case study

Speed That Fits Like a Glove (or… Underwear)

Tommy John knows comfort matters. So does speed. See how they used Nostra to cut TTFB by 35% and create a faster shopping experience at scale.
TTFB
35% Faster
First Contentful Paint
17% Faster
Sessions Served
26M
Established
2008
Mission
From the first-ever patented undershirt, to distraction-free underwear and essentials, Tommy John has been redefining confidence through comfort since 2008. We’re driven by innovation and obsess over every detail, pushing the boundaries of contemporary apparel through fabric, fit, feel and function.
Headquarters
New York
“At Tommy John, we obsess over removing friction, whether that’s in our underwear or on our website. Nostra helped us shave hundreds of milliseconds off our load times, which means customers get to the good stuff faster. Think of it like upgrading from old, stretched-out boxers to something that actually fits. Once you experience it, there’s no going back.”
Serge M.
VP of Technology
01

The Situation

Tommy John has built its reputation on comfort, performance, and products that actually fit the way they should. But as their storefront scaled, with more traffic, richer content, and increasingly complex infrastructure, maintaining a fast shopping experience became more challenging.

And in ecommerce, speed matters. Even small delays in load time can create friction in the customer journey.

Tommy John partnered with Nostra to improve storefront performance using edge delivery infrastructure, reducing latency before content even reaches the browser.

Because when your brand promises no wedgies, your website shouldn’t create friction either.

02

The Test

Tommy John ran a real-world experiment using a traffic split test:

  • Control: Existing infrastructure
  • Edge (Nostra): Requests served through Nostra’s edge delivery network

Traffic allocation reflected normal production conditions.

Sample size:

  • 5.6M sessions — Control
  • 20.3M sessions — Edge

This gave statistically meaningful performance comparisons at scale.

03

The Results

TTFB (Time To First Byte) saw the largest improvement at 35% faster.

This makes sense: Nostra operates at the edge layer, meaning it reduces the distance and processing time between a shopper’s request and the first byte returned.

Once that first byte arrives faster, the rest of the page rendering begins instantly, creating downstream improvements in metrics like FCP and LCP.

However, as rendering shifts into the browser, improvements naturally taper since client-side execution is outside infrastructure control.

In other words:

We can make the store load faster.
But we can’t stop someone from opening 37 Chrome tabs while shopping for underwear.

04

Why This Matters for Ecommerce

When shoppers land on a page, every millisecond affects:

  • perceived performance
  • bounce rates
  • conversion probability
  • checkout completion

A faster TTFB means the page starts loading sooner, improving overall experience.

Or put another way:

Your website should feel like Tommy John underwear — fast, smooth, and no unnecessary friction.

05

The Bottom Line

With Nostra’s edge delivery:

  • 35% faster server response time
  • ~17% faster initial rendering
  • Millions of sessions tested in production

The result is a storefront that loads as comfortably as Tommy John feels.

Because when it comes to ecommerce performance:

Slow sites are like bad underwear.
Everyone notices, and nobody likes it.

THE IMPACT

35.3% Faster TTFB

Server response time dropped from 889ms to 575ms — pages start loading the instant a shopper clicks, not a second later.

16.7% Faster FCP

First Contentful Paint improved from 1,736ms to 1,446ms — customers see product content before friction ever sets in.

25.9M Sessions Tested

No lab metrics here. Results measured across 25.9 million real production sessions with a controlled traffic split — statistically bulletproof.

Zero Friction, Full Funnel

Edge delivery accelerated the entire experience from first byte to checkout — matching the seamless, no-friction brand promise Tommy John is built on.

Turn Visitors Into Customers

300+ enterprise and high-growth brands rely on Nostra to deliver instant site speed, stronger SEO performance, deeper personalization, and clean, actionable marketing data.

Trusted by 300+ brands

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