Home > Articles > Ride Theme Shopify: Best Free Sports Theme [Review 2024]

Ride Theme Shopify: Best Free Sports Theme [Review 2024]

June 24, 2024
Written and researched by experts at AvadaLearn more about our methodology

By Sam Nguyen

CEO Avada Commerce

Tired of generic themes that don’t quite capture the essence of athleticism and competition?

The Ride Theme Shopify, designed with a sports-centric aesthetic, promises to be the perfect fit for businesses selling sporting goods, apparel, or equipment.

In this comprehensive review, we’ll dive into this theme’s details, its features, customization options, and overall suitability for sports stores. Let’s find out how this free theme can elevate your online presence!

Avada’s Verdict
Pros:
  • Free to use
  • Captivating design and flexible layout
  • Many built-in features
  • Mobile optimization
  • User-friendly interface
  • Support by Shopify
Cons:
  • Lack of advanced features
  • Basic customization
  • Bugs happen sometimes with the recent updates
  • Only one theme style
Rating: 4/5⭐
Best For
Businesses in the sports, health and fitness industry

What Is Shopify RideTheme?

The Ride Shopify Theme is a dynamic and stylish theme designed specifically for Shopify stores by Shopify.

The theme’s layout is innovative and flexible, with a sleek, sports-centric vibe and many helpful features that are perfect for businesses in the sports industry, like sportswear, sports equipment, and health-related products.

What Is Shopify RideTheme?

5 Features That Make Shopify Theme Ride Perfect For Sports Stores

High-resolution Images & Video

One of the coolest things about the Ride theme is its ability to showcase high-resolution images and videos. This is perfect for telling your brand’s story and making a strong visual impact

For example, if you’re selling new running shoes, you can use high-quality images and videos to show them in action. This helps customers see all the details and get excited about your products, making them more likely to buy.

High-resolution Images & Video For Visual Storytelling

How this feature can be helpful for Shopify merchants:

  • Build Trust and Credibility: Crisp, clear visuals convey professionalism and attention to detail, building trust in your brand and products.
  • Product Videos: Videos can demonstrate product features, usage, and benefits more effectively than images alone. They create a more dynamic and engaging shopping experience, increasing conversions.

The Shopify Ride Theme includes features that suggest related products right on each product page. For example, if someone is buying a skateboard, it might recommend a helmet or suggest a yoga ball to go with a yoga mat.

Cross-selling and Recommended Products

How this feature can be helpful for Shopify merchants:

  • Improved Product Discovery: Customers may not be aware of all the products you offer. By strategically suggesting related items, you help them discover new products they might like, increasing their engagement with your store and potentially leading to more purchases.
  • Better Inventory Management: Cross-selling and recommendations can help you move slow-moving or overstocked items by pairing them with popular products. This can improve your inventory turnover and free up space for new stock.

Rich Product Information

The Ride theme also shines in its ability to provide lots of information about products, shipping, and usage. This is a big deal in the sports industry because customers often want to know all the details about the gear they’re buying, like what it’s made of, how much it weighs, and how to use it.

The Ride Theme lets you put all this important info in a clear and easy way to find, helping customers make informed decisions.

Rich Product Information Ride theme shopify

How this feature can be helpful for Shopify merchants:

  • Enhanced Trust: Transparency about the product builds trust and credibility with customers. When customers feel confident about what they’re buying, they are more likely to complete the purchase.
  • Enhanced SEO: Including relevant keywords in product descriptions and meta tags can improve your store’s visibility in search engine results, driving organic traffic to your site.

Enhanced search

The Shopify Ride theme’s enhanced search feature is a real game-changer. As soon as customers start typing in the search bar, it starts suggesting products with clear images. This makes it super easy for them to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.

How this feature can be helpful for Shopify merchants:

  • Increased Sales: When customers can easily find the products they want, they are more likely to make a purchase, leading to higher conversion rates.
  • Reduced Bounce Rate: A good search experience reduces the bounce rate, as customers are more likely to stay on your site and explore further if they can find relevant products.

Products Badges

The Shopify Ride theme also lets you create eye-catching promo badges to highlight sales, discounts, or new products. This is a great way for small sports businesses to promote an end-of-season sale or a new line of gear. These banners grab customers’ attention and encourage them to make a purchase.

How this feature can be helpful for Shopify merchants:

  • Highlighting Key Selling Points: Badges effectively communicate important information about a product, such as “Sale,” “New Arrival,” “Best Seller,” “Limited Edition,” or “Eco-Friendly.” This helps customers quickly identify products that match their interests or preferences.
  • Attention-grabbing: Product badges instantly draw customers’ attention to specific products, making them stand out on a crowded page. This can lead to increased clicks, views, and ultimately, sales.

Shopify Theme Ride’s Pricing

The Shopify Ride theme is completely free to use. It is available on the Shopify Theme Store for all merchants to download and install.

Shopify Ride Theme’s User Review

From what I’ve seen, people using the Shopify Ride theme have had mixed experiences. Many like its modern design, how fast it loads, and all the features it comes with. They also appreciate the quick and helpful support from the Shopify team.

  • “Shopify is not WordPress guys..Shopify is built on WordPress..this is a very nice theme that works fine. I’ve done 99% of the things the people below said was impossible and I’m on a basic plan…lord knows I won’t pay 2k for a plus account tho..now that’s dumb. But this theme is fine, this is probably the only cool theme on Shopify and doesn’t deserve 1 star ratings. It’s the people using it.” – Blazetray
  • “This is a fantastic theme with a ton of features & regular updates making it more amazing. I would highly recommned this theme for a modern, stylish brand! I’m not tempted to change themes any time soon!” – 3rd Day

However, some users have mentioned having trouble customizing the theme or with certain features not working as expected.

