cott Labz
Couchletics Case Study
A Brand and the Store Built Around It
Scott Labz designed the Couchletics brand and built its online store from scratch: a premium sleepwear and lounge line with a collegiate, game-day look, made to order and shipped without a warehouse.
Project Overview
| Project | Brand identity and a custom online store |
| Organization | Couchletics, a sleepwear and lounge brand with a collegiate, game-day look and the tagline "Athletic Dept. of Rest" |
| Timeline | Work started October 4, 2026. Live October 15, 2026 |
| At launch | 60 pieces and 11 bundled sets, 1,020 color and size options |
| Services | Brand identity, ecommerce strategy, custom store development, product catalog and print files, payments and checkout, order automation, sales tax research and reporting, SEO, analytics, hosting and security, testing, and launch |
| Live site | couchletics.com |
The Challenge
Couchletics needed to launch a premium brand quickly, without buying inventory or running a warehouse. The client asked for a store built on its own code, with full control, rather than a store on a hosted platform.
Hosted store platforms do the basics well. The things that made this brand different would each have needed a paid add-on or a workaround there:
- Bundled sets, like a hoodie and sweatpants sold as one "uniform," that split into separate production orders behind the scenes
- Seasonal pieces that appear and disappear on their own dates, with "last call" and holiday order-by messages that update daily
- Live stock read straight from the production partner, so a size that runs out shows as sold out right away
- A sports schedule feature, The Slate, built into the store
- Sales tax reporting that follows the client's state rules exactly, where general tools fall short
A custom build made every one of these work the way the brand needs, without add-on apps, on code the client owns.
What Was Built
Scott Labz designed the brand and built the store from the ground up: the identity, the product line, the storefront, checkout, order automation, sales tax reporting, search and analytics, and the checks that cleared it for launch.
Brand identity
A complete logo system: a laced sofa icon, a wordmark with a football for the "O," a department crest, a varsity C, a seal and a set of stitched patches. Every product got a game-reference name, like The Letterman Hoodie, The Booster Club Crewneck and The Home Uniform, and the voice stays deadpan and athletic throughout.
The seal, the sofa icon and the wordmark carry one idea across the site, the packaging and the share images: the Athletic Department of Rest.
A department seal, not just a logo
The seal is one piece of a full system: a laced sofa icon, a department crest, a varsity C and a set of stitched patches, all dated to the brand's first season.
A football for the O
The wordmark swaps the O for a football. The same game-day wit runs through every product name and line of copy.
The homepage changes with the football calendar on its own: the header patch, the featured photos and the limited piece all follow the season.
A header patch that follows the football year
The patch beside the logo is drawn in code and changes through the season on its own, from a training-camp whistle to a playoff trophy. In October it's a football pumpkin.
The Slate, running across every page
A live strip of the day's college and pro kickoffs runs under the navigation on every page and links into The Slate, the store's own schedule and scores feature.
A limited piece for each patch
Each in-season patch also gets a limited piece, The Patch Series, sold only during its season. This one comes down November 30.
Featured photos that change by season
The featured photos and banners swap on their own dates, so the homepage stays current without anyone editing it.
Sets sold as one product
The Home Uniform sells a hoodie and sweatpants together. Behind the scenes, the set splits into a separate production order for each piece.
The product line
Production is print on demand through a production partner. Each piece is made after it's ordered, mostly in US facilities, and shipped straight to the customer, so the client holds no inventory. The whole range was set up in the partner's system through its API from a single product spec. The print and embroidery files are generated in code, and the colors are held to a restricted house palette so the line reads as one premium brand.
The storefront
A shop built around how people browse apparel, product pages that answer the questions that stop a purchase, and the same experience on a phone.
Shop All shows the full line with filters down the side. Every category and subcategory also has its own page.
A page for every category
Beyond Shop All, each category and subcategory has a dedicated page, 26 shop pages in all, so a search for hoodies or pajamas lands on a page built for exactly that.
Filters that match how people shop
Shoppers narrow the line by gender, category, size, color, price, maker and collection. Unisex pieces show under both genders.
Colors and sizes at a glance
Each card shows the piece's colorways and how many sizes it comes in before anyone opens the product.
Further down the column: size, color family, price, maker and collection.
The full size run
The size filter covers the whole run, from 3XS to 6XL.
Color families instead of swatch names
Colorway names roll up into eight color families, so a shopper looking for blue finds navy and every blue between.
Shop by the maker of the blank
Each piece is printed or embroidered on a blank from an established maker, and shoppers can filter by maker.
Product pages answer fit, delivery and fabric questions before they turn into abandoned carts or support emails.
Model photos with zoom
Every piece has model photos with zoom, and the gallery follows the colorway picked.
Every colorway on one page
All of a piece's colors live on one page, drawn from the restricted house palette.
Live stock on every size
Sizes read stock straight from the production partner. A size that runs out shows as sold out right away, with an "Email me" button for a restock alert.
A gift card for anyone unsure of a size
Right under the button, shoppers who can't call a size get pointed to the gift card instead of guessing.
A delivery estimate on every product
Each page shows an estimated delivery window, the free-shipping threshold and where the piece is designed.
