CASE 06 — 2014–2016
COMMERCE / UI / BRAND / PRODUCT
Two years rebuilding a €100m sports commerce business as Head of Design — identity through checkout.
When new investors joined Keller Sports, the company could finally shift strategic direction and make fundamental changes. The Head of Design brief: position the business as the best advisor and curator for premium sports products and experiences — then make every surface of the shop reflect that, top of funnel through checkout and unboxing.
Shop UI and UX had never been addressed in a focused, iterative way. The mobile experience was not built for small devices and converted poorly. Brand and product experience had drifted apart.
In two years the shop shipped three complete relaunches — responsive desktop and mobile layouts, backend and CMS rebuilt from scratch, marketing shifted toward social and Keller Sports Pros. Each launch’s data trained the next iteration of the commerce surface.
Differentiation against larger sports retailers was visual, not pricing. An in-house photography studio and creative department owned product shots, athlete content, and video end-to-end — so the brand’s visual language was captured, not licensed.
Premium positioning had to survive the unboxing. Packaging carried the same identity system as the shop and photography — mark, materials, and hierarchy locked so the parcel read as Keller Sports before anything was opened.
Head of Design covered identity, photography, packaging, UI, and content under one mast. Working directly with the CEO, Head of Product, and engineering kept brand decisions and checkout flows in the same review cycle.
Adidas adopted the global product photography process developed at Keller Sports. The commerce business was later acquired and left the market.