Oswen Koln

Shopify Web Design · Web Development · Launch Support

[ SCOPE OF WORK ]

Shopify store UX and information architecture, Full website UI design — homepage, collection pages, product detail pages, about, store locator, and supporting pages, Shopify theme development — custom build, Material collection architecture (Suede, Polido, Buffalo, Quilt), Launch support — store tweaks, fine-tuning, and post-launch adjustments

[ INDUSTRY ]

Fashion · Sustainable Footwear

[ YEAR ]

2021

[ Overview ]

Oswen Köln is a sustainable footwear brand created in Cologne and hand crafted in Portugal — built on a clear and honest proposition: responsible shoes made with LWG-certified European leather, natural components, and a fully transparent supply chain. Unisex. Timeless. Designed around the Ewaldi silhouette and expressed across four material variations — Suede, Polido, Buffalo, and Quilt — each with its own character and its own relationship with wear and time.

The brand had been featured in GQ Germany before the Shopify store launched. The product was ready. The photography was ready. What it needed was a digital home that matched the standard of everything else — a Shopify store that communicated the craft, the material quality, and the sustainability philosophy as clearly as a well-made shoe communicates itself in person.

We were brought in for design and development ahead of launch — and stayed right through to the other side of it, fine-tuning the experience until the store was performing exactly as it should.

[ Client ]

Oswen Koln

[ Website ]

Live Site

[ Project Goals ] Design and build a Shopify store that communicates the craft and values behind Oswen Köln as clearly as the product itself — and gets a founder-led brand from pre-launch to live with confidence.

A sustainable footwear brand built on transparency needs a website that reflects those values in every design decision. The materials are responsible. The supply chain is traceable. The product is made to last. The store had to feel the same way — considered, clean, and honest. Not a fashion website performing sustainability. A sustainability brand that happens to sell fashion.

The product range is intentionally focused — one silhouette, four materials, a small and carefully considered collection. The design had to honour that restraint: a shopping experience as edited as the product range it was selling, without feeling sparse or underdeveloped.

And the launch had to go right. A first DTC launch is a singular moment for a founder — the culmination of everything that came before it. The store needed to be ready, and the team behind it needed to be present and available when it mattered most.

[ Project Scope ]

We designed and built the complete Shopify store for Oswen Köln — from UX through to launch support.

UX research — understanding how a design-conscious, sustainability-minded European customer shops for premium footwear online
Information architecture — structuring a focused product range around the Ewaldi silhouette and its four material expressions
Homepage design — communicating the brand's Cologne-Lisbon story, material quality, and sustainability credentials within the first scroll
Collection pages — material-based collection architecture (Suede, Polido, Buffalo, Quilt) with distinct visual treatments for each variation
Product detail pages — designed for a considered purchase where material quality, ethical sourcing, and product longevity all factor into the decision
Custom Shopify theme build
Mobile-first build throughout

[ Challenges ]

A founder launching their first DTC store with a product that deserved to be seen properly. Here's what we built — and what it took to get it right.

001
Design a store as considered as the product
002
Communicate material quality through a screen
003
Support a founder through their first DTC launch

[ results ] A Shopify store that launched a responsible footwear brand to the world in 2021 — and has been running successfully ever since.

01
Design that reflects the brand's values
02
Material collection architecture
03
A launch that went right

"I could not have launched as successfully as I did without this team as they supported me right up until the day of the launch and even supported post launch with fine tuning. Always available, always finding solutions."