Collar Free

Take the Threadless concept of community-based t-shirt design, alter it a bit to make it more lucrative for both the founding company and the designers, and mix in the impressive sales and entrepreneurial background of Co-Founders Jimmy Hendricks and Patrick Dillon, and the end result is Collar Free — the fashion forward company that has created an online community for graphic and fashion designers. With Collar Free’s site, currently in beta, you can register for an account, submit your designs (which have to be approved before making the site), vote on other designs, and purchase mens or women’s tees (there are plans to expand beyond t-shirts).

A member of the Collar Free design community has a few different avenues for revenue. You can either participate in a specific brand-based design competition, or you can submit your designs to be voted on by members of the community, winning designs are selected monthly. Either avenue awards the winning designer a royalty per t-shirt somewhere between $1 and $2 depending on the volume of t-shirts sold.

I was fortunate enough to spend an entire evening with both Pat and Jim at their home/office in North Park, where they gave me a tour of their space, shared some insider details on their history, turned-on the t-shirt purchasing functionality for the very first time, and schooled me at Wii Sports. You can check out pictures and stories from the evening .

Collar Free Quick Stats

  • 96,000 votes on designs in the 3rd week alone
  • $35,000 in revenue for February
  • 7 min 39 sec = avg. time spent on site
  • 1% For the Planet
  • $30 or less – price per t-shirt
  • 5 free shirts for winning designers to share with friends
  • 1 Collar Free branded condom for every shirt ordered (I’ve got one to prove it)

To Watch or Not

Collar Free should be on your watchable list of San Diego startups. They’ve got a business model with monetization based at the core, solid relationships with apparel manufacturers and screen printers, a core principle based around fashion and community, paying clients that include Fashion Week San Diego, and an already highly engaged community of 350 designers.