Spreadshirt

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sprd.net AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding May 2002 (as Spreadshirt GbR )
Seat Leipzig , Germany
management Philip Rooke (CEO), Tobias Schaugg (CFO), Lukasz Gadowski (Chairman of the Supervisory Board)
Number of employees about 500
Branch Social Commerce
Personal Branding
Website www.spreadshirt.de
Status: July 2014

Spreadshirt (actually sprd.net AG) is a social commerce company headquartered in Leipzig , which provides its users with an online platform with the help of which t-shirts can not only be designed and bought, but also offered for sale . An extensive shop partner system enables each user to create their own t-shirt shop and, if necessary, to integrate it into existing websites.

All business transactions are carried out via the Internet : the shop operator uploads his graphics, logos, etc. via the Internet and uses them to design his products. Spreadshirt then takes on all the functions necessary to sell the individual merchandising products online, from warehousing to production, shipping and payment processing to customer service.

history

Company headquarters in Leipzig-Plagwitz

Spreadshirt was founded in 2001 by Lukasz Gadowski and Matthias Spieß. At that time, Spieß already had experience in setting up companies. The other managing director Michael Petersen became a partner in the company in summer 2004. In 2006 the corporate form was changed from a GmbH to an AG .

Spreadshirt's headquarters are in Leipzig-Plagwitz . There are also other European offices in Berlin , London , Paris , Utrecht and Legnica, Poland . In 2006, the third production site was established there alongside Leipzig and the American one in Greensburg . The US subsidiary is based in Boston .

In July 2006 the London invested venture capital -Unternehmen Accel Partners in Spreadshirt. Some of the money was used to buy the French company laFraise , which runs Europe's largest ongoing t-shirt design competition on the Internet. The company laFraise was closed in July 2014. The Irish subsidiary La Fraise Ltd. but is still active.

On August 1, 2007, Gadowski gave up his position as CEO at Spreadshirt and has been chairman of the supervisory board since 2008. Gadowski's successor was the American Jana Eggers, who was CEO of Spreadshirt until November 2010 . In May 2011, former Marketing Director Philip Rooke was appointed CEO. The current members of the Executive Board are CEO Philip Rooke and CFO Tobias Schaugg, the co-founder and previous ( CTO ) Matthias Spieß moved to the Supervisory Board (as of July 2014).

Logo from laFraise
Logo German printing service
Yink company logo

In July 2014, Spreadshirt included, in addition to Spreadshirt.de, the corporate brand Yink, which emerged from the German printing service, later Spreadshirt large orders. The service, which has existed since 2004, remains a division of Spreadshirt, but is now working as its own brand.

On January 7, 2016, Spreadshirt decided to close the production site in Leipzig. The 26 employees of Spreadshirt Manufacturing Deutschland GmbH were given leave of absence. Leipzig produces only 10% of the European volume. There are other locations in Legnica (Poland) and Krupka (Czech Republic). After short negotiations, the leave of absence for the production staff was lifted and Spreadshirt is now producing in Leipzig again.

criticism

It is often assumed that Spreadshirt is another Web 2.0 clone based on the US cafepress.com. In an article dated December 2, 2007, Spiegel Online listed Spreadshirt under the heading "German Web 2.0 imitators: cashing in with the copy shop".

In an article in the taz it was revealed that “Reconquista” (rcqt) had offered right-wing extremist devotional items in a Spreadshirt shop. The shop was closed by Spreadshirt in 2008 after this became known. In addition, until 2011 PI-News also operated a “PI Shop” at Spreadshirt and offered T-shirts with anti-Muslim motifs. Spreadshirt had considered closing the shop several times, but rejected it with the reference to "freedom of expression". In October 2011, however, the shop was also closed.

In 2020 it became known that Spreadshirt sells clothing with QAnon motifs.

In May 2020, Spreadshirt came under fire because several products were offered on the platform that had a design reminiscent of a Jewish star. The stars were marked “Not vaccinated”. After a shitstorm on social media , the company removed the products from its range.

facts and figures

  • Spreadshirt's European marketplace now has more than 370,000 t-shirt designs that can be combined in different combinations on almost 130 different products.
  • Sales in 2010 amounted to EUR 31.8 million, including EUR 9.5 million in the USA
  • In 2014, the company achieved sales of EUR 72 million and shipped 3.3 million items to 150 countries.

Awards

  • Silver Best in Biz Award for the Spreadshirt collection in the 2013 Product Line category
  • OnlineStar 2006: Special “Founder of the Year” award for Lukasz Gadowski
  • Europe's Top 500 (2006): 5th place among the fastest growing medium-sized companies in Europe, No. 1 in Germany
  • German Internet Prize 2005: Award from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Matthias Spieß on süddeutsche.de from February 18, 2011 , accessed on February 18, 2011
  2. ↑ Jochen Krisch: Spreadshirt: With venture capital to the world market leader. ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. exciting commerce from July 18, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.excitingcommerce.de
  3. ↑ Lukasz Gadowski: Spreadshirt takes over LaFraise. ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Start-up scene from July 31, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gruenderszene.de
  4. ↑ laFraise Blog: laFraise will be closed ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lafraise.com
  5. ↑ https://search.cro.ie/company/CompanyDetails.aspx?id=419549&type=C
  6. ↑ Jochen Krisch: Spreadshirt: Lukasz Gadowski hands over to Jana Eggers. ( Memento of the original from June 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. exciting commerce from July 19, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.excitingcommerce.de
  7. ↑ Kirsten Reinhold: Spreadshirt expands business with large customers ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. TextilWirtschaft dated December 9, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.textilwirtschaft.de
  8. ↑ http://www.l-iz.de/wirtschaft/wirtschaft-leipzig/2016/01/schlechte-nachrichten-aus-plagwitz-spreadshirt-schliesst-leipziger-produktionsstaette-121769
  9. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mdr.de
  10. ↑ Gregor Hochmuth: Web 2.0 in Germany: Copy / Paste Innovation or more? TechCrunch dated May 14, 2007
  11. ^ Helmut Merschmann: German Web 2.0 imitators. Checkout with the copy shop. Spiegel online from December 2, 2007
  12. ↑ The daily newspaper: Killer Döner Thuringian style.
  13. ↑ Spreadshirt Blog: Shop partner exclusion procedure applied for.
  14. ↑ Discover WWG1WGA designs online. Retrieved May 18, 2020 .
  15. ↑ State security reports: Spreadshirt allowed "Judenstern" T-shirt. In: ntv. May 18, 2020, accessed May 19, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Anti-vaccination t-shirts: Spreadshirt reaps shit storm for Nazi motif . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed May 20, 2020]).
  17. ↑ shirta.com ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Search engine for t-shirt designs on the Spreadshirt.net marketplace  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / shirta.com
  18. ↑ Jochen Krisch: Spreadshirt is aiming for a turnover of over 40 million euros (+ 27%) for 2011 on exciting commerce from November 9, 2011
  19. ↑ Steffen Höhne: Spreadshirt does not want to expand the Leipzig location
  20. ↑ Best in Bizz Awards Product Line of the Year
  21. ↑ Online-Star 2006: And the OnlineStar goes to… ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 58 kB) Press release from October 26, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.onlinestar.de
  22. ↑ Europe's 500 Ranking. 109 German medium-sized companies create more than 32,000 new jobs. PRESSEBOX, press release BoxID 80066
  23. ↑ BITKOM - Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media e. V: Key topics and winners of the German Internet Prize 2000 to 2008. ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 3.0 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bitkom.org

Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 34.6 "  N , 12 ° 19 ′ 41.7"  E