Out of the Sandbox: Shopify Themes, Pricing and Setup Guide

What is Out of the Sandbox?

Out of the Sandbox sells premium themes for Shopify stores, plus Shopify apps for updating those themes and backing up store data. It has produced Shopify Theme Store themes since 2011 and builds only for Shopify. Its best-known themes are Turbo, Flex, Superstore, Parallax, Retina and Responsive.

The brand is run by Pixel Union, a Shopify theme company in Victoria, British Columbia. Purchases fall under Pixel Union Design LTD’s terms, and the site’s menu also links to Pixel Union’s other themes (Empire, Impulse, Symmetry and others) sold under the Pixel Union, Archetype and Clean Canvas brands.

The problem it solves is the gap between Shopify’s free themes and a custom-built storefront. A free theme is fine for a small catalogue, but once you need a large mega menu, product tabs, quick buy, back-in-stock alerts or a store with thousands of variants, you either add apps, pay a developer or buy a theme that already does it. Out of the Sandbox sells the third option as a one-time licence.

Who it is for

• Growing Shopify stores that have outgrown a free theme and want more layout and merchandising features without hiring a developer. Turbo is pitched at experienced, high-volume merchants who care about speed.
• Large-catalogue and wholesale stores. Superstore is positioned for wholesalers and big catalogues, and Turbo v11 (September 2026) added native support for products with hundreds of options.
• Agencies, freelancers and developers. Flex is aimed at people building stores for others, with section-specific CSS fields and custom Liquid sections and blocks.
• Wineries and wine merchants. Vino adds wine icon product tags and tasting-notes sections.
• Boutiques and local shops that want a polished store at a lower price: Retina, Parallax and Responsive.

It is not for you if you are on a platform other than Shopify, if you have not made your first sales yet (a free theme is the cheaper experiment), or if you want a vendor to customise the theme for you. Support covers the theme as shipped; customisation is referred to partner Shopify experts.

Key features

Features vary by theme. The list below uses Turbo, the flagship, as the example, with notes where other themes differ.

• Speed modes. Turbo offers Ludicrous and Sport modes. Smart page preloading is available in Ludicrous mode only. Turbo v11 also moved jQuery off the critical rendering path.
• Mega menu and search. The mega menu supports up to five layouts of up to five columns, alongside predictive search, which suits stores with deep category trees.
• Product pages that sell. Product tabs and video, quick buy, a slide-out cart and in-store pickup are built in. Turbo v11 rebuilt the product page for products with hundreds of options.
• Marketing tools without extra apps. Age verifier, back-in-stock alert, product badges, promo banners and popups, a newsletter popup, recently viewed and recommended products, and a stock counter. Each one is an app you may not need to install.
• Presets. Each theme ships with several presets (Turbo has seven, Flex has 13). A preset only sets the starting style; buying any preset includes all of that theme’s presets.
• Online Store 2.0 and developer options. Section-specific CSS fields, custom Liquid sections and blocks, and minified script options. Translations for English, French, Italian, German and Spanish are included.
• Theme Updater & Backups app. A Shopify app that notifies you of updates and delivers new theme files, adds premium sections usable in any theme, migrates customised themes to new versions and, on the top plan, backs up store data.

Pricing

Themes are a one-time purchase in USD for one store. At the time of writing (checked 22 October 2026 on outofthesandbox.com):

Theme	Price (one-time, USD)	Presets	Where to buy
Turbo	$425	7	outofthesandbox.com only
Flex	$495	13	outofthesandbox.com only
Superstore	$320	4	outofthesandbox.com only
Vino	$499	3 demo stores	outofthesandbox.com only
Retina	$200	4	also Shopify Theme Store ($220)
Parallax	$200	4	also Shopify Theme Store ($260)
Responsive	$220	4	also Shopify Theme Store ($220)
Launch / Pacific	$240 each	3 / 4	product pages still live, not in the main menu

Prices differ between the two stores for Retina and Parallax, so compare before you buy. The Shopify Theme Store lets you try a theme in your own store for as long as you like and pay only when you publish it. The direct-only themes (Turbo, Flex, Superstore, Vino) have no free trial, but Turbo, Flex and Superstore offer full refunds within 14 days of purchase. Out of the Sandbox promo codes work only on direct purchases.

Recurring add-ons:

Add-on	Price at the time of writing	What you get
Theme Updater & Backups: Updater Free	Free	Latest theme files, update notifications, free theme sections
Theme Sections	$4/month or $36/year	Premium sections usable in any theme, new sections monthly
Updater Pro	$9/month or $96/year	One-click updates that keep code edits and app integrations, email alerts
Vault Backups	$29/month or $312/year	Automated store backups, instant restore, one-year history
Priority Support Subscription	$96/year	Tickets move to the front of the queue

Paid app plans have a 7-day free trial.

