Proposal:Sponsor a "Wikipedia loves Threadless" design challenge

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1. Achieve continued growth in readership
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Summary

The t-shirt website and design community Threadless regularly has sponsored design challenges that attract hundreds of t-shirt designs, many of which are very high caliber. For example, the "Red Cross loves Threadless" design challenge attracted 230 designs based on the theme of "hope, humanity or compassion". Wikimedia should sponsor a "Wikipedia loves Threadless" (or "Wikimedia loves Threadless") design challenge, to both spread the word about the projects and their values and to give Wikimedians a chance to buy WMF-themed clothing they can be proud to wear.

Proposal

The WMF should contact Threadless and arrange a design challenge. If possible, try to arrange so that the winning design and some of the better designs that don't win could purchased from the artist for release under free licenses.

Motivation

The selection of WMF-themed merchandise that fans of the site can buy is abysmal. As another pioneer of community-generated content, Threadless has a community of talent that could remedy our problem.

Key Questions

• Threadless is a for-profit retail company. Can something be worked out so that the Threadless design challenge and subsequent clothing sale will mesh well with our free-as-in-freedom values?

Potential Costs

• $2000 - this appears to be the cost of sponsoring a design challenge. The winning designer gets $2000, a $500 Threadless gift certificate, and other prizes.
• Staff time for contacting and negotiating with Threadless.

Additional/alternative t-shirt design communities

In addition to—or instead of—Threadless, we could reach out to other t-shirt design communities and sponsor design contests:

• Design By Hümans (DBH)
• shirt.woot

Community Discussion

Do you have a thought about this proposal? A suggestion? Discuss this proposal by going to Proposal Talk:Sponsor a "Wikipedia loves Threadless" design challenge.

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