The making of A Two-Product Store for 3D-Printed Titanium Bikes

Vargo Bikes builds 3D-printed titanium gravel bikes and framesets. We built their Shopify store — sizing, geometry, lifetime guarantee, dealers. See how.

Client: Vargo Bikes
Built with: Shopify, Liquid, Dawn Theme, Shopify Markets

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A Two-Product Store for 3D-Printed Titanium Bikes — the delivered interface

Challenges

Two products at $5,795 and $9,895, bought sight unseen — the store has to do the job of a fitting session and a shop-floor conversation, which is why geometry, sizing, financing, expert help and a consultation route all sit on the product page rather than behind a contact form
A brand launched in 2025 with no search history of its own, trading on the reputation of a titanium outdoor-gear company — the storefront has to borrow that trust visibly through the shared guarantee, dealer network and 1% for the Planet membership without reading as a side project
Direct retail, dealers, industry Pro buyers and affiliates served from one storefront, where a public discount or a visible trade price would undercut the dealers the brand is trying to recruit

Solution

Vargo Titanium Bikes began in 2025 as a collaboration between Brian Vargo, who has made titanium backpacking gear since 2002, and Chad Swanger, a bike-shop mechanic and racer with more than 20 years in the trade. The catalogue is deliberately small: one gravel bike, the VELOCI-TI G1, sold complete at $9,895 or as a frameset at $5,795, each in three sizes. What makes it worth a storefront of its own is the construction — 3D-printed Grade 5 titanium lugs joined to cold-worked Grade 9 tubing — and a buyer at that price wants the engineering argued before the add-to-cart. The store runs on Shopify with Dawn forked into a branch-based workflow and sells in over thirty markets with local currency. Around the two products sit the things a new premium bike brand needs on day one: a geometry chart and size guide, a lifetime frame guarantee, financing, a custom-build consultation route, a dealer channel shared with the parent outdoor brand, a Pro programme and a 1% for the Planet commitment.

Services provided

Design

A near-black on white scheme with one pale grey for alternating sections, and a single cobalt blue held back for one band — everything else is left to the frame photography, where titanium reads as its own colour. Hanken Grotesk carries headings and body at a regular weight, with hierarchy set by size and uppercase tracking rather than by colour or boldness. Buttons are square-cornered and uppercase in solid near-black, the one hard-edged element on the page, which suits a product sold on machined tolerances rather than lifestyle. The founders' page breaks the restraint with a mapped history — an Appalachian Trail thru-hike, a cross-country bikepacking trip, 40,000 miles and 100 races — because provenance is the argument a 2025 brand has to make.

Colors

#121212
#242833
#334FB4
#F3F3F3
#FFFFFF

Typeface

Headings and body
Hanken Grotesk
Set across Dawn's whole type stack at a regular weight. A neutral grotesque with open counters that stays legible in geometry tables and spec sheets, where millimetres and degrees matter more than character.
Header and utility text
Proxima Nova
Carried over from the Vargo Outdoors storefront for the announcement bar and header, which quietly ties the bike store to the parent brand's look.

What we built

A Catalogue of Two

The complete VELOCI-TI G1 and its frameset are the whole range, so the navigation is a single Shop Bikes menu and the homepage spends its length on the material rather than on merchandising a grid.

The Engineering, Told Up Front

Grade 5 printed lugs, Grade 9 aerospace tubing, tailored wall thickness at high-stress junctions, internal cable routing and balanced geometry — set out as a feature strip under the hero, because the construction is the reason to pay five figures.

Geometry and Size Guide on the Product Page

Size Guide and Geometry open beside the S, M and L selector, with the full chart repeated in the product accordions — a frame bought online has to fit without a test ride.

Lifetime Frame Guarantee, Published

A limited lifetime guarantee on tubing, printed components, welds and workmanship, written as its own page and surfaced on every product as the first of four reassurance tiles.

Financing and Expert Help

Easy financing and an ask-our-professionals route sit alongside the price, with a phone number in the header bar — on a $9,895 bike the monthly figure and a human voice are often what close the sale.

Custom-Build Consultation

A schedule-a-consultation path for riders who want the frameset built to their own spec, giving the frameset a conversion route that does not depend on the buyer sourcing a groupset alone.

Dealer, Pro and Affiliate Channels

Become-a-dealer, a dealer locator and a B2B login shared with Vargo Outdoors, a credential-gated Pro programme for industry professionals, and an affiliate programme — three routes to market beside direct retail from launch.

Thirty-Plus Markets With Local Currency

A country selector covering the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, the Eurozone, Japan, Korea and the Gulf, each priced in its own currency — titanium bikes sell to a global, not a local, audience.

1% for the Planet

The parent brand's 1% for the Planet membership carried onto the bike store with its own page, so the environmental commitment travels with the name rather than staying behind on the outdoor-gear site.