Inside the Sun Bum Shopify Theme Build
Sun Bum is one of the most recognizable names in sun care. A brand built on personality, a distinct visual identity, and an iconic mascot, Sonny. But their digital storefront wasn’t keeping up.
Additional Contributors:
Typeface and Theme design by Alright Studio
The Problem
Developing a Foundation to Match Ambition
Their existing Shopify theme was built on an aging architecture. Publishing new content or making design changes required constant developer involvement, creating a bottleneck that limited what they could ship. The brand had evolved, but the website couldn’t reflect that evolution without a dev call.
The Approach
New Theme,
No Interruption.
Sun Bum engaged Alright Studio to define the new visual direction, and brought me in as the development lead to build it. Their visual library became a reusable component architecture, the kind of system that stays consistent as it grows and doesn’t fight you when it’s time to extend it.
I ran two tracks at once. Standing up the new theme while supporting the live store, so the business never felt the rebuild happening around it.
The technical foundation
Shopify Theme Blocks
The build is powered by Shopify’s Theme Blocks, a relatively new capability that enables modular, reusable components to be shared across the entire theme. This was central to the project’s success.
By combining Theme Blocks with the design agency’s well-structured pattern library, I built a flexible system of theme sections. The Sun Bum team can now deploy them independently, and I can extend them rapidly when new features are needed, even when those features weren’t part of the original design.
The Results
Launch
A Successful Launch
The new Sun Bum theme launched on the US store first. A fully custom build from the ground up, reflecting the brand's identity in a way the previous theme never could. Richer interactive elements and video media bring the personality forward, and every piece is fully responsive, so the experience holds up across any device.
Independence for the Internal Team
The new theme pairs Theme Blocks with the design system's patterns, so the pieces the team needs are already built. Where they once relied on dev support for routine changes, the production team now builds and updates landing pages on its own. More complex, more interactive, more brand-connected pages. Independently.
Built to Scale Beyond the US
Following the US launch, the theme was distributed and launched across four additional international markets. Japan, Australia, the UK, and Canada. Each market runs as its own independent store and theme instance, a testament to the architecture's scalability and the care taken during build to make it distributable.
Winter 2025 Campaign
Geoff McFetridge x Sun Bum
Megan described bringing this artist collaboration landing page to life as “one of those projects that reminds me why I love what I do.” A rich digital experience that translated McFetridge’s artwork, stickers, and motion pieces into an interactive campaign page.
LinkedIn Post
Summer 2026 Campaign
Smells Like Summer
A full campaign hub that integrated storytelling, the Sun Bum loyalty program (The Bum Club), a live event tour, and a custom shopping experience, complete with a custom video player and a dynamic tour poster I built specifically for the campaign. Megan described it as something that feels “less like a typical landing page and more like a hub, something you can explore, interact with, and actually enjoy spending time on.”
LinkedIn Post
I specialize in custom Shopify builds for brands that take their digital presence seriously.
If you’re running a Shopify store that’s hit the ceiling of what your current theme can do, or you need a Shopify partner who can manage complexity, communicate clearly, and ship without adding chaos to your team…
Let’s TalkSun Bum, the Sun Bum logo, Sonny, and all related brand assets are the property of Sun Bum, LLC.