diff --git a/js/app.js b/js/app.js
index 94b733cd..318e59f8 100644
--- a/js/app.js
+++ b/js/app.js
@@ -8,10 +8,12 @@ import Router from 'react-router';
 import fetch from 'isomorphic-fetch';
 
 import ApiUrls from './constants/api_urls';
-import constants from './constants/application_constants';
+import appConstants from './constants/application_constants';
 import getRoutes from './routes';
 import requests from './utils/requests';
 
+import { getSubdomainSettings } from './utils/constants_utils';
+
 let headers = {
     'Accept': 'application/json',
     'Content-Type': 'application/json'
@@ -33,26 +35,21 @@ requests.defaults({
 class AppGateway {
 
     start() {
-        console.log('start');
+        let settings;
         let subdomain = window.location.host.split('.')[0];
-        requests.get('whitelabel_settings', {'subdomain': subdomain})
-            .then(this.loadSubdomain.bind(this))
-            .catch(this.loadDefault.bind(this));
-    }
 
-    loadSubdomain(data) {
-        let settings = data.whitelabel;
-        constants.whitelabel = settings;
-        this.load('prize');
-    }
-
-    loadDefault(error) {
-        console.log('Loading default app, error'. error);
-        this.load('default');
+        try {
+            settings = getSubdomainSettings(subdomain);
+            appConstants.whitelabel = settings;
+            this.load('prize');
+        } catch(err) {
+            // if there are no matching subdomains, we're routing
+            // to the default frontend
+            this.load('default');
+        }
     }
 
     load(type) {
-        console.log('loading', type);
         Router.run(getRoutes(type), Router.HistoryLocation, (App) => {
             React.render(
                 <App />,
diff --git a/js/constants/application_constants.js b/js/constants/application_constants.js
index d03c6423..c7245f61 100644
--- a/js/constants/application_constants.js
+++ b/js/constants/application_constants.js
@@ -14,48 +14,32 @@ let constants = {
 
     'subdomains': [
         {
-            'fields': {
-                'user': 22,
-                'subdomain': 'cc',
-                'name': 'Creative Commons France',
-                'logo': 'https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ascribe0/public/creativecommons/cc.logo.sm.png',
-                'permissions': ['register', 'edit', 'share', 'del_from_collection']
-            },
-            'model': 'whitelabel.whitelabelsettings',
-            'pk': 1
+            'user': 22,
+            'subdomain': 'cc',
+            'name': 'Creative Commons France',
+            'logo': 'https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ascribe0/public/creativecommons/cc.logo.sm.png',
+            'permissions': ['register', 'edit', 'share', 'del_from_collection']
         },
         {
-            'fields': {
-                'user': 22,
-                'subdomain': 'cc-staging',
-                'name': 'Creative Commons France',
-                'logo': 'https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ascribe0/public/creativecommons/cc.logo.sm.png',
-                'permissions': ['register', 'edit', 'share', 'del_from_collection']
-            },
-            'model': 'whitelabel.whitelabelsettings',
-            'pk': 2
-        },
-            {
-            'fields': {
-                'user': 1,
-                'subdomain': 'sluice',
-                'name': 'Sluice Art Fair',
-                'logo': 'https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ascribe0/whitelabel/sluice/logo.jpeg',
-                'permissions': ['register', 'edit', 'share', 'del_from_collection']
-            },
-            'model': 'whitelabel.whitelabelsettings',
-            'pk': 3
+            'user': 22,
+            'subdomain': 'cc-staging',
+            'name': 'Creative Commons France',
+            'logo': 'https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ascribe0/public/creativecommons/cc.logo.sm.png',
+            'permissions': ['register', 'edit', 'share', 'del_from_collection']
         },
         {
-            'fields': {
-                'user': 1,
-                'subdomain': 'sluice-staging',
-                'name': 'Sluice Art Fair',
-                'logo': 'https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ascribe0/whitelabel/sluice/logo.jpeg',
-                'permissions': ['register', 'edit', 'share', 'del_from_collection']
-            },
-            'model': 'whitelabel.whitelabelsettings',
-            'pk': 4
+            'user': 1,
+            'subdomain': 'sluice',
+            'name': 'Sluice Art Fair',
+            'logo': 'https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ascribe0/whitelabel/sluice/logo.jpeg',
+            'permissions': ['register', 'edit', 'share', 'del_from_collection']
+        },
+        {
+            'user': 1,
+            'subdomain': 'sluice-staging',
+            'name': 'Sluice Art Fair',
+            'logo': 'https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ascribe0/whitelabel/sluice/logo.jpeg',
+            'permissions': ['register', 'edit', 'share', 'del_from_collection']
         }
     ],
 
diff --git a/js/utils/constants_utils.js b/js/utils/constants_utils.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..923c98fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/js/utils/constants_utils.js
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+'use strict';
+
+import appConstants from '../constants/application_constants';
+
+export function getSubdomainSettings(subdomain) {
+    let settings = appConstants.subdomains.filter((sdSettings) => subdomain === sdSettings.subdomain);
+
+    if(settings.length === 1) {
+        return settings[0];
+    } else if(settings.length === 0) {
+        throw new Error('There are no subdomain settings for the subdomain: ' + subdomain);
+    } else {
+        throw new Error('Matched multiple subdomains. Adjust constants file.');
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/js/utils/fetch_api_utils.js b/js/utils/fetch_api_utils.js
index a4939770..8b8cf89a 100644
--- a/js/utils/fetch_api_utils.js
+++ b/js/utils/fetch_api_utils.js
@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ export function getCookie(name) {
 
     Taken from: http://jsfiddle.net/jan_miksovsky/yy7zs/
 
+    CURRENTLY NOT USED...
+
  */
 export function fetchImageAsBlob(url) {
     return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {