Outdoor Store Review: MooseJaw.com

So I was checking out MooseJaw.com today - an outdoor gear and clothing store. First impression is they're pretty cool just based on the above graphic that appears on their front page. It's an old painting they've digitally doctored to put ski goggles and goretex jackets etc on some of the people in the painting. Fun.

Second, I noticed they have free shipping on orders over $49 (at least that's for now during Christmas I guess) which is better than some other major players (ie mec.ca requires $150 min. purchcase for free shipping and rei.com doesn't offer free shipping).

Overall the character of their site seems fun and inviting, which makes me believe the company may also be kinda hip and cool. I like the name of their legal section: "mean lawyer privacy policy"

These guys seem pretty with it regarding the web. Their site seems a bit cluttered at times because they're leaning heavily to the "search engine friendly" design with tons of text links in the footer of every page. Not terrible, just not that sightly for us humans.

They've even got their own myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/moosejawmountaineering no doubt as an attempt to just get more people linking to and visiting their site so they can sell more stuff and build more online mojo. They write "Moosejaw has 3358 friends. We want 10,327" which I don't really understand. It seems they're asking me to add them as my friend on my myspace, but it seems a little wierd to me and I'm not really given any motivation to do so even though I think their site is cool. Karma thing maybe?

I've yet to purchase something from them (although my wish list is long: a new north face jacket would be great :), but they carry lots of big brands you'll recognize.

Their online shopping seems secure and pretty straightforward, although they do try to push a lot of their email newsletters at you during the process and require you to choose a password if you're a new customer -- ie so you can login to your account later as a "returning customer".

Drop me a note in response to this posting and let me know your experiences with moosejaw's online store or brick and mortar shop(s) for others to read about.

What they write about themselves:


Moosejaw Mountaineering, Inc. is one of the Midwest's leading outdoor
adventure retailers, offering the finest outdoor gear and apparel as
well as some totally unnecessary non-sense guaranteed to make any day
better. Based in Madison Heights, Mich., the company operates six
locations in Michigan and Chicago and six websites, Moosejaw.com,
theLowdown.com, theJaw.com, CampMoosejaw.com, MoosejawRewards.com, and
AdventureWatches.com.


Some photos from their photo gallery. I like this section. Fun to see the stuff they sell in real life on real people, not headless, bodyless product-only shots.


What one customer wrote about them:

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK from Connie (12/05/06): From the great singer Rod Stewert...Have I told you lately that I love youuuu? Seriously, I LOVE your company. Y'all's website cracks me up, and so do the goofy emails. I had to make an exchange and the company was so helpful, and so totally moosejaw-liscious. I will buy from this company from now on, so keep up the good work, people!