LAKEVIEW — Threadless T-shirt shop's flagship Lakeview store has closed as part of a companywide layoff, according to Crain's Chicago Business.
The tech company laid off more than a quarter of its staff, including closing the 3011 N. Broadway store. CEO Jake Nickell told Crain's that the company will refocus on selling its user-designed T-shirts in established stores instead.
"Over the past few years, we've experimented with new and exciting ways to create meaningful, game-changing opportunities for artists," Nickell wrote in a blog post. "While some of these initiatives worked really well, others did not. Today, we stop working on some of the projects that weren’t clear winners."
Threadless's website crowdsourced T-shirt designs, and the winners were sold online and in the Lakeview store. In 2008, Inc. magazine named it "the most innovative small company in America."
