Shopify offers several different theme templates for free.  And while it may be tempting to assume that free must mean boring or generic, their Brooklyn theme is anything but.

The Brooklyn theme was created specifically for modern apparel stores, but it certainly doesn’t have to be used exclusively for fashion.  Any store with a sleek and modern brand and a medium to large sized catalog can look great with this theme.  The design is simple and sophisticated, and draws attention to images, rather than text, so it’s ideal for anyone who wants to let their brand imagery speak more or less for itself.

Users can choose either the Classic or Playful style, whatever suits their brand.  Both choices follow the clean, simple lines of the theme, and they both offer fully customizable layout and typography.  The differences between the two are mainly in the color scheme and font choices.

Some of the features that really highlight the brand imagery focus of this theme are the option of a header slideshow and/or a homepage video. But what really sets the Brooklyn theme apart from Shopify’s other free templates is it’s dynamic product grid, which changes the layout of each catalog automatically according to how many products are being added.  So while other free themes limit users to a grid or row layout, Brooklyn is the only one that allows for more of a free-form collage layout.  It also provides a slide-out cart feature, which lets customers easily add to their product cart on the side without having to navigate away from the page.

So if you have a sizeable product catalog that showcases a sophisticated, modern brand, go ahead and give the Brooklyn theme a try.