Crowdsourcing Sites

I decided to report on the almost famous threadless.com. As my boyfriend looks at T-shirts probably every weekend looking for that perfect shirt that states that he is a "gamer/nerd/non-n00b" to random people on the street. Apparently threadless.com fits the bill.
Beyond T-shirts that offer the wearer an ever changing array of slogans and pictures, threadless.com also opens up the creative process to their customers and the public. After inspiration hits, threadless is there with a custom submission kit which includes: photos of models with blank t-shirts that the designer can add their idea for submission to, blank t-shirt templates and other features. Over a week the public/customers/anyone on internet assess each design and rate the T-shirts before threadless tallies the score and adds the winners to the site. The site also offers prospective designers the option of putting a design through the gambit of public abuse before submitting an idea to the threadless board. If chosen the winner earns themselves: $2000 cash, a $500 threadless.com Gift Certificate, $500 every time threadless reprints the design also the T is entered to win a "Bestee" Threadless Award and up to $10,000.
As threadless.com does have some pretty cool t-shirts and they seem to be pretty mainstream and have done pretty well in the wide world of internet companies. Although I have never bought from a site that uses crowd sourcing (I don't shop online a lot), I have utilized user comments on sites like amazon and target.com. Threadless did seem pretty cool, and I would probably submit something to them before I bought something though...graphic T's aren't really my think. Thankfully for them, my boyfriend is still an avid fan.