Nexus Footwear
Building an e-commerce platform for custom 3D-printed shoes
How It Started
A few friends of mine, 
Aren, Nathan, and Nate, were building something cool: a custom 3D shoe printing company. The idea started with people who have bunions or other foot issues, folks who struggle to find shoes that actually fit. They saw a gap and decided to fill it.
The team was mostly engineers and marketing people. Nathan is a mechanical engineer who handles the 3D printing side. Nate does CS and Econ, thinking about the business model. Aren, also Econ, leads marketing. What they needed was someone to build the website.
They reached out to me because I had built a bunch of apps and websites before. I was happy to help. This was exactly the kind of project I love: real product, real team, real customers.
The Team
The Collaboration
To be fair, they spearheaded a lot of the design. I worked on implementing their vision. We looked at a bunch of different brands for inspiration, pulled what we liked, and customized everything to fit the feel they wanted for Nexus and their product.
It was a true collaboration. They would send mockups or reference sites, we would hop on calls to discuss, and I would build it out. Back and forth until it felt right.
The Evolution
Here is where we started versus where we ended up:
Original Version
Current Version
Full Walkthrough
Tech Stack
For the Stripe integration, I really recommend checking out Theo's GitHub repo on Stripe implementation. Made the whole process much smoother.
What I Built
I integrated the whole frontend and backend. The frontend is a Next.js project with all the product pages, the shopping cart, and the checkout flow. The backend runs on Express.js, handling authentication, product management, and order processing. MongoDB stores everything: users, products, orders.
The Stripe integration was probably the most satisfying part to get right. Secure payments, proper error handling, confirmation emails. All the stuff that makes an e-commerce site feel trustworthy.
Looking Back
This project was a lot of fun. Working with friends on something real, something that actual customers will use, is different from building side projects alone. The feedback loop is faster. The stakes feel higher. And when you see someone actually buy something through the checkout flow you built, it hits different.
Check it out at nexusfootwear.com.