Online retailer JackThreads closing after fast ride

Columbus-based online menswear retailer JackThreads is headed into its final days.

The online retailer is promoting “The Farewell Sale” with 70 percent off all merchandise, and the company ceased posting messages on social media sites several months ago.

Company founder Jason Ross, who left JackThreads after a buyout a few years ago, confirmed that the company was headed toward a shutdown.

It is unknown how many people the company employs.

Ross, an Ohio State graduate, launched JackThreads in July 2008 after writing a business plan for a membersonly online flash sale site at his house in Westerville. Without any marketing budget, the site “went viral” and grew to 35,000 members.

By its second year, JackThreads was advertising in Thrillist.com, the digital media company that offers fashion and lifestyle advice and merchandise to a young, urban male demographic.

The move to advertise on Thrillist.com pushed membership in JackThreads to 150,000, which in turn led to Thrillist becoming the major shareholder in JackThreads in May 2010. The digital media company later bought out Ross.

In 2015, Thrillist spun off JackThreads. At the same time, the online retailer moved away from being a members-only flash sale site and toward selling its own brand of men’s clothing.

To gain customers, JackThreads also began offering to send shoppers merchandise to try on.

Customers could return what they didn’t want and pay for only what they kept. While pleasing to customers, the policy is costly to retailers.

Early this year, JackThreads was reportedly in talks with potential buyers and had laid off most of its staff.

At the same time, customers commenting on JackThreads social media sites began complaining that the company wasn’t answering phone calls, emails or test messages, and that the company had charged them for clothes that had been returned.