Building a D2C Sports Brand from Scratch on Shopify

Most of our projects are rebuilds or migrations. This one was a true greenfield launch. Two founders with backgrounds in professional sport wanted to build a credible challenger brand in the UK protein supplement market — a category dominated by brands with decades of heritage and eight-figure marketing budgets. Our job was to build the platform and the strategy that would give them a fighting chance.

Platform Architecture

We chose Shopify Plus from day one despite the higher monthly cost. The founders had aggressive growth targets, planned influencer partnerships, and intended to launch subscription products. Starting on standard Shopify and upgrading later would have required a rebuild within 12 months — it was cheaper to start right.

What We Built

• Custom Shopify Plus theme designed around athlete imagery and science-backed credibility.
• Ingredient transparency pages for every product, with cited research sources.
• Ambassador portal for the 20 professional athletes who would be promoting the brand.
• Subscription programme using Recharge with a custom subscriber portal.
• Affiliate programme integrated with Impact.com for influencer and media partnerships.
• Product quiz generating personalised stack recommendations.

The SEO Foundation

Competing on paid channels in supplements is brutally expensive. We built an SEO content strategy targeting long-tail keywords where the incumbents were weaker — specific ingredient questions, sport-specific nutrition queries, and comparative content. This gave the brand a path to sustainable organic traffic that didn't require outspending established players.

First-Year Results

• £780,000 in revenue in year one against a target of £500,000.
• 14,000 email subscribers by month 12.
• Organic search became the largest traffic source by month 9.
• Subscription revenue reached 41% of total orders by end of year one.
• Brand named in two industry publications as a 'brand to watch'.

Key Success Factors

The brand's science-led positioning, combined with genuine athlete endorsements rather than paid influencer deals, built credibility quickly. The ingredient transparency pages were unusual in the category — and they generated significant organic press coverage and backlinks from fitness media. Building trust first, then converting it to revenue, proved to be the right sequencing.