Spreadshirt Followup

I posted yesterday about a talk given by Jana Eggers, the CEO of Spreadshirt. Within 8 hours she had responded in the comments. In her blog she claims to be a “passionate customer advocate” and her behavior certainly backs that up.

She made some great points in her response that I wanted to share outside of the comments. Her comments are in bold.

“Spreadshirt does use Direct-to-Garment printing, but it is only a small fraction of what we do. Our core printing technology — which gives a Net Promoter Score that is double that of DTG — is plot printing.”

This is a major difference, the technology Spreadshirt uses provides much bolder color and also offers some interesting options like flocked and metallic finishes that are impossible with DTG. The video below provides a glimpse into how products are manufactured at their factory.

“I’m not sure what you mean by “seeing the service as a pure gimmick”. As gimmick isn’t a positive word, I’d love to learn more what you mean. Perhaps it is the quality that you have seen in the past with print-on-demand capabilities. Spreadshirt is known for its quality, and it is quality that is “hanger worthy” — meaning you can have it in your day-to-day wardrobe — even work wardrobe!”

I should have said “perceived by many to be a gimmick” and to be clear I meant customization as a whole and not Spreadshirt’s offering in particular. In my talks with potential customers and investors many have the belief that customized offerings are not competition for products found at retail, but rather niches or glorified marketing expenses. I chalk this attitude up to lack of imagination (people derided camera phones similarly) and the data collected by Spreadshirt provides some great data to the contrary.

“Regarding most DTG printing being below screen printing, this is true for the most part. DTG is better when you want a retro or faded look. Our plot printing is higher quality than screen printing (but is limited in colors). This is one of the reasons why people are choosing us.”

Product quality varies quite a bit between customization companies and even within product categories. I admire Spreadshirt’s decision to stick with one product and perfect it, rather than offering hundreds of products with little regard for quality.

Custom ecommerce is very different than traditional ecommerce. Amazon became the world’s largest store because it operates largely virtually, aggregating supply and demand, taking a cut of the transaction. Companies offering customization have to deal with the constraints of manufacturing in the physical world and optimizing those processes to yield great products. Perfecting one product category is hard enough without customization and I think companies with focus will have a greater chance of long term success.

“People do want to create, but the challenge is a bit different than just the ease of doing it. Most people don’t even know to answer the question. The survey we did asked people this question in many different ways. We didn’t just say, “Do you want to print something on a tshirt.” Most folks didn’t even know to say “print”. When we asked them about what their shirts expressed and what they wanted them to express, they more got the idea that what they see in the store can be done, but done personalized to their message.”

I totally agree. Customization is about a lot more than cool technology. It is a dramatic shift in the way we approach commerce. For the first time since the industrial revolution, mass market consumers are being given the opportunity to have a direct say in how their products look, feel, and function. This is a massive change made possible by advances in technology, but made will only become mainstream with an understanding of psychology.

Tagged as: Amazon.com, Jana Eggers, mass customization, Net Promoter Score, Personalization, Print on Demand, Printing, Publishing and Printing, Spreadshirt