Thread.com has gone into administration

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Soldato
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I don't know if anyone else has used Thread.com but their technology has been acquired by M&S.

Details here; https://www.thread.com/

Perfect timing as I returned two pairs of boots to them last week and wondered why I never heard anything. That's £150 I'll have to chase from my bank then, cheers for the extra admin guys :rolleyes:

Can anyone explain why they have had to cease trading immediately? Way to pee off lots of customers in one go.. I guess they don't care anymore :o
 
That's a shame although I never personally used them. I think a lot of clothing ships have struggled through the pandemic with people buying fewer clothes. No need for new other if all you need is a pair of joggers a nd a hoodie to work from home. Now recent cost of living rises must be holding people back from unnecessary purchases.

I am guessing that they went into administration before this announcement and that the administrators sold their IP and technology to M&S. But once it was clear that M&S were not interested in the rest of the business, and presumably with no other buyers on the horizon, then they had no choice but to close.
 
Sounds like an interesting company, had not heard of them before. Overview of what they did: https://www.marketingweek.com/menswear-startup-thread-algorithm-fashion-tech/

Not something I'd have really used personally as I tend to be quite pedestrian with my clothing.

Can imagine many places might have seen a downturn in clothes shopping... Personally I've hardly bought anything other than a few bits of outdoor clothing in the past couple of years (but then I was never a big spender anyway). Work clothes get much less wear as I'm mostly home working now so old trousers and shirts I've had for years are still fine for the odd trip into the office, while casual jeans / trackies and t-shirt with hoodie are fine for the rest of the time.

I need to lose a bit of weight though or I'll have to replace all my trousers with a bigger waist size :o :p
 
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Shocking that they did a "drop and run". Even more shocking that M&S let them plaster their name all of their egregious method to spin a positive out of a pump and dump.
 
Scam said:
Can anyone explain why they have had to cease trading immediately? Way to pee off lots of customers in one go.. I guess they don't care anymore :o
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I got the email a couple of days ago and was disappointed to see that they've sold my details to M&S so I straight away wrote to the dpo email address on the email asking them to delete anything relating to me.

I haven't bought anything from Thread but I did get their update emails on a regular basis a few years ago before I unsubscribed.

The impression I got from the email as to why they've ceased straight away was that they've sold all their fancy (alleged) AI tech to M&S and as such, they're not allowed to use it any more. And of course, having sold everything, they don't care any more anyway.

It never worked very well for me, I told it all about me, what I liked, what I wore and none of the suggestions were very good.
 
That message says they were acquired, like they were bought by M&S as some kind of grand venture.

That's very misleading in my opinion.
 
Scam said:
Can anyone explain why they have had to cease trading immediately? Way to pee off lots of customers in one go.. I guess they don't care anymore :o
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As far as I know, they generally have to. If you know that the business is doomed and can't pay its bills, you can't keep taking orders that you know you can't fulfil, making your staff work hours that you'll never be able to pay them for and taking stock from suppliers that you know you'll never be able to afford. A lot of the debate after companies go under is about how early the management realised this was the case, and what they did before formally going into administration.

It does suck for customers, but in the end, if there's no money the business has to stop. In some cases, administrators can get it back up and running again in some capacity and sell off the entire company or parts of it in a way that continues operations, but in others those elements are so doomed that nobody wants to own them - even for nothing.
 
dLockers said:
Shocking that they did a "drop and run". Even more shocking that M&S let them plaster their name all of their egregious method to spin a positive out of a pump and dump.
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Yeah. I don't blame M&S, I just don't understand why Thread suddenly ceased trading and have gone into administration. That doesn't usually happen when companies are bought :confused:
Feek said:
I got the email a couple of days ago and was disappointed to see that they've sold my details to M&S so I straight away wrote to the dpo email address on the email asking them to delete anything relating to me.
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What email did you get? The last I had from them was a Christmas ideas one on 22 Nov. My boots order was on 17 Nov. Absolutely nothing from them until I went onto the site today to see why my refund hasn't come through..

