About The Project

In early 2010, we took our interest and fascination with ecommerce to another level and launched Swoop Shops, our own boutique ecommerce sister company. Frustrated by the lack of helpful information on the typical retail website, we set out to design boutique online stores that incorporate educational content and functionality into the site experience. Skate The Fly is our first boutique store, an online fly fishing retailer.

Fly fishing is a challenging sport, with a steep learning curve. To date, it’s been nearly impossible for someone new to the sport to shop online and find the right gear without deep experience. The typical fly fishing website just isn’t designed to help a “newbie” get started. Conventional ecommerce websites have typically dumped a catalog of products and model numbers online and left it up to the user to wade through them all.

Skate The Fly is designed on a different premise. We created a faceted navigation system based on user needs and goals instead of useless product specs. We also incorporated educational content throughout the site, on detail pages, product pages, and in a section devoted entirely to learning. The result is a site design that helps guide customers towards finding the products they need to get on the water and fish.

In early 2011, Skate The Fly launched to rave industry reviews.