos... but that's the type of person who belongs at skinnyCorp :)

[SPAX]

Very cool post.

Very interesting pictures.

Peter :-)

[shaz]

lol great pics really wake me up on a sunny morning

__________________________________________
http://www.islam4me.co.uk
A journey of a young, UK based, Muslim

[Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com]

Guy,

Do they have their office set up like that to help them recruit Gen Y candidates, retain their Gen Y employees, both, or something else?

Seems to me that offices like that would be a pretty powerful recruiting and retention tool but hopefully they are also being mindful of the need to get their work done. Some people thrive on intense work demands and need the distractions to relieve the stress while others who trend more towards ADHD get so distracted by all that stuff that they can't get anything done.

[Michael A. Banks]

Nice! Reminds me of visiting Procomm back in the 1990s--a whole section of the first floor packed with F1 racecars. Were you ever there?
--Mike Banks

[Mir]

Lookin' good, Guy! I pink puffy heart Threadless. Tis nice to see they're having exactly much fun as I suspected.

[Emad Hassan kenona]

The comments made the nations culture became close and the knowledge is very important for human being

[Mary-Ann]

I think Threadless could afford a better kart, the amount they are making ;)

[Mike Young]

Oops!! Forgot to include the link. Here it is:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f161/airstream-podcast-studio-32680.html#post392547

[Mike Young]

Guy,

Here's a link to the original owner of that Airstream Bambi. He is located in Crawford, WA. News sure travels quickly.

[Brian Lash]

HA -- you weren't lying when you said you modeled a shirt. Neat to see your mug on their homepage :)

Thanks for this glimpse inside the walls of Threadless.

[RC of strangeculture]

Thanks for the insider look!

How they ever get work done? who knows...much be all that coffee!

[Craig Gibbs]

Seems a little too urban high school for me.

Maybe I am getting old, but then again I smashed my shoulder into a fence catching a fly ball last night.

There's nothing wrong in having an office reflect culture and product. It just all seems like they're trying too hard.

[James]

Man, that is awesome, Guy. Now to go to Threadless and buy some more shirts!

[Andrea]

I've been buying their tshirts all this time and had no idea what their offices look like. I do remember a few things some of their designers mentioned (like Oliver Moss) but they never posted pictures. Kudos to you for doing so :)

[Mike]

Did anyone there (at Threadless) ever work at the Chiat/Day Venice office (the original one)? The Chiat guys had an Airstream meeting room and a Honda car that was also a meeting space. The vibe at Threadless seems very similar. Guy, you probably know Lee Clow - was he the design consultant?!

[Paulo]

Hi Guy,

There's a missing "h" in the threadless url: "ttp://...".

Great photos, thanks!

[Cornwall SEO]

I now know where I should be working.

[David Bach]

What's most impressive about this post is that you are letting your hair grow—and it makes you look not much older than these Threadless kids. Vigor by Osmosis. You must be living right!

[anty]

What is this long thing above the sentence "Many ways to amuse yourself when you need a break"?

A very interesting office, indeed!

[Thomas Schimana]

You have a typo in the link to Threadless (ttp://...)

[Niklas]

wow, that is crazy. Almost not a single working desk in the entire office...