Functional Softgoods Design.

Industrial Design, Development and Sourcing for softgoods and all things cut and sew.

We design functional products out of textiles.
Backpacks for hiking, Duffels and Rollers for traveling, tents, awnings, or protective cases for your electronics. Our products offer more function than a typical fashion accessory, but are more intimate than molded or hard items (but we do that too).
If your product involves fabrics and carries, protects, floats, flies or otherwise has a job to do, that’s our specialty.

Design Process for Consistent Innovation

Consistent, award-winning industrial design isn’t about talent or tapping into some ethereal source of creativity…

It’s about applying process and sweating the details.

It’s about listening.

It’s about failing and learning and repeating until its right.

WELL DEFINED OBJECTIVES

Maybe the most overlooked step in the Industrial Design process— Whether you have an internal team or want to design with us, let us help craft your early design process with thorough design briefs and methodologies to consistently build world-class product.

CREATIVE HORSEPOWER

Know where you want to start? Great.
Our rigorous brainstorming methodology gets you thinking of new ideas, faster. The result is a broad exploration of solutions that lead to unique and ‘just-right’ functionality. This is the magic people like to call “design thinking.”

Proof Of Concept

Validate everything. Keep the process efficient. Fail Fast and Fail Early.

DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING, DEVELOPMENT and SOURCING

Full-Support to ensure costing is met, and manufacturability is smooth, and the design vision is lives and breathes in your commercial product.

It’s a simple methodology that can unlock space for innovation and bring market leading finish to your product development pipeline…

Who is BLACK THREAD CREATIVE?

Black Thread Creative was born as my consulting and creative outlet, and has become my full-time work and passion. My name is Mark Thibadeau, and I am the principal and owner of Black Thread Creative.

We merge cut and sewn textiles with modern manufacturing techniques to bring a performance and function-first approach to textile based product design. Our industrial design process is rooted in thorough exploration, iteration, prototyping and validation. But, it doesn’t stop there.

Having spent my career as a design and design leader “in-house,” I know all too well that great design is nothing without an executable path from marketing and story-telling to streamlined production. Collaboration with key stakeholders in your organization is a key component of my process.

Merging cut and sewn textiles with modern manufacturing techniques, Black Thread Creative brings a performance and function-first approach to textile based product design.

Why BLACK THREAD?

Black is the thread color generally used in sample rooms and prototype labs all over the world, and I believe heavily in the power of the prototype. Soft goods are often a victim to the sketch-and-ship mentality too prevalent in the design industry today. We believe the quicker you can have something in your hands to look at, pull on, and evaluate, the faster you can narrow in on functionality, form, and spark even more creativity.

As a former design director for large brands, I know the decision to outsource design isn’t easy, and often comes with more management than expected. With Black Thread Creative, all you need to expect are design solutions that are innovative, on brand, and ready for your go-to-market pipeline.

We’re here to take work off your plate, not create more of it, so let us know how we can help.