  • “Hi I like the template, only have problem with the search bar on desktop mode I can’t opened went i go down in the products.”AllienGamer
  • “Looks good at first but hides a few big flaws. Thumbnails get blurry for no reason and when enlarging pictures they become way too big and are, for some reason, all connected to the same scrollbar instead of being separate images.” – Humans With Worth

How To Try And Publish Shopify Ride Theme?

To try and publish a Shopify Ride theme, you must follow several steps to ensure a smooth process. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you:

  • Create a Shopify store and log in to the admin panel.
  • Go to “Online Store” and select “Themes.”
  • Browse the “Shopify Ride” theme in the Theme Store.
  • Click “Preview” to see the theme’s design and features.
  • Install the theme by clicking “Add” and confirming the installation.
  • Customize the theme using the built-in editor.
  • Preview and test the theme’s responsiveness and functionality.
  • Click the “Publish” button to make the Shopify Ride theme live on your store.

Who Should Use the Shopify Ride Theme?

The Shopify Ride theme is perfect for:

  • Startups and small businesses who are looking for a quick setup theme with visually appealing designs that effectively showcase services and products.
  • Businesses in the health and fitness industry like fitness centers, gyms, and sportswear retailers.

Which Shopify Free Theme Is Better: Ride or Crave?

The comparison of the Shopify Ride Theme vs. the Shopify Crave Theme is conducted under the following criteria. 

Feature set:

  • Ride is a distinct, dynamic theme that champions the world of sports. It includes support for editorial content, quick setup, visual storytelling, cart notes, in-store pickups, quick buy, blogs, cross-selling, FAQ page, press coverage, product reviews, promo banners, recommended products, high-resolution images, image galleries, image rollover, image zoom, ingredients or nutritional information, lookbooks, product videos, shipping/delivery information, size chart, slideshow, and usage information.
  • Crave is an eye-catching theme optimized for shopping on the go. It includes support for quick setup, visual storytelling, cart notes, in-store pickups, quick buy, cross-selling, FAQ page, press coverage, product reviews, promo banners, recommended products, high-resolution images, image galleries, image rollover, image zoom, ingredients or nutritional information, lookbooks, product options, product videos shipping/delivery information size chart slideshow and usage information.
Feature set

Design:

  • Ride has a sleek, sports-centric design with a winning combination of a dark background, bold typography, and accent colors that make your sporting goods pop. It also has an innovative and flexible layout with unique page templates and asymmetrical layouts that let you showcase products, teams, and everything in between12. 
  • Crave has a vibrant and playful design with bold colors and distinct shadows that demand buyers’ attention while showcasing your brand’s personality. It is optimized for shopping on the go with mobile-optimized layouts and dynamic checkout options34.

Documentation and Support:

  • Both themes have extensive documentation and support available through the Shopify Help Center. You can find detailed information on how to customize each theme, including adding and customizing sections and blocks, modifying theme settings, and applying templates to pages. Additionally, both themes are guaranteed to stay up-to-date and work with Shopify’s ever-growing feature set.

Pricing:

  • Both Ride and Crave are free themes available on the Shopify Theme Store.

The Verdict: 

The Verdict

It is a tie. Both Ride and Crave are excellent free themes with extensive features, support, and customization options. The choice between them ultimately depends on your preference for design and your store’s specific needs. If you are selling sporting goods or want a sleek, sports-centric design, then Ride may be the better choice for you. If you want a vibrant, playful design optimized for shopping on the go, then Crave may be a better fit

Shopify Ride Theme: FAQs

The Shopify Ride Theme is highly customizable. You can prepare Ride for your online store by adding and customizing sections and blocks and modifying the theme settings. This allows you to build your online store to suit your business, products, and brand without the need to edit code. The theme also includes a unique design for your “About Us” page, which you can customize by opening Ride in your theme editor, selecting Pages from the drop-down menu at the top of your screen, and clicking About to load the template.
Yes, the Shopify Ride Theme supports mobile-responsive design. The theme is optimized for a seamless shopping experience on all mobile phones and tablets. This means that the theme will automatically adjust its layout and content to fit the screen size of the device used to view your online store, providing a smooth and user-friendly experience for your customers.
The Shopify Ride Theme comes with customer support from Shopify. If you’re using the free Ride theme from Shopify, then Shopify support might help you with minor changes to your theme. If you’re on the Basic Shopify plan or higher, then you can use up to 60 minutes of free design support, used in 15-minute increments.
The Shopify Ride Theme is a free Online Store 2.0 theme from Shopify that is perfect for stores selling sporting goods of any catalog size. While the theme does not have specific features for inventory management, Shopify provides a range of tools that can be used with any theme, including Ride.
The Shopify Ride Theme is designed to be fast and efficient, providing customers with a smooth and seamless shopping experience. The theme is optimized for speed, with clean code and no deadweight CSS or Javascript files. This means the theme will load quickly, providing customers with a fast and responsive experience. Additionally, the theme is built on the Shopify 2.0 theme architecture, designed to provide the best performance and keep your store up to date with the latest features.

Ending Words

The Shopify Ride theme is a fantastic free choice for any Shopify store that wants to make a strong impact online. It has a dynamic and sport-centric design, and you can customize different sections on the homepage and mobile devices. Using the Ride theme, you can create a unique and engaging website that effectively highlights your products and brand.


Sam Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Avada Commerce, an e-commerce solution provider headquartered in Singapore. He is an expert on the Shopify e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Sam loves talking about e-commerce and he aims to help over a million online businesses grow and thrive.