
Every Shopify theme enforced the same visual grammar: the same grid, the same font weight, the same checkout as ten thousand other stores. For a brand where the site IS the product, that template read contradicts the clothes before a visitor reads a single word. Bespoke fashion cannot look like a Shopify demo.
A custom Next.js storefront from scratch — no theme, no template at any layer. Stripe Hosted Checkout (no card form, no PCI overhead). Zustand cart that persists without requiring an account, removing the friction point that kills small-store conversions. Framer Motion product transitions and image-first layouts that let the photography breathe instead of fighting a column grid.
Live at somedose.com, taking real orders through Stripe since 2024. The design serves the brand rather than fighting it — Lighthouse 100s, sub-second LCP, Apple Pay one-tap. No template was used at any layer of the stack. The site looks the way it does because nothing was forcing it to look different.