Shopify Development | Ecommerce Strategy | Email and SMS Marketing

Collar and Elbow Brand was a wrestling-inspired streetwear company serving customers across a global audience. The project began as a traditional brand website paired with a separate Shopify store, then gradually evolved into a unified ecommerce platform designed to support sales, marketing, customer retention, and long-term growth.

The visual identity was established before the store ever came online. The brand needed to feel rooted in professional wrestling without resembling conventional event merchandise. The resulting direction blended clean, fashion-forward design with grunge textures, bold typography, wrestler-focused campaigns, and promotional graphics that helped position Collar and Elbow as a legitimate streetwear label.

I was responsible for the project’s full creative and technical execution, including website design, Shopify development, graphics, product presentation, copy refinement, email marketing, store management, integrations, campaign development, and ongoing optimization. While ideas were regularly discussed with the broader team, responsibility for building, maintaining, and refining the platform ultimately fell to me.

Over four years, the store went through three gradual rebuilds. Each version was shaped not simply by changing design trends, but by customer behavior and performance data. Funnel patterns were reviewed to better understand how different customer types discovered products, navigated collections, responded to featured wrestlers, and moved toward purchase.

That information helped guide:

• Different shopping journeys for distinct customer segments
• More intentional use of discount codes and promotional offers
• Refined navigation and product discovery
• Improved campaign landing experiences
• Stronger mobile shopping flows
• Continual conversion improvements

The original website and Shopify store were eventually consolidated into a single Shopify-powered platform. This created a more direct customer experience while giving the brand one structured system for content, products, orders, promotions, and customer communication.

The ecommerce operation included:

• Product and inventory management
• Domestic fulfillment and shipping systems
• Payment processing
• Customer reviews
• Social commerce integrations
• Analytics and conversion tracking
• Point-of-sale terminals for conventions
• Abandoned-cart recovery
• Promotional and discount-code management
• Email and SMS data collection

Email marketing began through Mailchimp, expanded through Shopify’s native tools, and later moved into Klaviyo as the brand’s customer data and segmentation needs became more advanced. Automated and manually developed campaigns supported the full customer relationship rather than focusing only on individual sales.

Campaigns included:

• Welcome sequences
• Abandoned-cart reminders
• Post-purchase communication
• Customer win-back campaigns
• Targeted discount offers
• Segmented messaging based on customer behavior
• Product and wrestler-specific promotions

Creative development remained an ongoing part of the work. Homepage graphics, product mockups, promotional banners, launch visuals, campaign artwork, and featured wrestler content were produced and refreshed regularly. This allowed the store to remain active and current while maintaining a recognizable visual identity across the website, email, social commerce, and convention sales.

The work continued for six years and extended well beyond the initial launch. It required constant refinement across design, merchandising, customer journeys, automation, messaging, analytics, and technical operations. Conversion performance continued to improve as the platform matured, and the brand eventually grew to the point that it was acquired by private equity.

This project demonstrates the ability to establish a brand before launch, build and operate a complete Shopify ecosystem, manage ongoing ecommerce and creative production, and use real customer behavior to guide long-term improvements. The result was not simply an online storefront, but a connected sales and marketing platform built to evolve alongside the business.