Babiche & Bend is a one room workshop behind a farmhouse outside Rangeley, Maine, run by Odile Thibodeau, who learned to lace snowshoes from her grandfather and spent twenty winters as a trail groomer before opening it. She splits white ash from a local woodlot, steams each frame for an hour and bends it over a maple form, lets it dry for six weeks, then weaves the toe and heel with wet rawhide that shrinks drum tight as it dries.
Who this theme is for
A small workshop that builds winter gear by hand: snowshoes, toboggans, ice fishing sleds, wooden skis. The buyers are people who walk the woods all winter and want gear they can repair rather than replace, so the page opens on the pair standing in fresh snow, comes in close enough to see the hexagonal weave around the ash, then shows the wet rawhide going through the frame on the bench. The Tech Warehouse layout puts search, sizes and specs up front, which suits gear that is chosen by length, width and the weight it carries.
What was decided in the brief
The style is Tech Warehouse on its first variant. The primary is a clear blue like a cold morning on snow, the text is a deep slate on white, and the accent is an amber close to the colour of the rawhide, so the buy button picks up the lacing. The brand facts lead with the ash and the six week dry because a frame that is laced too soon warps, and the binding goes into the product description because the first question a buyer asks is whether it fits their own boots.
Questions
- Is this Shopify theme really free?
- Yes. You download a complete Shopify 2.0 theme ZIP and no account is needed. In your Shopify admin go to Online Store, then Themes, then Add theme, then Upload zip file.
- I make snowshoes in three sizes for different body weights. How do I set that up?
- Make the snowshoe one product with a Size option, give each size its own price, and put the weight each size carries in the option name, for example 10 x 36, up to 200 lb. The theme shows the size picker on the product page and the price changes with it.
- Every pair takes weeks to make. How do I take orders before it is ready?
- Turn on Continue selling when out of stock for the product and say the lead time plainly in the product description. The theme shows the description under the price, so the buyer reads the wait before they pay.