2025 · Contract engineer
BigHammerGarage
Brand site + merch store for a YouTube automotive studio, built from scratch so they never have to touch Shopify — $12/year hosting, a couple dozen shirts and hats sold. Contract build for a friend who lived on my couch for two years.
- stack
- Astro, Cloudflare Pages
- tags
- contract, website, cloudflare
- status
- shipped
Problem
A YouTube automotive studio wanted a home for the brand and a way to sell shirts and hats. The default answer is Shopify — and for a merch line this size, Shopify is a monthly bill, a transaction cut, and an admin surface nobody at a garage wants to think about.
Approach
Astro on Cloudflare Pages, built from scratch. The only recurring cost is the domain — twelve dollars a year, in perpetuity. The studio got every tool they need and none they don’t: no plugin updates, no platform dashboard, no subscription to remember to cancel.
Outcome
Live at bighammergarage.com. A couple dozen shirts and hats sold as of August 2026, at effectively zero overhead — the merch margin is the merch margin.