TeePublic

TeePublic
Type of site
E-commerce
Founded2013 (2013)
Headquarters
New York, New York
Founder(s)Josh Abramson, Adam Schwartz
RevenueA$176.8 million (FY23)[1]
ParentArticore (ASX: ATG)
URLteepublic.com

TeePublic is a platform for custom apparel and designs owned by Articore. The company was founded by Adam Schwartz and Josh Abramson, who had previously co-founded Vimeo and CollegeHumor.[2]

History

In 2011, Abramson bought back BustedTees, an online T-shirt company he had previously sold to IAC. He and Schwartz launched TeePublic in 2013 as an e-commerce crowdsourcing site where artists could upload and sell their designs. The original business model required at least thirty people to commit to buying a shirt before a design went into production,[3] but today, designs are immediately manufactured and sold.[4] The company has also expanded into other products such as smartphone cases, notebooks, mugs, and canvas prints.

In 2016, TeePublic shipped more than one million products.[5]

In August 2016, the company took down a controversial T-shirt mocking the USC football team.[6] The shirt said "Our OJ only killed Clemson", in reference to O. J. Simpson, who played football at USC and was famously tried and acquitted for murder, and Alabama senior tight end O. J. Howard.[7]

In October 2018, Australia-based Articore acquired TeePublic for US$41 million.[8][9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Redbubble Group FY23 Annual Report
  2. ^ Ha, Anthony. "T-Shirt Crowdfunding Site TeePublic Funds 22 Designs In Its First Week". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
  3. ^ Grigoriadis, Vanessa. "A Message Tee for Every Mood". The Cut (New York Magazine). Retrieved 2017-10-27.
  4. ^ Cooney, Samantha. "The co-founder of College Humor has quietly found success with his newest website". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
  5. ^ Clarke, Willie (6 May 2017). "Hanging by a thread: How the online nerdy T-shirt economy exists in an IP world". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
  6. ^ Helfand, Zach (2 September 2016). "USC, Alabama reach apparent cease-fire in T-shirt war". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
  7. ^ Heim, Mark (29 August 2016). "Alabama-USC: The story behind 'Our OJ only killed Clemson' T-shirt". AL.com. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
  8. ^ Redrup, Yolanda (24 October 2018). "Redbubble buys US competitor TeePublic for $57 million". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  9. ^ Chowdhury, Reza. "TeePublic Acquired by RedBubble for $41M in Cash". AlleyWatch. Retrieved 2018-10-30.