American Red Cross And Threadless Online Community Team Up To Create Lasting Impressions For 125th Anniversary

Winning t-shirt designs will be printed and sold on Threadless.com and RedCross.org Store.

WASHINGTON, Friday, April 14, 2006 — The American Red Cross will ring in its 125th year with three new t-shirts created by the Threadless online community. The designs, chosen from a host of submissions from artists around the world, will be offered through the RedCross.org Store and Threadless.com with $5 from the sale of each t-shirt benefiting the Red Cross.

This ongoing, interactive t-shirt competition, which began April 3 and ends April 24, is centered on the timeless themes of “hope, humanity and compassion.” Community members are currently adding their designs, voting and critiquing t-shirts, and selecting the finalists. Among the finalists, three tees will be printed; the target release date is the 125th anniversary of the American Red Cross: May 21, 2006.

“Threadless has creative energy that’s hard to match,” said Darren Irby, Vice President of Public Relations for the American Red Cross. “We have 125 years of compelling and ingenious images from artists such as Norman Rockwell and Henry Ossawa Tanner. We’re excited to add a few more to the gallery.”

Creative souls interested in joining the competition only need to log on to Threadless.com and download the design templates. Non-designers may partake in the fun by joining the community to vote on the designs – offering their assistance in choosing the ultimate winner.

The shirts will retail for $15 (male) and $17 (female) on both Threadless.com and the RedCross.org Store. The RedCross.org Store stocks first aid kits, emergency preparedness kits, reference guides and Red Cross wear. Proceeds from the store benefit the American Red Cross and its lifesaving work.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
The American Red Cross is where people mobilize to help their neighbors—across the street, across the country and across the world—in emergencies. Each year, in communities large and small, victims of some 70,000 disasters turn to neighbors familiar and new—the nearly 1 million volunteers and 35,000 employees of the Red Cross Through almost 900 locally supported chapters, more than 15 million people gain the skills they need to prepare for and respond to emergencies in their homes, communities and world. Some 4 million people give blood—the gift of life—through the Red Cross, making it the largest supplier of blood and blood products in the United States. The Red Cross helps thousands of U.S. service members separated from their families by military duty stay connected. As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, a global network of 183 national societies, the Red Cross helps restore hope and dignity to the world’s most vulnerable people. An average of 91 cents of every dollar the Red Cross spends is invested in humanitarian services and programs. The Red Cross is not a government agency; it relies on donations of time, money, and blood to do its work.

ABOUT THREADLESS
Threadless is an ongoing tee shirt design competition. Four to six designs are chosen every week from 600+ submissions to be printed and sold from the site with the winning designers receiving $2,000 in cash and prizes! The project was started in January of 2000 by two Chicago area designers, Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart. Since then, over 450 winning designs have been chosen for print from more than 60,000 submissions. The Threadless community is thriving with over 300,000 users signed up to score designs and an average of 3,000 more signing up every week!

Contact Information

Amanda Mark

RedCross.org Online Store

American Red Cross

Contact via E-mail