Background
Heroic Thread is a first-responder–owned apparel company, specializing in custom uniforms, embroidery, and branded gear. The business is run by a small, three-person team, and their WooCommerce site is central to how they sell products, onboard new organizational clients, and manage custom orders.
Before partnering with Pronto, Heroic Thread had invested $5,000–$6,000 in a newly built website, but the results weren’t what they expected. The site was slow, buggy, and unstable. Basic changes took months. Ideas for improving functionality were repeatedly dismissed as “too complicated.” Checkout errors, theme issues, and plugin conflicts were piling up. The storefront wasn’t evolving with the business, and Chris Di Bartolo, the owner, was spending far too much time trying to keep the website operational.
By September 2024, Chris knew he needed more than a developer who executed one-off tasks.
He needed a long-term partner — a team that could stabilize the site, fix the problems he inherited, help him make ongoing improvements, and grow with the business.
That’s when he turned to Pronto and signed up for Website Support, which gave him ongoing chat-based support and full access to a versatile team of WordPress, WooCommerce, and design specialists.
Fixing and Stabilizing a Failing Site
When Heroic Thread joined Pronto’s Website Support service in October 2024, the goal wasn’t a single project — it was to build momentum. The company needed help across every layer of its online presence: stability, customization, troubleshooting, homepage redesigns, order management, and continuous improvements to support growth.
Over the following months, Pronto supported the business through complex WooCommerce fixes, migration and hosting improvements, plugin research, custom feature development, checkout repairs, and a complete homepage refresh.
The result: tasks that once took months were handled in minutes, long-standing problems were resolved, and Heroic Thread finally had the technical foundation it needed to scale.
“Your team has achieved more for our website in a short time than our previous developer managed in an entire year. Tasks that once took months are now resolved within minutes, and I’m still amazed at how efficiently and seamlessly everything is handled.”
The Challenge: A Fragile WooCommerce Site Blocking Growth
When Heroic Thread came to Pronto, the website wasn’t just underperforming — it was holding the business back.
Despite investing heavily in a new WooCommerce build, the site was plagued by problems:
❌ Slow loading times and poor performance
❌ Bugs introduced by outdated themes and plugins
❌ Checkout and order-processing errors
❌ Layout issues and broken elements
❌ Limited flexibility for adding new products or customization tools
❌ A backend that was difficult for the client to navigate or trust
Even simple updates required weeks or months with their previous developer. Many of Chris’s ideas for improvement, such as adding product filters or expanding customization options, were dismissed as unrealistic or “too complicated.” Meanwhile, Heroic Thread was trying to grow, add new brands, and serve both individual customers and organizational clients. The website needed to keep up and it wasn’t.
Chris also wanted the ability to:
- Update his product catalog independently
- Transition from Lumise to Kickflip for product customization
- Redesign the homepage
- Improve SEO and hosting performance
- Add emerging features like loyalty points, category visibility controls, and client-specific ordering paths
But to do any of that confidently, he needed a team capable of safely stabilizing what he already had.
The central challenge wasn’t just a broken site. It was a site that lacked a reliable, proactive, and knowledgeable partner behind it. One that could fix issues, support growth, and keep the business moving without forcing a rebuild.
Heroic Thread didn’t need one project. They needed an ongoing relationship with a team that could support everything from technical troubleshooting to UX improvements to hosting optimization.
That’s where Pronto’s Website Support came in.
The Solution: One Support Plan, Every Fix and Feature Covered
Over the course of several months, multiple specialists stepped in at different stages — developers, migration experts, designers, WooCommerce troubleshooters, and support managers — each addressing a different layer of the site.
Here’s how the support journey unfolded.
1. Stabilizing a Fragile WooCommerce Foundation
The first order of business was simply making the website safe to work on.
Heroic Thread’s site was running on:
- An outdated theme
- Outdated WooCommerce
- Plugins with compatibility issues
- A slow host
- A backend prone to breaking when updated
Pronto began with a backend audit to assess risks. Once the team confirmed the site could be stabilized, they migrated it to Pronto’s Kinsta-powered environment. A staging copy was created, full updates were tested, and the team applied initial optimizations — ensuring the site would remain functional during the client’s day-to-day sales.
This early work laid the foundation for everything that followed.
2. Fixing Broken Access and Empowering the Client
Shortly after onboarding, Chris reported that key WooCommerce menus, Products, Orders, Plugins, were missing from his dashboard.
Pronto’s support team jumped in, repaired the user role permissions, and restored full access.
More importantly, they empowered the client to:
✅ Add products himself
✅ Test new customization tools (like Kickflip)
✅ Make routine updates without breaking the site
This small fix had a big ripple effect: Chris could now participate in improving the site instead of being blocked by it.
