PROOF
A custom store with no WooCommerce: Printful makes every piece, Stripe takes payment, and a margin guard makes sure no discount ever loses money.
PROOF is the apparel sub-brand of Young People in Recovery: not a rebrand, not a program, not awareness merch, but a quiet mark for people who are living evidence that recovery works. Optimistic positioned the brand, then built the store as a custom WordPress theme and a single plugin that owns every piece of commerce: an hourly Printful sync, a bag with live shipping rates, server-side price recalculation, Stripe Checkout with a webhook that auto-submits paid orders to Printful, discount codes, gift cards, an ambassador program, a notify-me drop list, a giveaway, editable customer emails and a Dev Log that keeps a copy of every file version.
Recovery is not a claim. It is proof. We built the store to match: quiet, confident, and engineered underneath.
A new lifestyle brand has to look effortless and run flawlessly. The look was set by a strict lookbook: cream and brown, heavy photography, a film hero, no slogans shouting. The engineering had to handle real money on a Stripe account shared with other YPR sites, real fulfilment through Printful with a card on file, and a launch promo with layered discounts that could easily sell a 3XL hoodie at a loss.
Off-the-shelf commerce would have brought a cart, a theme and a dozen plugins the brand did not want. Instead, every price, discount and shipping charge is recalculated on the server, the browser is never trusted, and the margin math is explicit: each size must still clear Printful's cost, a sales-tax reserve, Stripe's fee and a minimum profit before any percentage is allowed.
One journey, applied to PROOF.
Position
PROOF V3 framed the brand as a declaration backed by lived evidence: identity without performance, visibility without exposure. The first wearers are the people already connected to YPR, so the store speaks to them first, with the story, the ambassador program and the community page before the discount.
Design
A scrolling film hero on the shop with buy pins on the garments, a lookbook, product pages built around photography, a bag drawer, and a promo bar that reads "Up to 15% off" because the percentage really does vary by size.
Build
The proof-hq plugin syncs products, prices, sizes and mockups from Printful every hour without overwriting the photos and drop dates set on the site. Checkout recalculates everything server-side, Stripe's webhook marks the order paid, sends the receipt and submits the order to Printful. Promo logic gives everyone 15%, unlocks a single-use 20% code after 60 seconds on site, and shows a gift-card giveaway to returning visitors. Gift cards stack like money; percentage codes never apply to buying one.
Run
PROOF HQ gives the team a dashboard, orders with real refunds and tracking, customers, drops, coupons, ambassadors, the giveaway draw, editable emails and settings. The Dev Log records every file, setting, product and page change with stored versions, after a server edit by someone else took the product pages down for 25 minutes. A written handover covers cache-busting, Flywheel quirks and how an order flows.
A real store, written for one brand.
Film hero shop
The shop opens on a scrubbing film with buy pins on the pieces, then a grid and a lookbook.
Printful sync
Products, prices, sizes and mockups pull hourly from Printful; photos, drop dates and video pins stay as set on the site.
Live shipping
The bag quotes Printful's real Standard and Carbon-neutral rates by country and ZIP, with a flat fallback if the API is quiet.
Margin guard
Every percentage discount is capped per size so a sale never drops below Printful cost, tax reserve, Stripe fee and a minimum profit.
Unlock codes
A single-use 20% code appears after 60 seconds on site or 30 seconds with an item in the bag, so there is no code to share around.
Gift cards
Bought at /buy-a-gift-card/ or issued in PROOF HQ, treated like money, stackable with any discount, voided on refund.
Ambassadors
Applications from /ambassador/; approving one creates a personal code and emails it.
Giveaway
Returning visitors see a $200 gift-card giveaway with a rules page, entries export and a one-click winner draw.
Dev Log
Every code, settings, product and page change recorded with before/after versions, plus an admin notice of changes since your last visit.
Five pieces, zero commerce plugins.
Launch pricing and promo rules from the October 6, 2026 handover. Paid orders are submitted to Printful automatically; tracking is entered by hand and emailed to the customer.
