Case study

Two brands. One storefront. From tournament to tailgate.

AllCornhole is the premium ACL-validated cornhole line; Victory Tailgate is the casual, college-licensed line with 50+ university relationships. Muscled took over a stalled dual-brand Shopify build, resolved the brand-coexistence question on a neutral Diffuse / Stretch shell, built a custom Admin API migration app for ~500 Victory Tailgate SKUs, and planned the VictoryTailgate.com to allcornhole.com DNS cutover.

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By the numbers

The numbers speak for themselves

Vault-backed numbers. No presentation-grade estimates. Each one is reconcilable to the founder's own reporting.

Front-end build completion
~95%

Dual-brand Shopify front-end and content roughly 95% complete as of the launch readiness call, with custom mega navigation, conditional dark/light header, comparison chart component, and brand-specific collection and product templates.

SRC: Vault notes.md, launch readiness Loom transcript, 2026-05-21

Victory Tailgate SKUs migrating into AllCornhole
~500

Approximately 500 Victory Tailgate products being merged into allcornhole.com via the custom Admin API migration app. Including college-licensed gear across 50+ university relationships, the combined catalog reaches 1,000+ SKUs.

SRC: Vault projects/1-dual-brand-shopify-build.yaml, 2026-05-21

Admin API scopes wired in the custom migration app
30

Custom Node.js Admin API app covering products, inventory, files, customers, orders, order edits, content, themes, translations, metaobjects, navigation, product feeds, listings, and publications. Proven end-to-end on Muscled's own store on 2026-05-21 (HTTP 200 on shop.json).

SRC: Vault projects/2-custom-admin-api-app.yaml, 2026-05-21

AllCornhole monthly revenue

Post-rebuild growth
Desktop & Mobile

The full homepage, shown two ways

Two side-by-side screenshots of the long homepage. Hover the desktop card to slowly scroll the screenshot top to bottom, so visitors see the entire page without leaving this one.

  • Desktop · full homepage after rebuild
    ~500
    SKUs consolidated into one storefront
    /mo at peak
  • Mobile-first after rebuild
    Mobile traffic share
    Engagement length
The work

How the engagement unfolded

  1. Dual-brand architecture resolved

    Project pickup

    The agency engagement was already 3-4 months in and described as a perfect storm of complications when Muscled was brought in. The first move was resolving the dual-brand identity question: AllCornhole (premium, dark, tournament energy, ACL-validated bags) and Victory Tailgate (casual, light, backyard energy, college-licensed gear) needed to coexist on one storefront without diluting either. Resolution: present them as product families inside a single cornhole commerce destination on a neutral theme shell.

    • Dual-brand strategy
    • Neutral theme shell
    • Pro and Backyard tracks
    • Content-driven brand energy

  2. Theme build on Diffuse (Stretch)

    Front-end build

    Took over theme architecture and full development from the agency's internal team on the Diffuse preset of the Stretch theme. Built the custom mega navigation with two link columns plus image tiles, a conditional dual-brand header switching dark for AllCornhole Pro and light for Victory Tailgate, brand-specific collection and product page templates (4-5 total), a custom comparison chart component, metafield-based product specifications for Klaviyo targeting, and ACL Pro / Comp / Rec validation badges on the bag products. Front-end and content roughly 95% complete at the launch readiness call.

    • Diffuse / Stretch theme
    • Custom mega nav
    • Conditional dual-brand header
    • 4-5 page templates
    • Comparison chart
    • ACL badges
    • Metafield specs

  3. Custom Admin API migration app

    Pre-launch

    Identified that Shopify CSV export does not carry source-store CDN image URLs across to a destination store and that no off-the-shelf tool covers the full required scope. Built a Node.js Admin API app under the agency's Shopify Dev Dashboard with 30 scopes covering products, inventory, files, customers, orders, order edits, content, themes, translations, metaobjects, navigation, product feeds, listings, and publications. Proven end-to-end on Muscled's own store on 2026-05-21 (full OAuth flow, token captured, HTTP 200 on shop.json).

    • Node.js Admin API app
    • 30 scopes
    • Direct Shopify-to-Shopify migration
    • Legacy OAuth flow
    • Proven end-to-end

  4. DNS cutover plan + go-live coordination

    Launch readiness

    VictoryTailgate.com being deprecated and routed to allcornhole.com via Shopify domain alias plus a CNAME update from the client's IT team. All redirect logic kept inside Shopify rather than at DNS level so the agency owns the mapping. URL redirect mapping roughly 90% complete at the time of the call, with one-to-one redirects for matching pages and a homepage fallback for legacy URLs. Tony's team lowering TTLs before the switchover. Go-live call scheduled for the 28th with Jason on real-time DNS execution.

    • Shopify domain alias
    • CNAME cutover
    • Redirect mapping ~90% complete
    • TTL lowering
    • Go-live call scheduled
Project overview

What we built

AllCornhole is a premium cornhole brand owned by Escalade Sports, a US sports conglomerate. Victory Tailgate is a separate Escalade Sports brand carrying college-licensed cornhole and backyard games across 50+ university relationships. The Shopify project Muscled is on merges both brands into one storefront at allcornhole.com, migrates all Victory Tailgate product data across stores, and executes a DNS cutover from VictoryTailgate.com to allcornhole.com.

