Scabs

Context

Scabs is a Los Angeles fashion label I founded in 2024. I designed and built the storefront myself in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Shopify Liquid because I wanted to know what happens when you have to defend every design choice against a real conversion outcome. The first drop sold $8,900. Most buyers came from Instagram, on mobile, in a tight window after the drop went live.

Most Shopify themes are built for volume: dense product grids, aggressive calls-to-action, "12 people are viewing this" urgency. That actively hurts an independent fashion brand where the whole point is restraint and scarcity. I had to make something that held the brand's atmosphere and didn't get in the way of the sale.

Key Decisions

The product page layout.

I shipped first with the standard Shopify pattern: large image at top, details stacked below, size selector and "add to cart" below the fold. On mobile that means scrolling past the entire image before reaching purchase information. On desktop, half the screen sits empty.

I knew within the first day it wasn't working. People lingered but didn't convert at the rate the Instagram engagement suggested they should. So I moved to side-by-side: image on the left half, details and purchase on the right. On mobile, image takes the top half with details fixed below — no scrolling required to see both at once.

A customer making a $60–$100 fashion purchase needs to see the garment and the price at the same time. Forcing them to scroll back and forth between image and information puts work on them that they shouldn't have to do. After the change, conversion noticeably improved. The DMs stopped asking "what's the price?" and started asking about sizing.

The sizing calculator.

The single most common DM after launch was a version of "I'm 5'10, 165, what size should I get?" Over and over. A standard sizing chart was already on the page — measurements in inches, fit notes. People ignored it. Most don't own a measuring tape, and more than that, they weren't looking for measurements. They wanted a recommendation.

I built a small calculator: height and weight in, recommended size out, with one-line explanation for that specific garment. The logic was hand-tuned per product based on the cut and who I was seeing buy. The sizing chart stayed but the calculator was first. DMs about sizing dropped noticeably after I shipped it — not to zero, but enough that I stopped spending an hour every evening answering the same question.

The calculator is technically less precise than a real measurement. But less precise and more useful aren't the same thing. It gave people permission to buy, which the chart didn't.

Removing the cart.

Shopify is built around a shopping cart. Every theme assumes it. But Scabs isn't a normal store. Each drop is one or two items, released at a specific time, available until sold out. A customer isn't shopping. They're deciding whether to buy this thing before it's gone.

The cart was just an extra step: add to cart → view cart → review → check out. Four interactions for what should be two. I shipped without it. The purchase button goes directly to checkout. No cart icon in the header, no "view cart" page, no item count. The entire concept is absent.

This was the decision I was least sure about because I was overriding the default behavior of a system much larger than me. But a cart only earns its place when a customer might buy multiple things or return later. Neither applied. Forcing it in because Shopify expected it would have been deferring to the tool instead of the customer.

Results

The first two hours of sales were dense, almost no hesitation between product page and purchase confirmation. Most traffic was mobile. It sold out faster than I'd planned.

I want to be clear about who actually bought from Scabs: Instagram audience, almost all mobile, tight cultural group. Not broad reach. For a niche fashion brand, that's probably the correct shape. The work wasn't convincing them. It was not getting in their way.

Learnings

What I'd carry forward: so much of the work was unlearning Shopify's defaults. The platform gives patterns right for the average store. Scabs wasn't average. Every decision that worked came from being willing to override a default once I understood why it was wrong for this case.