How to use Out of the Sandbox: step-by-step

1. Pick a theme. Browse the demos on outofthesandbox.com and match the theme to your store: Turbo for speed and high volume, Flex for flexible layouts, Superstore for big catalogues, Vino for wine, Retina, Parallax or Responsive for smaller shops.
2. Decide where to buy. For Retina, Parallax or Responsive you can open the theme in the Shopify Theme Store, choose Try theme, customise it in your store and pay only when you publish. For Turbo, Flex, Superstore and Vino, buy directly.
3. Buy and download. Direct purchases are delivered as a ZIP file that contains every preset of the theme.
4. Register the theme. Register your purchase with the online form or through the Theme Updater app. Registration connects your store to its licence; you need it for support and to keep access to version upgrades.
5. Upload it to Shopify. In the Shopify admin go to Online Store > Themes and use Upload theme to add the preset ZIP. Keep the file zipped: if your computer or browser unzips downloads automatically, turn that off or re-zip the file. If the download holds several ZIP files (one per preset), upload the single preset ZIP you want rather than the outer bundle. The theme lands in your theme library unpublished, so your live store is unaffected.
6. Customise. Open the theme in Shopify’s theme editor and set fonts, colours, the header and menu, homepage sections and product page layout.
7. Preview, then publish. Check the store on desktop and mobile with real products, then publish.

Set up the mega menu and merchandising features

Create your navigation menus in Shopify first, then enable the mega menu in the theme editor and pick a layout for each top-level item. Turn on the built-in tools you would otherwise install apps for, such as back-in-stock alerts, product badges, the stock counter and the newsletter popup. Compare this with your installed apps and remove any that the theme now duplicates; fewer apps usually means a faster store.

Keep the theme updated

Install Theme Updater & Backups from the Shopify App Store. On the free plan you get update notifications and the latest theme files, which suits stores that have not edited theme code. If you or a developer changed the code, Updater Pro migrates your settings, code edits and app integrations to the new version in one click. Support does not help with manual installation of updates.

Get help

Submit a ticket through the Out of the Sandbox Help Center with the theme name and your myshopify.com URL. Support is by email and ticket only, in English, with a target first reply within 24 hours (allow one to three business days). You need a valid, registered licence. Priority Support at $96 a year moves you up the queue.

Tips to get better results

• Choose by catalogue, not by demo photos. Presets are only starting styles and all of them come with the theme. Pick the theme whose layout and features fit your product range.
• Try before buying where you can. If Retina, Parallax or Responsive would do the job, try them in your store through the Shopify Theme Store at no cost first.
• Use the 14-day window. If you buy Turbo, Flex or Superstore directly, build the key pages straight away so you know within 14 days whether it fits.
• Register immediately. Unregistered themes cannot get support or version upgrades.
• Duplicate before you edit code. Work on a copy of the theme in your theme library so you always have a clean version to fall back to.
• Use speed features with care. Turn on Turbo’s speed modes, then cut apps whose features the theme already provides.
• Budget for updates if you customise. Updater Pro costs less per year than most developer hours spent porting edits by hand.

Limitations and common problems

• High upfront cost. $320 to $499 for the direct-only themes is a lot for a new store. Workaround: start with a free theme, or one of the Theme Store themes you can try first.
• No trial for the flagship themes. Turbo, Flex, Superstore and Vino cannot be trialled in your store. The 14-day refund on Turbo, Flex and Superstore is the safety net; Vino has no refund line on its product page.
• One licence per shop. Agencies need a licence for every client store, and you cannot transfer a theme to another owner.
• Support has a narrow scope. Customisations (including AI-generated theme blocks), third-party apps, SEO, page speed work, analytics setup, schema and accessibility compliance are not covered. Workaround: budget for a Shopify expert if you plan heavy changes.
• Updating a customised theme is work. Support does not upgrade customised themes. Workaround: Updater Pro, or keep your edits in custom sections rather than core files.
• Older themes. Launch and Pacific are still sold and supported but no longer appear in the main menu. Prefer a theme the vendor is actively promoting.

Alternatives

• Shopify’s free themes - the right starting point for a new store; upgrade only when you hit a specific limit.
• Pixel Union themes (Empire, Impulse, Symmetry and others) - the same parent company’s other premium themes, with different layouts and feature sets.
• Other Shopify Theme Store themes - every Theme Store theme can be tried in your store before you pay, which is a lower-risk way to buy.
• A custom theme from a Shopify expert - worth it only for brands with specific design needs and the budget to maintain custom code.

See our ecommerce tools directory for apps that pair with a new theme. If you want to raise order value after checkout, read our AfterSell guide; for selling print-on-demand products through a Shopify store, see the Printify guide; and for shipping labels once orders grow, see Shippo.

Verdict

Buy an Out of the Sandbox theme if your Shopify store already sells steadily, you need features a free theme lacks (a serious mega menu, quick buy, back-in-stock alerts, high-variant products) and you would rather pay once than stack apps or hire a developer. Turbo is the pick for speed and volume, Flex for agencies and custom layouts, Superstore for large catalogues.

Skip it if your store is new, if a free theme already covers what you sell, or if you expect the vendor to customise the theme for you. In those cases start free, or try Retina, Parallax or Responsive in the Shopify Theme Store before spending anything.