BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

The new SOLE storefront
— a generational leap
from today's site.

A ground-up rebuild on Shopify's 2026 platform: a store that helps people decide across the range and checks them out in one move — accessible by design.

Date

June 2026

Prepared by

BITCADET · Dusty Dean

Audience

SOLE leadership

Format

Live preview · real screens

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

The shift

A store that helps you decide,
then checks you out in one move.

Search → Decide → Commit. The same lineup, re-engineered around how people actually buy a $1,000–$4,000 machine.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Search that sells

Type a model — see the machine and the price, instantly.

TODAY — a separate search page, then reload

SOLE 2026 — instant, in place, with prices

Today, search means a page reload. SOLE 2026 surfaces product cards with live prices the moment you type — powered by Shopify's Section Rendering API.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Category pages, re-thought

Choose how a category shops.

Three presentation modes per category — Editorial, guided Finder, or all-models Compare.
Filter by goal (walking · running+streaming · studio/HIIT · low-impact · commercial), price band & foldable.
Structured cards — badge · spec chips · warranty · live price, from one data source.

Finder & Compare are built and ready to enable; the published default is the Editorial concept.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Help me decide

A guided finder — "which SOLE is right for you?"

A few taps — goal, space, budget — and the range narrows to the right machines. A model-soup lineup becomes guided confidence.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Compare the range

Every model, spec by spec — on demand.

Motor, deck, incline, display, foldable, capacity, warranty — across the lineup, with goal & price filters. High-consideration buyers triangulate before they spend $2k.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

The hard part, solved

The compare works on a phone, too.

A full spec-by-spec table on a 390px screen — where most SOLE traffic actually is. This is the thing most themes give up on.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

The buy box, optimized for the sale

A buy box engineered to convert.

TODAY

SOLE 2026

A deliberate order: price → financing as a monthly payment → trust pillars → delivery & assembly tiers → HSA/FSA → add to cart — with a sticky in-page nav and an "at a glance" spec panel.

Shown on the SOLE F65 (unchanged on both themes). Financing & HSA exist today too — the leap is design & prominence.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Responsive, end to end

Designed for every screen — top to bottom.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

The quick cart drawer

Add to cart, keep shopping — with an upsell at the moment of yes.

Slide-in drawer updates in place (Cart Ajax + Section Rendering).
"Complete your setup" — one-tap accessory add (mat, lube) for AOV.
Monthly-payment financing + Shop Pay / Google Pay express wallets, right in the drawer.
Fly-to-cart animation + HSA/FSA carried through.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Support, redesigned

A real support hub — searchable.

TODAY — service & manuals

SOLE 2026 — searchable hub

Live manual search ("f8" → F80/F83/F85), 2026 & legacy manual eras, assembly videos, and responsive warranty/RMA/service forms that hold their Submit button on mobile.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Under the hood

Built on Shopify's own 2026 platform.

The same foundation as Shopify's flagship Horizon theme — an ES-module kernel wired to native APIs.
Shopify maintains the hard parts — native predictive search, an Ajax cart, and instant page transitions — so the experience keeps working as the platform evolves.
One structured data source for specs → change a spec once, it's right on every page (PDP, compare, cards).
Clean on the validation traps that silently break deploys — what you author actually ships, and Google reads it right.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Accessibility, engineered in

Built into the code — at the source.

serious/critical axe violations originating in theme code

9.2–9.8

WAVE AIM, store-wide (CMS · collections · cart · search)

URLs scanned with real WAVE + axe engines

The rebuild meets WCAG 2.1 AA through a documented, governed program — accessibility fixed in the code, not painted over. That also retires a known liability: accessibility overlays have become a documented target for ADA litigation, and this removes the dependency.

Automated coverage; manual assistive-tech audit in progress. Residual flags = a third-party review app + the preview bar, shared with today's site.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Craft as architecture

One design system, every surface.

~50 semantic brand tokens — a single source of truth for color, type, spacing.
Contrast-safe by construction — brand red auto-adjusts on dark, so accessibility holds by default.
Dark-marketing / light-commerce theming as a contract; fluid type that scales without breakpoint cliffs.
Motion — view transitions, scroll-reveal, fly-to-cart — all reduced-motion-safe.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Beyond the highlights — also rebuilt

Every surface, re-thought.