3. Installing & Testing New Functionality (Product Filters, Customization Tools, Loyalty Points & More)
As Heroic Thread expanded its catalog, Chris requested help adding new features. Over time, the support team handled:
✔ Product filter plugin research, testing, and setup
Pronto tested multiple options and implemented the plugin best suited to filtering by brand, color, category, and garment type.
✔ Kickflip customization support
The team ensured Chris had the access needed to connect Kickflip to his store while keeping the environment stable.
✔ Loyalty point system integration
Our support agent coordinated with developers to recommend and install the WooCommerce Points & Rewards plugin, ready for configuration on staging.
✔ Category visibility tools
To support catalog growth, Pronto helped hide/unhide categories so Chris could build product collections behind the scenes without confusing shoppers.
✔ Image structure & optimization guidance
Pronto advised on file formats, media library best practices, and performance-friendly workflows — critical as Heroic Thread accumulated hundreds of product images and logos.
Each request was unique. Each required different expertise. And each was handled under the same Website Support subscription.
4. Homepage Redesign — Safely Built on Staging
Chris wanted a more modern homepage but didn’t want to risk downtime or break the live site before new products were ready.
Pronto delivered:
- A full redesign concept in Figma
- Iterations based on Chris’s feedback
- A complete rebuild on staging
- A safe, controlled environment for review and refinement
Homepage Before
Homepage After
Once Heroic Thread finalized the new homepage and cleaned up product data, Pronto prepared to push it live.
This demonstrated one of the biggest strengths of Website Support: new design work can be done in parallel without disrupting day-to-day business.
5. Troubleshooting Complex Checkout, Shipping, and Order Issues
WooCommerce issues can be notoriously difficult, especially when themes, payment gateways, and shipping plugins overlap. Over time, the team resolved:
- Google Pay layout conflicts
- Shipping rules not behaving correctly
- Checkout error messages (“invalid address”)
- Conflicts involving Shippo and third-party plugins
- Order-processing failures
After deep investigation, the team traced one stubborn issue to a problematic plugin (WooCommerce Order Tracker) that wasn’t compatible with HPOS and wasn’t properly licensed. They helped the client deactivate and replace it so checkout could function reliably.
This level of investigation typically requires a senior developer, something small businesses rarely have. With Website Support, Heroic Thread had one on standby.
6. Strategic Guidance on Future Growth
Beyond fixing problems, the team also gave operational and architectural advice.
For example, when Chris explored creating separate subdomains for employer-specific ordering portals, Pronto recommended a more scalable, cost-effective, and maintainable approach: a membership system with protected pages on the main site.
This conversation saved Heroic Thread time, money, and long-term maintenance headaches.
As Chris continued to grow the business — adding new brands, building relationships with fire departments, and expanding his catalog — Pronto remained a strategic partner guiding technical decisions.
7. Ongoing Improvements, Fast Turnarounds & Chat-Based Collaboration
Throughout the relationship, Chris repeatedly noted how quickly the team responded — often within minutes through chat. Tasks that once took him and his previous developer months were now handled the same day.
From small fixes, to plugin conflicts, to redesign work, to WooCommerce troubleshooting, to growth-oriented advice, Website Support became the all-in-one web team Heroic Thread had never had.
The Result: A Fast, Stable Store Powered by an On-Demand Web Team
Heroic Thread went from struggling with a fragile, unreliable WooCommerce site to running a fast, stable, and continuously improving online store — with a team of specialists available whenever they needed help.
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“Your team’s work has been nothing short of stellar, expeditious, and flawless—especially given the challenges of working with a website built by a company that clearly lacked the necessary expertise.”
Here’s what the partnership delivered:
✅ A Stable, Faster, and Fully Functional Storefront
Critical issues caused by outdated themes and plugins were resolved, checkout errors were eliminated, and the business finally had a site that could be updated safely without fear of breaking.
✅ A Modernized Shopping Experience
With product filters, hidden/unhidden categories, new brand collections, a redesigned homepage, and a cleaner backend, Heroic Thread could better showcase their expanding catalog and serve more customers.
✅ Faster Execution & Trusted Support
Chris no longer waited weeks or months for changes. Most fixes happened same-day. Plugin conflicts, customization questions, and new features were handled by specialists who knew WooCommerce inside and out.
✅ A Scalable Technical Foundation
Instead of rebuilding the site, Pronto transformed it piece-by-piece — supporting Kickflip adoption, new workflows, loyalty points, subaccount strategy, and long-term SEO and speed improvements.
✅ A Relationship That Felt Like an In-House Web Team
Above all, Heroic Thread gained something priceless: confidence. With Website Support, Chris could focus on growing the business rather than battling the website.
For a three-person business trying to scale, Pronto’s Website Support became the foundation that allowed them to grow without worrying about their technology.
