Shopify Brooklyn Theme Review: Is It Still Worth Using This Year?

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Tony Pham Nov 20 2025

In the fiercely competitive e-commerce landscape, owning a reliable and conversion-optimized Shopify design is an absolute must that you cannot afford to overlook. In the article below, NextSky will provide an in-depth analysis of the Shopify Brooklyn theme based on real-world experience to help you achieve outstanding store performance.

Overview of the Shopify Brooklyn theme

Brooklyn, often referred to as Shopify’s “national theme” or the people’s favourite, stands out with its modern, clean, and user-friendly design. It is especially well-suited for fashion and accessory stores. Thanks to its excellent responsive capabilities and smooth shopping experience across all devices, Brooklyn has been adopted by over 39,000 businesses and powers more than 207,000 websites.

The difference between its two styles lies in the layout:

Classic: Allows two collections to be displayed side by side with images of the same size, followed by three smaller images below.
Playful: Features one large image with adjacent images at half the size, then repeats the layout in the following section.

Brooklyn also supports integration with image review apps and allows easy customization of colour schemes and link placements.

Key features of the Shopify Brooklyn Theme

Shopify Brooklyn is a highly popular free theme specifically designed for modern fashion and clothing stores. Some of its standout features include:

Featured product display: Product pages feature large, high-quality images that effectively showcase the product’s style.
Dynamic product grid: The collection page layout automatically adjusts to accommodate the number of products, ensuring the page always appears neat and visually appealing.
Header slideshow: Display multiple featured products or images right at the top of the homepage, with the option for automatic sliding without additional interaction.
Slide-out cart: Customers can add items to the cart without leaving the current page, creating a seamless shopping experience.
Homepage video: Embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo to attract and retain visitors.

Key features of the Shopify Brooklyn Theme

How to download the Brooklyn theme for Shopify

With its minimalist, eye-catching design that emphasizes product imagery, the Brooklyn theme delivers an excellent online shopping experience for customers. Here are the step-by-step instructions to download the Brooklyn theme on Shopify:

Step 1: In your Shopify admin dashboard, go to Online Store → Themes → Theme Library.
Step 2: Click Explore Free Themes, then search for Brooklyn.
Step 3: Click Add to theme library. Once added, you can customize it at any time according to your needs.

How to customize the Brooklyn theme Shopify?

In the Theme Settings section, you can adjust fonts, colours, social media links, and even add unique accents to the checkout page, helping your store stand out with its own identity.

Customize colors

From the admin dashboard, go to Online Store > Themes.
Find Brooklyn and click Customize.
Open Theme Settings > Colours.
Click on a colour swatch to open the colour picker and choose your desired shade.
- Recently selected: Colours you’ve just used.
- In use: Colours currently applied in other sections of the theme.
Enter a Hex colour code for precise colour selection.
Clear the Hex code to set a colour as transparent.
Click Save.

Customize typography

Go to Online Store > Themes and select Customize.
Open Theme Settings > Typography.
Click Change next to each text type to select a suitable font.
Choose a new font from the list or switch to a different style if needed.
Click Select, then Save.

Customize the Cart Page

Go to Online Store > Themes, then Customize.
Navigate to Theme Settings > Cart to choose your preferred cart style.
(Optional) Enable Order Notes if you want customers to leave a message.
Click Save.

Customize theme style

Go to Online Store > Themes, then Customize.
Go to Theme Settings > Theme Style to select the style you want to apply.
Click Change style, then Save.

Brooklyn remains one of the most trusted and widely used free themes on Shopify, particularly for fashion businesses seeking a beautiful, fast, and highly convertible store design.

Pros and cons of the Brooklyn Theme

Brooklyn is a free Shopify theme specifically designed for fashion stores, distinguished by its intuitive and user-friendly design.

Advantages

Completely free: No installation fees, fully supported and regularly updated by Shopify.
Clean and neat design: Simple, easy-to-follow layout that allows store owners to make quick edits and provides customers with a smooth shopping experience.
Simple customization: Easy to adjust to match brand style and product presentation without complicated operations.

Disadvantages

Only comes with three system fonts, limiting typography customization.
The design is quite basic, which may not meet the needs of stores requiring a more flexible or sophisticated interface.
Prone to image overlapping errors in specific layouts.