It was a good idea that I liked, but honestly I don't know if I'm just getting old or what, but online shopping for clothes is just as tedious as going into real shops. By the time you have to order things in different sizes, undoubtably things don't like the same IRL, don't fit as they should, etc. so you have to organise your returns, remember to check your refunds, re-order in the correct size (or alternatives).. I think it's just easier to go into a shop and try things on. Meh. I don't understand women that are constantly ordering/returning items from Asos etc.

EDIT:
Jim99 said:
As far as I know, they generally have to. If you know that the business is doomed and can't pay its bills, you can't keep taking orders that you know you can't fulfil, making your staff work hours that you'll never be able to pay them for and taking stock from suppliers that you know you'll never be able to afford.
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I understand that, but nowhere does it say Thread.com was struggling. M&S just bought out their tech. That's why I think it's odd. Sounds a bit like they're puling a fast one to me...
 
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Scam said:
What email did you get?
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This appeared on Wednesday afternoon.


Dear customers,

Ben and I started Thread 10 years ago with the goal of making it easier for men and women to dress well. To achieve this we pioneered how to combine cutting-edge AI with expert stylists, to give each person the perfect set of recommendations.

One of our biggest partners along the way was M&S, who shared our vision for democratising style. To help bring this to their much larger audience, they have acquired Thread's brand, technology and data.

This news is bittersweet, as unfortunately we will be stopping trading independently. We are going to miss working with you all. Thank you for all of the support you have shown us over the years by shopping with us.

Warmest regards,

Kieran & Ben
Co-founders, Thread

Legal notice

Your personal data was saved by Thread Online Ltd in connection with Thread’s website at https://www.thread.com which sold clothing and offered personalised outfit recommendations. As part of the acquisition the legal entity behind Thread will cease trading and be placed into administration. William Wright and Christopher Robert Pole, of Interpath Limited, will be appointed as administrators.

As part of the winding up of Thread's business, Thread and the Administrators will sell certain assets including Thread’s customer database, which contains your personal data (including information such as contact details and clothing preferences), to Marks and Spencer plc. This sale will take place today.

This sale and transfer will take place today. Following such transfer, M&S will be acting as the ‘controller’ of your personal data, which means they will be responsible for handling your information legally and securely.

M&S will treat your personal data in accordance with data protection law and in line with their privacy policy set out here. Please go to their privacy policy for further information including contact details and information on how to exercise your legal rights under data protection law.

Note that M&S does not intend to contact you or use the data for marketing purposes.

If you have any questions, please contact M&S at: [email protected]

After the transfer, Thread will continue processing personal data related to customer orders, such as customer name, order number, and items purchased, as well as customer service inquiries. This is necessary to provide customer support to individuals whose order has been affected by Thread going into administration. Thread will process this personal data for one month from today or, if later, until Thread ceases to exist.

Please see paragraph 6 of Thread's privacy policy for information about your rights in respect of the personal data that Thread will continue to hold after today. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact Thread at [email protected].
 
Feek said:
This appeared on Wednesday afternoon.


Dear customers,

Ben and I started Thread 10 years ago with the goal of making it easier for men and women to dress well. To achieve this we pioneered how to combine cutting-edge AI with expert stylists, to give each person the perfect set of recommendations.

One of our biggest partners along the way was M&S, who shared our vision for democratising style. To help bring this to their much larger audience, they have acquired Thread's brand, technology and data.

This news is bittersweet, as unfortunately we will be stopping trading independently. We are going to miss working with you all. Thank you for all of the support you have shown us over the years by shopping with us.

Warmest regards,

Kieran & Ben
Co-founders, Thread

Legal notice

Your personal data was saved by Thread Online Ltd in connection with Thread’s website at https://www.thread.com which sold clothing and offered personalised outfit recommendations. As part of the acquisition the legal entity behind Thread will cease trading and be placed into administration. William Wright and Christopher Robert Pole, of Interpath Limited, will be appointed as administrators.