Muscled was brought in by Vokal, the agency running the engagement, after the project was already 3-4 months in. The work has been mixed strategy and engineering: resolving the dual-brand identity question, taking over theme architecture on the Diffuse preset of the Stretch theme, building a custom Node.js Admin API app to migrate ~500 products end-to-end, and planning the domain cutover.

In their own words

(Testimonial TBD. Vault primary contact is agency-side; client-side public-OK is open.)

AllCornhole is a premium cornhole brand owned by Escalade Sports, a US sports conglomerate that also owns Victory Tailgate, Onyx Pickleball, and other backyard and basketball brands. AllCornhole is the ACL-validated tournament line (Pro, Comp, Rec). Victory Tailgate is the casual / college-licensed line with 50+ university relationships. The Shopify project merges both into a single storefront at allcornhole.com. Muscled was brought in by Vokal, the agency running the engagement.

AllCornhole teamBrand / operations
The challenge

What was holding them back?

Two brands with opposite energies had to share one storefront without diluting either. The build was already in crisis when Muscled joined: an unplanned image migration scope, a stacked Shopify permissions situation, and an unresolved dual-brand identity question. Off-the-shelf migration tools did not cover the full scope. The theme did not solve for the navigation, comparison-chart, or product-card requirements out of the box.

  1. 01

    Two distinct brands had to live on one storefront without diluting either

    AllCornhole is premium and tournament-grade. Victory Tailgate is casual, backyard, and college-licensed. The client refused a tabbed site, refused a new parent domain, and refused to drop the Victory Tailgate brand name. The Shopify build had to carry both identities cleanly inside a single storefront with no off-the-shelf precedent to copy.

  2. 02

    ~500 Victory Tailgate products had to migrate with images, inventory, customers, and orders intact

    Shopify's standard product CSV export carries source-store CDN URLs for product images that do not resolve in any other store. Proper migration required downloading images from the source store and re-uploading them to the destination, alongside inventory, customers, orders, metaobjects, navigation, publications, and Shopify Collective wiring. No off-the-shelf migration tool covered the full scope.

  3. 03

    The Diffuse theme could not handle the dual-brand requirements out of the box

    Diffuse's built-in mega menu carries six promo slots plus text links on one side. The AllCornhole requirement is two text link columns plus college team image tiles. No Shopify theme has a built-in comparison chart component. Diffuse's product card layout does not handle AllCornhole's long SEO-style product names. CSS overrides risked polluting global styles.

  4. 04

    Agency arrived without Shopify experience and the project was already in crisis

    The agency had no Shopify-specific expertise and the project was 3-4 months in when Muscled was brought in. A stacked permissions crisis on the Shopify side, an unplanned image migration scope, and an unresolved dual-brand identity question all had to be carried through to a working storefront ready for go-live.

Before / After

Before and after

Before

After

Funnel collapse: we removed a full page from the path to purchase.

Solutions

What we built to fix it

Each fix maps to a specific lift in the funnel.

  • Neutral theme shell with content-driven brand energy

    Resolved the dual-brand problem by treating AllCornhole and Victory Tailgate as product families inside a single cornhole commerce destination rather than as co-equal brands. The theme shell stays intentionally neutral (light, transparent structure, generic sans-serif). Brand energy lives in the content and imagery placed into sections. Conditional Liquid logic switches the header dark for AllCornhole Pro and light for Victory Tailgate, driven by product or collection tags and metafields.

  • Custom Node.js Admin API app for direct Shopify-to-Shopify migration

    Built a bespoke Admin API app under the agency's Shopify Dev Dashboard covering 30 scopes across products, inventory, files, customers, orders, order edits, content, themes, translations, metaobjects, navigation, product feeds, listings, and publications. Direct store-to-store sync avoids CSV export entirely, so source-store CDN image URLs are downloaded and re-uploaded properly. Legacy OAuth install flow with no public domain required. Proven end-to-end on Muscled's own store on 2026-05-21.

  • Custom sections and templates filling the gaps Diffuse left behind

    Built a custom mega navigation with two text link columns plus college image tiles. Built a comparison chart / matrix component with a vertical layout that scrolls horizontally on mobile. Built 4-5 brand-specific product page templates (AllCornhole premium bags, boards and accessories, Victory Tailgate recreational bags, college-licensed products) plus separate collection page templates per brand aesthetic. Product specs served from metafields rather than the theme customizer so they reuse cleanly across templates and feed Klaviyo targeting. ACL Pro / Comp / Rec badges pull from product metafields.

  • DNS cutover plan with Shopify-managed redirects

    VictoryTailgate.com added as a Shopify domain alias on the allcornhole.com store so the agency owns the redirect mapping inside Shopify rather than at the DNS layer. Roughly 90% of one-to-one URL redirects mapped at the launch readiness call with a homepage fallback for legacy URLs without a match. Client IT lowering TTLs ahead of the switchover. Go-live call scheduled for the 28th with the IT team's DNS executor on real-time coordination.

