Sloper is a climbing tracker designed for indoor and outdoor climbers, built to deliver the polished, intuitive experience missing from existing climbing apps. It allows users to log climbs, track projects, view progress with analytics, and compete with friends through leaderboards. With both free and premium features, Sloper gives climbers the same kind of seamless digital training companion that runners and cyclists have enjoyed for years.
Sloper began as one of my first product concepts in 2020. At the time I didn't have the skills or resources to build it out, so it remained in my portfolio as just an another showcase piece. Years later, with more experience and the emergence of all these app building tools, I decided to take another shot. I redesigned it from scratch, focusing on the core experience of logging a climb, then started building.
I used v0.dev to get the foundation in place, then switched to a more manual approach with other LLMs as the project grew. I set up auth, wired up a Supabase backend, and integrated subscriptions through RevenueCat and App Store Connect. I built out an MVP in about a month, launched it through TestFlight, and kept iterating based on feedback from friends and early users. The product was originally released as a fully paywalled app, but the pushback was immediate. At the same time, I didn't want to prevent users from experiencing what I considered the most magical part of the app—the UX. So I took it to heart and reworked the offerings into two feature sets: basic (free) and premium.
The hardest challenge wasn't anything design related, but the data structure behind it. I had to figure out how sessions, climbs, and projects would relate without conflicts, which is something I would normally collaborate on with engineers. Solving it on my own gave me a much deeper understanding of how data, code, and UX connect.
Sloper is now live on the App Store with a modest but active user base of around 170 climbers, consistent weekly activity, and five-star reviews. A growing number of users have subscribed to premium features, validating both the product and its business model.
As a solo designer / builder of Sloper, the learning experiences have been numerous and invaluable. I know now the complexities of a working codebase, inside and out. I better understand the relationship between front-end and back-end, and some of the parameters that I can be more mindful of when making certain design decisions. But more than anything, being the first time I have owned a product from conception to launch, this experience has made me sharper, more confident, and more effective in every part of the product development process.
