Rooster Teeth Store

Role: Brand Strategy, Creative Director

The Rooster Teeth Store was the commercial extension of one of the internet's most passionate entertainment communities, but its early experience was not built to support the scale and complexity of the growing brand. As Rooster Teeth expanded its portfolio of shows and developed increasingly frequent merchandise releases, the RT Store needed to evolve from a basic e-commerce destination into a scalable DTC brand and customer experience.

I led the brand strategy, visual refresh, UX/UI, art direction, and customer journey for the RT Store from 2017–2021, transforming how fans discovered, experienced, and purchased merchandise across Rooster Teeth's growing portfolio of entertainment properties.

SEE CASE STUDY BELOW

STANDOUT METRICS

22–27% YoY Increase in Average Order Value
8-12 Week Major Apparel Release Cadence
Dedicated DTC Revenue Channel
50+ Content Properties Driving Merchandise Demand

Credits
Photography by Wes Ellis
Modeled by Barbara Dunkelman, Fiona Nova, Malik Baptiste, Nick McCollin
All logos, trademarks, and characters © and ™ DC and WBD

ROOSTER TEETH STORE | CASE STUDY

The Challenge

The Rooster Teeth Store had grown alongside the company's expanding fanbase, but its experience remained relatively rudimentary. Product photography did not effectively communicate the quality and design of the apparel, while the UX and navigation were not equipped to support an increasingly complex portfolio of shows and merchandise.

As new properties gained passionate audiences and major apparel collections began launching on an approximately 12-week cadence, the Store needed to become a more sophisticated ecommerce experience capable of supporting both the breadth of the Rooster Teeth brand and the distinct identities of individual shows.

The goal was to establish the Store as its own meaningful revenue stream while strengthening its role as a destination for fans of Rooster Teeth's growing entertainment portfolio.

The Insight

Rooster Teeth fans weren't simply shopping for merchandise. They were buying a tangible connection to the shows, creators, characters, and community they loved.

The opportunity was to make the Store feel less like a merchandise catalog and more like an extension of the entertainment experience.

That meant making products easier to discover, giving individual show brands room to build their own communities, and using the personalities and cultural relevance of Rooster Teeth's talent to make the merchandise itself part of the content experience.

The Strategy

I developed a DTC strategy that connected brand, content, merchandising, photography, UX, customer journey, and marketing into one cohesive ecommerce experience.

The Store was reorganized around the ways fans actually shopped, including new releases, featured collections, sales, and dedicated sections for individual show brands.

The strategy also established a stronger visual content engine to support the growing release cadence. By bringing dedicated photography capabilities in-house and giving shoots greater creative flexibility, we were able to make the merchandise more aspirational while creating opportunities for show talent to participate directly in the content.

This transformed merchandise marketing from product promotion into another form of fan engagement.

The Solution

I led the Store's brand strategy and visual refresh while overseeing UX/UI, art direction, customer journey, photography, merchandising, and marketing creative.

I brought on a dedicated in-house photographer and established a more expressive visual direction for product photography, introducing new backdrops and creative approaches that elevated the presentation of the apparel.

As the quality and visibility of the shoots increased, talent from Rooster Teeth's shows began participating in merchandise photography. Their involvement created authentic connections between the entertainment properties and the products, while giving fans another reason to engage with and visit the Store.

I managed the designers responsible for developing apparel and merchandise across major properties including RWBY, Red vs. Blue, gen:LOCK, Achievement Hunter, Funhaus, Camp Camp, Always Open, The RT Podcast, and several other properties while also contributing hands-on to product design.

For licensed collaborations including Batman, Harley Quinn, and Birds of Prey, I contributed to influencer strategy, led creative direction for supporting photoshoots, and designed email campaigns to drive awareness and traffic.

The ecommerce experience itself was rebuilt around customer intent, making it easier for fans to discover new releases and featured collections while navigating directly to merchandise associated with the shows and properties they loved.

The Outcome

The transformation established the Rooster Teeth Store as a stronger standalone DTC revenue channel and created a scalable ecommerce experience capable of supporting the company's rapidly expanding entertainment portfolio.

Following the refresh, average order value increased 22–27% year over year, demonstrating stronger commercial performance as the Store's brand, product presentation, merchandising, and customer experience evolved.

The Store also became a more integrated part of the Rooster Teeth ecosystem, connecting entertainment releases with merchandise launches and giving individual show communities a dedicated destination within the broader brand.

By combining stronger ecommerce fundamentals with content, talent, and fandom, the Store evolved from a basic merchandise storefront into a meaningful extension of the Rooster Teeth brand and its entertainment business.