Naked Copenhagen

A space for women, good for the sole  

Before Naked Copenhagen (CPH), sneaker culture was a boys club. As Gwen Stefani began rocking shell toes and Missy Elliott dropped Adidas collabs, the desire for women’s sneakers grew. But in-demand brands were sitting on an unreachable pedestal - limiting access to the masses, particularly women. Naked Copenhagen changed that. Founded in Denmark by Stine Lindholm and Tom Olsen, the best friends turned business partners carved out a space where women could access the freshest drops and define sneaker culture on their own terms.

Today Naked CPH is a global force in fashion and they’re still empowering women worldwide - in campaigns like close-up with SASO spotlighting the Danish singer-songwriter, her love for Dr Martens and her journey to self-empowerment.

When it came to building on 14 years of success, there was no time for trial and error. The solution had to be robust, better than good, smarter than competition, bold as Naked itself. 

The answer? Migrate from a clunky custom build to a seamless Shopify platform. Keep reading for the breakdown: 

When sneakers outgrow their framework

As Naked CPH’s influence grew over two decades, so did its challenges. Their ecommerce setup struggled to keep pace with the scale and complexity of multi-brand inventory from high-stake brands like Adidas, Nike and New Balance. Regional expansions required a stronger digital footprint, and evolving consumer expectations were everywhere - social media, in-store, and online reviews. Handling intense traffic surges, and dynamically updating content - all of it required workarounds, slowing down operations and creating friction for both the team and customers.

Following diagnosis, we knew a Shopify migration was the rebuild to power Naked Copenhagen’s ambitions without sacrificing agility, exclusivity, or the community-first experience that made the brand iconic. 

The challenge: Operational friction in a fast-moving market

Sneaker drops are a different beast compared to traditional ecommerce. They demand precision, speed, and airtight infrastructure to handle limited releases without compromising fairness or performance. Naked Copenhagen faced a trio of key issues:

1. Inventory Sync Inefficiencies: 15,000+ products with multiple variants across seven regions - keeping stock levels up-to-date was a head spin. Discrepancies led to overselling and frustrated customers. The brand needed automated, region-specific inventory syncing to ensure every sneakerhead received the right products on time.

2. Limited functionality for dynamic content & filtering: The previous setup for filtering and content management wasn’t robust enough for Naked’s new needs. Timed product visibility, campaign-driven content changes, and advanced filtering options - essential for curating a seamless experience - required custom development.

3. Security vulnerabilities during drops: Limited-edition sneakers attract more than just fans - they draw bots and early-access loopholes that can undermine fairness. Certain users found ways to bypass restrictions and purchase products before official release, an issue that threatened trust within Naked’s community.

Shopify migration: The right size solution. 

Rather than patching these problems with short-term fixes, we engineered a Shopify solution. Why? Because it’s the only way, see why: 

• Custom store availability check: We developed a custom-coded solution to override Shopify’s standard local pickup settings, ensuring stock availability is accurately reflected across all seven regions.
• Automated content scheduling: Campaigns move fast, and manual updates weren’t cutting it. Our custom content scheduling tool allows Naked Copenhagen to pre-schedule homepage takeovers, collection visibility changes, and promotional banners: all automated, no last minute scrambling required.
• Daily bulk syncs: Our real-time bulk sync integration connects product price with product metafields in order to accurately feed information to other sales channels such as Google Store - preventing overselling and miscommunication.
• Strong security for high-heat drops: Limited edition often means competing with the bots. Release protocols with custom access layers, Shopify’s bot protection, and anti-bypass safeguards all ensure fairness and security. Drops exclusive to real customers, just like we did for Corteiz.
• Integrations for optimisation: To ensure a seamless and efficient operation, we integrated a suite of powerful tools tailored to Naked Copenhagen’s needs: Business Central (ERP) for inventory and financial management, Panagors to enhance SEO performance, CJ Network for advanced data tracking, Zendesk to expedite response times and service quality, Klaviyo email marketing to foster personalisation and Verbal for fast, reliable web hosting. 

The Impact: A seamless platform built for speed and scale

"Supplying girls with sneakers" - Naked’s tagline still sings true, and now, the brand has the Shopify setup to keep up with its vision. With a platform built for growth and a seamless shopping experience to match, they can focus on what they do best. Kicks move fast, now Naked Copenhagen can, too.

Is your ecommerce platform ready for the next level? Let’s talk.