CMS · 27 PAGES

Fully styled

Legal pages with auto-TOC, Truemed HSA/FSA savings, Kinomap, 33 distributors, brand story.

RETAIL

Dick's QR info pages

Chrome-free, no-price in-store destinations that protect the Dick's channel.

BLOG

Article auto-TOC + CTA

Redesigned index + articles with jump-nav, share, related posts, per-article commerce CTA.

SYSTEM

Branded 404 + password

A helpful 404 (search + quick links) and an on-brand private-store gate.

INTEGRITY

Sourced claims only

Every warranty/shipping/HSA claim verified against live checkout — accurate by policy.

NAV

Premium mobile nav

Full-screen overlay (focus-trap, scroll-lock); Best Deals pinned red as a CRO signal.

DATA

Caught spec errors before customers did

A reproducible data pipeline with source provenance flags drift between the spreadsheet, the live page, and the storefront — before it ships.

FOOTER

Canonical + compliant

Current policy links, an Accessibility link, and the medical magnetic-field warning.

TESTING

A/B-ready templates

Category & PDP variants for split-testing, inheriting the whole design system.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Where this shows up

Built to move the numbers that matter.

DECISION CONFIDENCE

More researchers reach a cart

Predictive search, the guided finder, and an all-models compare turn a confusing $1k–$4k lineup into a guided choice — fewer shoppers stall and leave.

CHECKOUT COMPLETION

Fewer drop-offs at "buy"

Slide-in cart drawer, express wallets (Shop Pay / Google Pay), and financing shown as a monthly payment — one move from add to checkout.

ORDER VALUE

A bigger basket at the moment of yes

"Complete your setup" adds the mat and lube in one tap, right in the drawer — incremental AOV on machines you're already selling.

RISK & REACH

A liability retired, an audience served

Accessibility fixed in the code (WCAG 2.1 AA) removes the overlay's ADA-litigation exposure and serves assistive-tech shoppers.

Every one is testable — the theme ships A/B-ready category & PDP templates, so we measure the lift, not assume it.

No projected dollar figures on purpose — these are the levers and exactly how we'll prove them.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Honest roadmap

What's next — said plainly.

Promote the finder & compare to the category default.
A mobile performance pass, then a clean speed re-benchmark on the published store.
Move the structured specs into native metafields so they're merchant-editable.
Manual keyboard + screen-reader accessibility audit before go-live.

We'd rather show you the plan than overclaim. Every number in this deck is measured and defensible.

BITCADETSOLE FITNESS · EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

A storefront re-architected
around how people
buy a SOLE.

Search → Decide → Commit, on Shopify's 2026 platform, accessible by design — and built to scale with the catalog.

The new SOLE storefront— a generational leapfrom today's site.

A store that helps you decide,then checks you out in one move.

Type a model — see the machine and the price, instantly.

Choose how a category shops.

A guided finder — "which SOLE is right for you?"

Every model, spec by spec — on demand.

The compare works on a phone, too.

A buy box engineered to convert.

Designed for every screen — top to bottom.

Add to cart, keep shopping — with an upsell at the moment of yes.

A real support hub — searchable.

Built on Shopify's own 2026 platform.

Built into the code — at the source.

One design system, every surface.

Every surface, re-thought.

Fully styled

Dick's QR info pages

Article auto-TOC + CTA

Branded 404 + password

Sourced claims only

Premium mobile nav

Caught spec errors before customers did

Canonical + compliant

A/B-ready templates

Built to move the numbers that matter.

More researchers reach a cart

Fewer drop-offs at "buy"

A bigger basket at the moment of yes

A liability retired, an audience served

What's next — said plainly.

A storefront re-architectedaround how peoplebuy a SOLE.

The new SOLE storefront
— a generational leap
from today's site.

A store that helps you decide,
then checks you out in one move.

A storefront re-architected
around how people
buy a SOLE.