Underscores has become the go-to starter theme in the WordPress community. It serves as a common denominator to reproduce bugs for WordPress Core, it’s what WordPress Theme Review Team administrators point theme authors to, when asked how to improve their review process. It’s also the starter theme of choice for many premium theme shops, selling on Theme Forrest or WordPress.com.

What sets it apart from other projects that are built for the same purpose? How did it get to the point it is today? And what might the future look like?

We will get answers to all these questions and explore the secrets of its success.