Shopify Developer Needed — Custom Product Designer + Live Pricing Tool for Screen Print Shop

The short version We're a screen print and embroidery shop in Ann Arbor, MI (No Mids, est. 2023) and we need a custom product designer tool built into our Shopify store. Customers pick a blank, upload or choose artwork, see a live mockup on the selected garment/color, and watch pricing update as they adjust quantity, placement, and decoration method. At checkout, Shopify authorizes the card but doesn't capture — we review each order manually before charging. We already have design direction, architecture decisions, a working React prototype, and a clear data flow mapped out. We're not looking for someone to figure out the problem from scratch — we're looking for someone to execute a well-defined build. Open to hourly for the right person. Timeline 4–6 weeks, ideally starting within the next 2 weeks. Who we are No Mids is a small but growing custom apparel studio. We print and embroider for brands, bands, breweries, and businesses that care about how their merch looks. Our aesthetic direction is already locked in — think Off-White meets 90s skate zine. Platform Shopify (we're not open to moving off it) Product import Supply Master, pulling from SanMar and S&S Activewear APIs Catalog size thousands of SKUs across t-shirts, hoodies, crewnecks, polos, caps, and accessories Theme Payment capture will be set to manual (authorization hold, manual capture after review) What needs to get built 1. A custom Shopify theme section — the "Studio" design tool Lives on product pages. When a customer lands on any decorated product, they see The current variant image (color-specific, already imported by Supply Master) A canvas overlay where their artwork renders at the correct placement zone Controls for decoration method (screen print / DTG / embroidery), number of print colors or stitch count, placement (front center / left chest / back full / sleeve), quantity Live-updating price display that recalculates on every input change, showing per-piece and total Artwork upload (accepts PNG, JPG, SVG, PDF, AI — stored in Shopify Files or an S3 bucket you set up) An "add to cart" button that packages all customization data as Shopify line item properties 2. A template-per-garment-type architecture — NOT per-variant This is the single most important technical requirement. We previously tried a tool that required us to create a mockup template for every individual product and variant, which was unworkable with thousands of imported SKUs. The right architecture is ~12 garment templates total (unisex tee, fitted tee, pullover hoodie, zip hoodie, crewneck, polo, trucker cap, dad hat, beanie, tote, etc.) Each template is a JSON config defining print zones as normalized coordinates (0.0–1.0) relative to the product photo Products get assigned a template via a Shopify tag (e.g., garmenttee-unisex) applied automatically during Supply Master import based on category The configurator reads the tag, loads the matching template, and pulls the variant-specific photo from Shopify's product data — no per-SKU setup needed Brand-level offsets allowed for suppliers whose photography is consistently shifted (e.g., SanMar vs S&S having slightly different chest heights) If you've done this coordinate-normalization approach before, please mention it. If you haven't, please at least acknowledge in your proposal that you understand why this matters. 3. A live pricing engine Industry-standard screen print, DTG, and embroidery pricing logic Screen print per-color, per-location charge with quantity tier breaks (12–23, 24–47, 48–71, 72–143, 144–287, 288+) plus per-color setup fees DTG per-piece flat rate with quantity tier breaks, no setup Embroidery per-1,000-stitches rate with quantity tier breaks plus digitizing setup fee Blank cost pulled from the Shopify variant price (which Supply Master keeps synced), with a configurable markup percentage applied All rates and tiers need to be editable from an admin-accessible config file or settings panel — not hardcoded — because we'll tweak these regularly The calculator also shows a price-break ladder so customers see how the per-piece price drops at higher quantities — this is a huge conversion tool for our category. 4. Cart handoff via Shopify line item properties When added to cart, the line item must include (as properties) Artwork file URL (or array of URLs if multiple placements) Mockup preview image URL (for admin review) Placement zone Decoration method Color count (for screen print) or stitch count (for embroidery) Per-piece print charge and setup fee (broken out for admin clarity) Any customer notes Properties with an underscore prefix (_artw Apply tot his job Apply To this Job Apply To This Job