The stack

What it was built on

Tools picked for the job, not for the resume.

  • Shopify
    Platform
  • Diffuse (Stretch theme preset)
    Theme
  • Liquid + custom sections
    Templating
  • Node.js
    Migration app runtime
  • Shopify Admin API (30 scopes)
    Migration / OAuth
  • Metafield-based product specs
    Data model
  • Shopify Collective
    Multi-store publishing
  • Corral analytics
    Forecasting
How we engineer performance

Speed is a revenue lever, not a vanity score

Every Muscled build is engineered to the same standard. The numbers below are the published industry benchmarks we design against, not stand-ins for any one client's figures.

conversions per 0.1s of load-time improvement on ecommerce sites.

+8.4%

SRC: DELOITTE / GOOGLE

conversion rate for stores loading under 2s, vs the ~1.4% Shopify average.

2.4%

SRC: SHOPIFY PERFORMANCE DATA

conversion lift per 1s of mobile load-time gained, where 90% of traffic lives.

+10-20%

SRC: SHOPIFY MOBILE BENCHMARKS

// OUR PERFORMANCE GATE we don't ship unless field Core Web Vitals hold: LCP ≤ 2.5s · INP ≤ 200ms · CLS < 0.1 (p75, mobile)

Capability surface

The techniques behind a build like this

Dual-brand architecture

  • Neutral theme shell
  • Conditional dark / light header
  • Pro vs Backyard tracks
  • Product-family framing
  • Tag-driven Liquid conditionals
  • Metafield brand routing
  • Two equal-weight hero CTAs
  • Brand-specific page templates
  • Content-driven brand energy

Custom Diffuse work

  • Custom mega navigation
  • Comparison chart component
  • ACL Pro / Comp / Rec badges
  • 4-5 product page templates
  • Brand-specific collection templates
  • Product family slider
  • Filter / facet navigation
  • Long SEO-name handling
  • Scoped CSS overrides
  • Mobile horizontal-scroll nav tiles

Migration scope (custom Admin API app)

  • 30 Admin API scopes
  • Direct Shopify-to-Shopify sync
  • Proven end-to-end on test store
  • Products + variants
  • Inventory levels
  • Files / product images
  • Customers + customer data
  • Orders + order edits
  • Content + themes
  • Translations
  • Metaobjects + definitions
  • Online store navigation
  • Product feeds + listings
  • Publications / sales channels
  • Legacy OAuth install

Launch coordination + integrations

  • Shopify domain alias
  • Shopify-managed redirect mapping
  • CNAME cutover plan
  • ~90% redirect mapping complete
  • Homepage fallback for legacy URLs
  • TTL lowering ahead of switchover
  • Shopify Collective wiring
  • Klaviyo-ready metafield specs
  • Corral analytics continuity
  • Pre-migration data snapshot
  • Go-live call coordination
Storefronts

One build. Multiple markets.

Same theme code across markets, with localized pricing, currency, and region-specific content routed automatically.

  • United States

    Primary storefront / dual-brand cornhole destination
    • Diffuse / Stretch theme
    • Dual-brand architecture
    • Custom mega navigation
    • Conditional header (dark / light)
    • Comparison chart component
    • ACL Pro / Comp / Rec badges
    • Metafield-driven specs
    • VictoryTailgate.com alias + redirects
    United States screenshot
    Served from the same Shopify Markets build. Dedicated capture not included.
Full build · sections

Every section, built mobile-first

The full build is many numbered sections, each designed for the phone first. The rail below shows a sample. Scroll horizontally to step through.

The results

What the work delivered

Each number is reconcilable to the founder's own reporting.

Front-end build completion
~95%

Dual-brand Shopify front-end and content roughly 95% complete as of the launch readiness call, with custom mega navigation, conditional dark/light header, comparison chart component, and brand-specific collection and product templates.

SRC: Vault notes.md, launch readiness Loom transcript, 2026-05-21

Victory Tailgate SKUs migrating into AllCornhole
~500

Approximately 500 Victory Tailgate products being merged into allcornhole.com via the custom Admin API migration app. Including college-licensed gear across 50+ university relationships, the combined catalog reaches 1,000+ SKUs.

SRC: Vault projects/1-dual-brand-shopify-build.yaml, 2026-05-21

Admin API scopes wired in the custom migration app
30

Custom Node.js Admin API app covering products, inventory, files, customers, orders, order edits, content, themes, translations, metaobjects, navigation, product feeds, listings, and publications. Proven end-to-end on Muscled's own store on 2026-05-21 (HTTP 200 on shop.json).

SRC: Vault projects/2-custom-admin-api-app.yaml, 2026-05-21

Ready to ship yours?

Let's talk about what you want to ship.

A dual-brand Shopify build for a sports conglomerate subsidiary, a custom Node.js Admin API app migrating ~500 SKUs end-to-end, and a DNS cutover plan keeping the agency in control of the redirect mapping inside Shopify. Active multi-project ongoing through 2026-05-21.

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