How we rebuilt our PS5 and Xbox customization experience with Aircada, replacing our old mobile accordion menus with a step-by-step loadout screen that has seen over 50,000 custom controllers added to cart in the past six months.
When you spend $200 to $300+ on a custom pro controller, the online builder shouldn't feel like doing your taxes on a smartphone.
Since 2013, our team in Davison, Michigan has hand-built controllers for players who care about every millisecond of input. We build recessed rear tournament buttons positioned right where your middle and ring fingers naturally rest, so you never have to worry about flimsy clip-on plastic paddles snapping mid-tournament. Inside the shell, we install anti-drift TMR (tunneling magnetoresistance) thumbstick modules and tactile mouse-click microswitches built for competitive play.
Our previous 3D customizer handled the basics well enough. It had a good 3D model, automatic camera movement, and back-button mapping. If you sat at a desktop monitor with a mouse and a positive attitude, it got the job done.
Still, it had two glaring problems: the interface looked like a generic software template, and building a controller on a phone felt like a chore.
Here is why we retired our old builder, and how we partnered with Aircada to build a faster, gamer-first 3D customization experience connected directly to our Michigan workshop.
1. Why we ditched our legacy 3D customizer
Our old customizer already had solid 3D graphics, so that wasn't why we switched. We ditched it for three much simpler reasons.
First, mobile was an accordion maze. Most of you build controllers on a phone between game lobbies, and cramming 40+ parts into nested vertical dropdowns turned the screen into an endless scroll that buried the controller.
Second, the UI didn't feel like Cinch. It used a sterile, one-size-fits-all template built to sell office furniture and coffee mugs, when it should have felt like the gunsmith screen in your favorite shooter.
Third, legacy enterprise pricing was bloated. We were paying steep four-figure monthly fees for a rigid platform where every small tweak or support ticket took over a week and cost a pretty penny. We'd much rather put that budget into better features and hardware for our players.
It was time to take the old accordion layout out behind the barn. Unlike Old Yeller, it would likely not be missed.
2. Teaming up with Aircada for a ground-up rebuild
Our team needed a custom product configurator that could support both our PlayStation and Xbox lines, guide mobile shoppers through dozens of interacting options without clutter, and pass structured build data straight to our assembly benches. And it needed to look and feel badass.
That is where Aircada came in hot with a platform for building complex 3D product configurators and connecting them to the messy world of e-commerce workflows. Sean and Wylie Chenoweth, the two founders, worked alongside our team to develop a custom experience on Shopify tailored to how our players shop, at a fraction of the cost of legacy enterprise platforms.
3. Five big upgrades in the V3 builder
Now in its third iteration (V3), our customizer is built to work like a console loadout menu. When you pick your platform on our Build Yours page and launch the PS5 or Xbox builder, five changes stand out right away.
- A proper console loadout UI: Well, for starters, it looks 10/10 more badass than before. We're all gamers here, and finally our 3D configurator acknowledges that.
- A guided step-by-step build flow: The builder breaks 40+ options into three clear phases across the top of your screen and walks you through the build one decision at a time. No more going cross-eyed by the time you reach the checkout.
- A split-screen mobile HUD: On a phone, the 3D model stays pinned in view while your options glide underneath. You never have to scroll up and down to see if the Pink Damascus, Liquid Marble, or Red Maul print clashes with your buttons. Every tap previews live on the controller in front of you, the way the controller gods intended.
- 3D lighting and shaders tuned for real-world confidence: Nothing kills the excitement of a new controller faster than opening the box and finding out the finish looks nothing like the website preview. With pure obsession and determination, we tuned lighting and shaders across our solid colors, soft-touch finishes, premium painted colors, and 30+ custom prints to approximate the look and light response of the physical parts in our Michigan shop.
- The "Roll" button for instant gratification: LET IT ROLL! The ROLL button was more of a cherry on top, but worth every ounce of debatable effort spent. Tap it for that quick dopamine hit.
Under the hood: 60 FPS without cooking your phone
A clean interface is fun and all, but it doesn't mean much if the 3D model takes ten seconds to load or turns your phone into a hand warmer while you're sitting in a lobby. Alongside the visual redesign, we made sure the tech under the hood stays out of your way.
50,000+ custom controllers added to cart
Over the past six months, players have run hundreds of thousands of customization sessions and added over 50,000 custom controllers to cart through our new builder. Turns out, when you stop forcing people to wrestle with endless dropdown menus on their phones, they actually have fun finishing their builds.
Over 140,000 ways to make it yours
We love custom gear, and we know you do too. With over 140,000 possible combinations across shells, prints, buttons, thumbsticks, and pro mods, you can put together a controller that is genuinely yours. Both the PS5 and Xbox builders run on the same underlying Aircada configurator architecture, which means new shell drops, part availability, and pricing stay in sync automatically without our team losing our minds updating two separate systems.
Smooth 60 FPS without cooking your phone
When Aircada cracked open our original 3D CAD files, they found over 20 internal parts (like USB brackets, circuit board standoffs, and tiny internal screws) sealed completely inside the controller shell. Unless you have X-ray vision, making your phone render invisible internal screws is a crime against battery life.
So we ripped out all that hidden internal geometry and built the viewer on a modern WebGPU pipeline. Now the controller spins at a buttery 60 FPS on everyday phones and laptops. Even better, the engine is smart enough to pause active rendering the millisecond you stop spinning the model, giving your phone's GPU a breather while you stare at the screen debating between Ocean Topo and Black Maul.
(If you're a dev or technical nerd who wants to see how the scene graph and shaders work behind the scenes, check out the companion Cinch Gaming 3D configurator case study on Aircada's site.)
Explore Aircada 3D Configurators →
From your screen straight to our soldering bench
A slick 3D preview is great, but what happens after you smash Add to Cart is what actually gets your controller built right.
We aren't shipping plain white t-shirts here. A single Cinch order can pack in custom shell prints, mouse-click triggers, TMR thumbstick modules, uploaded artwork, laser engraving text, and specific remap assignments for four rear tournament buttons. If any of that gets lost in translation between the website and our shop floor, nobody has a good time.
Through our Aircada integration on Shopify, the 3D customizer is wired straight into our production workflow. Everything driving the 3D model on your screen and that live TOTAL counter in the bottom corner gets packaged into structured Shopify line-item data the moment you check out.
When your order lands in our workshop in Davison, Michigan, our builders don't have to decipher a messy wall of order notes. They get a clean, exact build sheet that matches the controller you just cooked up on your phone, right down to the last solder point.
Hand-built in Michigan, designed by you
A custom pro controller is a serious investment in how you play. Designing your controller online should match the precision that goes into soldering the switches and assembling the shell by hand in our shop.
Ready to put together your build? Pick your platform, hit the ROLL button for inspiration or dial in every part step-by-step, and see how your setup comes together in 3D:
Build your custom PS5 or Xbox Series pro controller →
3D Product Configurator Technology by Aircada built in partnership with Cinch Gaming to power our interactive controller customization experience and connect product configurations to our Shopify Plus order workflow.
Leave a comment
This site is protected by hCaptcha and the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.