Best alternatives to the Brooklyn Theme

Although Brooklyn is rated 75%, it still has limitations, such as the need for frequent updates that may require re-editing the layout, weak video support, and suboptimal image optimization on mobile devices. If you're looking for a more stable and feature-rich solution, consider the following premium themes:

Agile

Agile is a premium Shopify theme from NextSky, combining modern and luxurious design with top-tier performance. It's especially ideal for stores handling high traffic while maintaining a smooth user experience.

Key highlights:

Multiple ready-made styles (presets such as Agile, Brana, Serums, Obik, and Glina) are suitable for various niches.
Breakneck loading speed, even with high-resolution images.
Conversion-boosting features: sticky cart, quick buy, countdown timers, and trust badges.
Full support for video, Zoom, galleries, tabs, and lookbooks.
Innovative navigation features include a mega menu, advanced filters, infinite scroll, and a sticky header.
Multi-language compatible – perfect for global expansion.
Enterprise-friendly: pre-order, bulk purchase, order notes, in-store pickup.

Price: $320 USD (lifetime license)

Kalles

Kalles is a highly flexible and customizable Shopify theme suitable for a wide range of industries. Its most significant strength is over 50 high-quality demos, allowing you to set up a professional store in minutes by importing a demo and adding your content.

Key features:

50+ beautiful demos for fashion, electronics, furniture, etc.
25+ pre-built sections (headers, footers, product layouts) for unique styling.
Lightning-fast loading speed to reduce bounce rates.
Video thumbnails & 3D product views for higher engagement.
Highly optimized product pages with countdown timers, trust badges, and sales notifications.
Advanced Mega Menu – handy for stores with numerous categories.

Price: $89 USD

Molla

Molla is a versatile, modern Shopify theme suitable for multiple industries, coming with over 34 specialized demos. It is continuously updated to ensure you always have the latest features.

Key features:

34+ ready-made demos for fashion, beauty, electronics, home goods, etc.
Creative and modern design that helps your store stand out and be easy to navigate.
Fast loading speed with excellent user experience and improved conversion rates.
Perfectly responsive – looks great on all devices and browsers.
Straightforward navigation, ideal for stores with extensive catalogues.
Sales countdown timers to create urgency and encourage quick purchases.
Pre-order functionality for upcoming or out-of-stock items.
Quick view feature so customers can see product details without leaving the page.

Price: $99 USD

Real-life examples of successful stores using the Brooklyn Theme

The following stores are clear proof of Brooklyn’s versatility, delivering engaging shopping experiences across fashion, jewelry, and retail.

Undercover Swimwear: This swimwear brand fully utilizes Brooklyn’s flexible product grid and slide-out cart, creating a seamless and intuitive shopping journey. Sharp imagery combined with minimalist navigation keeps the focus on the products.
Wolf & Bear Kids: Wolf & Bear uses Brooklyn to convey a playful, eco-friendly children’s fashion vibe. The modern layout, vibrant colours, and clean design create a warm, approachable, and energetic atmosphere.
Kimble Clothing: Kimble leverages Brooklyn’s bold, clean structure to showcase contemporary fashion designs. Large, high-depth images paired with a simple product grid make exploration smooth, delivering a sophisticated urban feel.
Tincallab: Tincallab uses Brooklyn as the perfect “backdrop” to highlight creative handmade products. The minimalist, modern design accentuates every intricate detail, appealing to art lovers and the creative community.

These examples demonstrate that, despite its simplicity, Brooklyn can be highly effective when utilized creatively by brands with a strong visual identity.

Tags:

shopify theme

Tony Pham

Hello! I'm Tony Pham, a full-stack Shopify, Magento, and WordPress developer with over 12 years of experience in both front-end and back-end development.

Since 2016, I have been proudly working at Nextsky as the Tech Lead, where I continue to enhance my skills and contribute to exciting projects. One of my proudest works is the Agile theme, which passed Shopify's high standard and is currently available on Shopify Theme Store.

I am passionate about researching new technologies and staying updated with the latest trends in the industry. It not only makes my life more fulfilling and exciting but also allows me to bring better service to clients.