As part of the winding up of Thread's business, Thread and the Administrators will sell certain assets including Thread’s customer database, which contains your personal data (including information such as contact details and clothing preferences), to Marks and Spencer plc. This sale will take place today.

This sale and transfer will take place today. Following such transfer, M&S will be acting as the ‘controller’ of your personal data, which means they will be responsible for handling your information legally and securely.

M&S will treat your personal data in accordance with data protection law and in line with their privacy policy set out here. Please go to their privacy policy for further information including contact details and information on how to exercise your legal rights under data protection law.

Note that M&S does not intend to contact you or use the data for marketing purposes.

If you have any questions, please contact M&S at: [email protected]

After the transfer, Thread will continue processing personal data related to customer orders, such as customer name, order number, and items purchased, as well as customer service inquiries. This is necessary to provide customer support to individuals whose order has been affected by Thread going into administration. Thread will process this personal data for one month from today or, if later, until Thread ceases to exist.

Please see paragraph 6 of Thread's privacy policy for information about your rights in respect of the personal data that Thread will continue to hold after today. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact Thread at [email protected].
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Outrageous. I hope this blot sticks on the two founders records forever more.
 
Oh look, surprise surprise. Not only have they sold the business, they've sold themselves.

Thread's founders Kieran O'Neil and Ben Phillips are joining M&S, which is also hiring 30 of the firm's former data scientists, software engineers and styling and creative team members. This team will lead the integration and form a new Personalised Discovery team within the M&S Data and Digital function.

www.theindustry.fashion

Marks & Spencer acquires IP developed by collapsed fashion marketplace Thread - TheIndustry.fashion

Marks & Spencer has acquired the intellectual property developed by collapsed fashion marketplace Thread, as it seeks to boost revenues from new
www.theindustry.fashion www.theindustry.fashion
 
To be fair, that is 200 IQ thinking. Asset strip the firm before the administrators come in and asset strip it for you.
 
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i signed up ages ago but after putting all my details/preferences in i always found their suggestions to be awful. no doubt the AI has improved since then but it always seemed to be a bit of a gimmicky site to me.
that aside, i'm genuinely shocked they can sell up to M&S, take jobs there too and just wind the company up. seems utterly bonkers.
 
Thekwango said:
that aside, i'm genuinely shocked they can sell up to M&S, take jobs there too and just wind the company up. seems utterly bonkers.
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It's a step up from the old trick of winding up your business and starting again the next day with a new name but it's basically the same thing.

The contempt they have for their customers is outstanding, their website basically wipes their hands of any and every issue that may be outstanding. It's all "We've closed, sod you, go away".
 
Feek said:
It's a step up from the old trick of winding up your business and starting again the next day with a new name but it's basically the same thing.

The contempt they have for their customers is outstanding, their website basically wipes their hands of any and every issue that may be outstanding. It's all "We've closed, sod you, go away".
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just looked at there website as i thought you might have been joking but that's utterly minging, not even a proper explanation, it is almost literally - kthnxbye! i hope their move to M&S falls apart, seems to be an utterly scummy move what they have done. makes me doubly glad i never bought owt from them.
i also don't get how M&S can buy their 'tech', business owners and a load of their staff. they should have been made to buy the business as a going concern (or whatever the term is)
 
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Big user of thread. Loved the concept and service. Really scummy end to the company. Very poor show. Luckily didn't loose out re the timing of the adminstration.
 
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Scam said:
I understand that, but nowhere does it say Thread.com was struggling. M&S just bought out their tech. That's why I think it's odd. Sounds a bit like they're puling a fast one to me...
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It says they've appointed administrators, so they must have been in trouble financially. At that point, the administrators are going to get as much cash as they can to satisfy creditors etc, even if that means selling a big chunk to M&S.

I get what you're saying, but I really doubt that the administrators will have made themselves party to a pre-planned "fast one", and even more so when it involves a big publicly traded company like M&S.
 
Liked the idea but I have a weird body shape so most stuff just went straight back. These sort of services must lose a huge amount through the cost of returns, restocking etc and with the squeeze on peoples money I imagine they were struggling.
 
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