Fit, fabric, care and origin
A size chart, fit notes, fabric and care, and where each piece is made sit in the details below, which is what federal labeling rules ask of clothing sold online.
Sets are one product with their own price, and each piece in the set keeps its own color and size choices.
Two pieces, one price
The Home Uniform sells the Letterman Hoodie and Sideline Sweatpants together for $165, with the savings shown against buying them separately.
Each piece picked on its own
Shoppers choose a color and size for each piece, matched or mixed, on one page.
Split into separate orders behind the scenes
The set is one line in the cart. Once it's paid for, it splits into a separate production order for each piece.
The Draft Pick gift card covers the shopper who doesn't know a size.
$25 to $200, never expires
The gift card comes in six amounts from $25 to $200, with no fees and no expiration. Larger amounts are set up on request.
Sent by email, with a note
The card reaches the recipient by email as a single-use code with the sender's note. Any balance left after an order is reissued as a new code.
The same store on a phone. Every page was checked on phone and desktop before launch.
Search and cart in reach
On a phone the header keeps search, the seasonal patch and the cart in reach, and the menu folds into one button.
Controls sized for a thumb
The gallery arrows, swatches and size buttons are all large enough to tap without zooming, and the add-to-cart button runs full width.
Checkout and payments
A hosted checkout styled to the brand takes cards, digital wallets and a pay-later option. Sales tax is added automatically. Shipping starts at $8.95 and is free on orders of $125 or more. Card details only ever reach the payment processor, and the store's connection to it is limited to exactly the permissions it needs.
The cart opens as a drawer beside the product and nudges the order toward free shipping.
A cart that stays on the page
Adding a piece opens the cart as a drawer, with the chosen color and size and quantity controls, without leaving the product.
One-tap add-ons toward free shipping
Small add-ons are suggested with one-tap Add buttons, and the cart points out which one takes the order to free shipping.
Free shipping, shown as a goal
Shipping is $8.95 and free at $125. The bar shows how far the order is from free shipping, and tax is added at checkout.
Order automation
When an order is paid, it goes to production automatically. Unusually large or higher-risk orders are held for a quick review first. Customers get an email for every step: the order confirmation, shipping with tracking, and a review request about 12 days after it ships. Shoppers who leave checkout, and agreed to hear from the brand, get one reminder email with a link that rebuilds their cart. Gift cards arrive by email as single-use codes, and any unspent balance is reissued as a new code.
The Slate
A department needs a schedule. The Slate shows live college and pro football schedules and scores, TV listings and game-day weather, all from official data sources, and links each time window back to something to wear.
The Slate lists every game for the chosen day, grouped into time windows like the afternoon slate and prime time.
Every game, every day
Every college and pro football game for the chosen day, from the major programs to Division III, with kickoff shown in the visitor's own time zone.
Narrow it to your games
Filter the day by level or conference, or search by name or state.
What to wear for each window
Each time window suggests a piece for the game-time forecast, like The Home Uniform at 68 degrees, linking the schedule back to the store.
Forecasts and where to watch
Each game shows the stadium, the forecast and the TV listing, all pulled from official data sources.
On the homepage, Game Day HQ counts down to the next kickoff and opens The Slate.
Sales tax and compliance
The client's state sales tax rules were researched from primary sources, and a monthly report matches every order's address against the state's official rate file, which gives the client what they need to file. The store also follows the federal labeling rules for clothing (every clothing page says where the piece is made), anti-spam email law, payment-network rules, and browser privacy opt-out signals.
The footer says plainly what the brand is and isn't, and lists how shoppers can pay.
Search and analytics
Every page carries structured data for search engines, and the store publishes a sitemap and a shopping feed covering every color and size. Each product has its own share image. Analytics tracks sales and product views without ever receiving a customer's name, email address or order number.
Security, speed and quality
The store runs on a global edge network, with HTTPS enforced, security headers on every page and rate limits on checkout and other sensitive actions. More than 50 automated tests guard pricing, shipping, tax codes, seasons and gift cards, and a 38-point launch check verifies pages, photos, checkout and payment methods against the live site.
The Results
Couchletics launched on October 15, 2026, with the full line, checkout, order automation and tax reporting in place from day one.
- The first real order was placed and sent to production on launch day
- 60 pieces and 11 sets at launch, with 1,020 color and size options
- All 112 pages checked on phone and desktop at launch, and all 38 launch checks passed
- A page-quality audit of the live homepage at launch scored 98 for performance on desktop, 100 for accessibility and 100 for SEO
Business Impact
A new brand usually has to choose between launching fast on a hosted platform and building what makes it different. Couchletics didn't have to choose: the sets, seasonal drops, live stock, The Slate and the tax reporting all shipped in the first release, on code the client owns.
With no inventory to buy and production triggered by each paid order, the store's costs follow its sales. Through custom store development and privacy-safe measurement, Couchletics starts its first season with a foundation it can grow on.
Start the Conversation
A store built around how a brand actually sells doesn't happen by accident. It's built deliberately, from the first sketch to the first order, so the store you're running is one you can actually grow with.