If the shop looks different this week, that is because it is. Here is what changed, and the one addition we think you will actually use: a guides library.
Why we rebuilt it
The old site was built with a page builder, and over the years it had collected a lot of layout code that did nothing you could see. The homepage alone carried thousands of characters of it wrapped around a few sentences of real copy. None of that is what you come here for. You come for a snap, a patch or a strap, and the site should get out of the way.
So we started again with a plain theme built for this catalog and nothing else. Same products, same prices, same checkout. What changed is how easily you can find them.
What is different
- It works on a phone. Every page, from the homepage to checkout, now sits in a single column on a small screen. Nothing runs off the edge.
- The menu shows what is inside Headwear. Headwear is our biggest category by a distance, and most of it is leather patches. Hover or tap it in the header and you can go straight to Patches or Hats.
- Product pages are cleaner. Photos first, the details that matter next to them, and the stock and sale information in one row instead of scattered down the page.
- The homepage says what we sell. The patch section is back on the front page, along with a few words from customers, kept exactly as they wrote them.
A guides library
The addition we are most pleased with is the Guides section. The hard questions with this kind of hardware tend to come after the parcel arrives: will this snap fit my leather, why did the cap flatten, why will it not stay shut. Those answers now have a home.
We started with decorative snaps, because small details decide whether they work. There are five guides so far:
- Which decorative snap fits your leather? Every snap we sell is a Line 24 with a 0.25 inch post, and that short post changes the advice you will find elsewhere.
- Setting a decorative snap without flattening the cap. The dome is the whole product, and the anvil is what protects it.
- Why your snap will not stay closed. Three causes, and how to tell them apart by feel.
- Caring for antique brass and nickel snap caps. Patina is the finish doing its job. Polish takes it off.
- Removing a set snap without wrecking the leather. Drill off the flare instead of prying, then decide whether to reuse the hole, back it, or move the snap.
Each one has drawn diagrams rather than stock photos, because a diagram can show the part of a snap you cannot see once it is set.
What comes next for the guides library
New guides go up on Tuesdays. The next few stay with snaps, then move to patches and hats, which have no guides at all yet despite being most of the catalog. After that, straps and drawer pulls.
If there is something you have had trouble with, tell us. The questions customers ask are how we decide what to write next, and a question you had is one someone else has too.
Nothing about how you order has changed. If anything on the new site does not work the way you expect, let us know and we will fix it.
New to snaps altogether? The snap fastener entry on Wikipedia covers the basics, and the guides library picks up where it leaves off.