Whelp & Marline is a two person rope shop in a former net loft on the Astoria waterfront in Oregon, run by Dagny Ruud, who spent nine seasons as a deckhand on Columbia River gillnetters before her knees gave out. She cuts braided polyester line from the spool, works every eye splice by hand with a wooden fid, whips the ends with waxed twine and fits solid brass snap hooks, so there is no knot or metal crimp anywhere on the lead for a dog to chew loose.
Who this theme is for
A small workshop that makes gear for dogs by hand: rope leads, collars, harnesses, long lines for training. The buyers are dog owners who have had a cheap lead snap or a clasp rust, so the page opens on the coiled lead on the dock, comes in close enough to see the tucked strands of the splice, then shows the fid going through the rope. The Marketplace layout puts search and the full menu in the header, which suits a shop that will grow from one lead into lengths, colours and collars.
What was decided in the brief
The style is Marketplace on its second variant. The primary is a signal red that matches the rope, the text is near black on a white ground, and the accent is an amber close to the brass hooks, so the buy button reads as the lead itself. The brand facts lead with the splice because a knot or a crimp is where a lead fails, and the fifty pound pull test goes into the product description because strength is the first thing a buyer with a big dog wants to know.
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 sell each lead in three lengths and four colours. How do I set that up?
- Make the lead one product with two options, Length and Colour, and give each combination its own price and photo if they differ. The theme shows both pickers on the product page and the price and photo change with them.
- Where do I tell buyers which lead suits a big dog?
- Put the rope thickness and the pull test in the product description, and add a short line on which length and thickness suits which size of dog. The theme shows the full description under the price, so buyers read it before they add to cart.