Getoutside

Whenever I step in here, I have to look for help. The employees are not engaged, and clearly don’t make any commission on the shoes they sell. The shoes are very cool, and they have the best selection in Toronto– at least their buyer is doing a good job. That’s why I have continued to shop here.
Fast forward to when I tried on a pair in store, asked for a shoe other than the stained display one, or a significant discount, and was offered their customary 10% off. The shoe had gross white marks all over it. Anyways, I was told to try online because they have more selection at the Yonge location.
I ordered the shoe online, put in the order box «do not ship me the display shoe» and wah la, of course they send me the old stained display shoe, hoping that as a new customer I wouldn’t catch on. Except, they’re stained, and smelly. I would have complained even if I hadn’t visited Queen Street and knew. This is unhygenic, shows a lack of customer service (I mean come on… I wrote «no display shoes» in the order comments box) dishonest and greedy.
I wrote them an e-​mail about my experience, and haven’t heard back.
I will not be shopping here again. Bad ownership and disengaged employees.

As much as I want to HATE GetOutside for a number of reasons, I always end up there and quite often buy shoes.
The sales associates are pretty miserable and too cool for school. It is often PACKED with people and nearly impossible to find someone to help, especially during peak days on the weekend. Also, even though they appear to have a million shoes, quite often they are low on sizes. I wear a 9 – 10 and sometimes it is really difficult to get the colour you want or the style you want. There often must be sacrifice.
BUT, and this but is the reason why I come back time and time again, they.have.everything. Styles that you can’t find anywhere, colours that you can’t find anywhere and more. Toms, Sperry, New Balance, Keds, Vans, Converse, Blundstones, Birkenstocks. It is a one stop shop for the best shoe brands. Also, before Birkenstocks were cool again, before Keds were all the rage and before Toms took over the world, only GetOutside sold those particular brands. They are quite often ahead of the curve.

Horrible customer service but I got Blundstones for an amazing deal! I arrived and ended up being there for an hour when it should have taken only 20 minutes tops. I was ignored a lot of the time and the shoe boxes were dusty when they brought them out. Also the woman at the till was talking on the phone as I tried to pay. And sales associates came up but only to walk away. I only bought the blundstones because they were a good deal. If they weren’t I would have walked out.

Customer service here is always TERRIBLE. I have bought many pairs of shoes here and it’s as if myself and every other customer in the store are dentists and are scaring/​repulsing the sales associates. I always have to beg for help and that’s not ok.
Shopping for a pair of frye’s was the worst experience I had here when I was yelled at by an employee for asking someone else for help because I was unable to find her for an extended period of time.
Another instance I came to purchase a pair of hunter boots. They did not have the size I wanted so they ordered them from the uptown location. I came to pick up the boots when they arrived downtown and they ordered them in the wrong colour. On the second try they accidentally sold the pair to someone else that was ordered for me. Third times a charm and I finally got the boots and they gave me a 10% discount, but I had to wait a month when it should have only been one week.
No wonder there is a permanent hiring sign stickered on their window. I have recently been sourcing the brands they sell to other more competent stores to save me a lot of grief.

A very good selection of warm, waterproof and pretty winter boots. They generally cost over $ 120.
MEC also has hardy and attractive winter boots, the prices can be cheaper by $ 10.00, and the staff are always friendlier than Get Outside’s grumpy pretty girls. But Get Outside’s got the selection for feminine slush-​sloggers.

The last 2 purchases I’ve made to keep my feet happy have been from getoutside! I spoiled myself with getting a good pair of boots for the cold weather and then a pair of canvas slip ons for the warm sunny days! Each time I’ve had great staff helping me out. When I purchased my boots, I found that perhaps I could have gone a half size down and when I called to check if they had any available they were more than happy to hold it for me for almost a whole working day since it was the only pair available.
Like many have pointed out, they have a massive selection, and possibly the best selection of Frye’s and Red Wings I’ve seen around the city to actually try on. And most of the time I see they have their Frye’s on a 15% sale in store.
It would be nice if they had more frequent sales on particular brands or discounted items, but their sale rack and a very nicely «stocked» website makes up for it.

Good shoe selection. But the workers are stuck up and quite rude. When you decide not buying they become giant snobs. I told the guy that I was going to think abt the shoes and he just gave me this rude ‘yup.’ no have a good day no nothing. I guess he felt like he couldn’t be bothered to be nice to a non buyer.

I’ve gotta commend them for having an extensive collection of the shoes I like the most: converse, vans, sperrys and the like. You can tell they operate on a commission basis, too, because the service is really attentive. Thanks to Jackson for serving me really quickly. The reason I’m giving them two stars is because the prices are outrageous for what they are offering … I paid $ 125 for shoes that used to be just $ 65. I’m also shocked they don’t offer a student discount… I got ten percent off all my other back to school purchases today. Would probably be a good idea to offset the high markup with some kind of customer loyalty scheme or discount incentive.

This certainly isn’t my favourite shoe store but I have to admit they have a great deal of good shoes to choose. So, as a woman, I cannot very well pass up an opportunity to polish my feet with something shiny and new.
Most of the time, you walk in and no one talks to you. Occasionally, you get, like today, associates that see you, don’t speak to you and walk through an employee only door. I had about 3 of those.
I sat, trying on some shoes and texting for awhile before someone even said hello.
I will say, they do need a bit more product knowledge on their items. I checked online at the shoe companies site for sizes they produce. I was told they didn’t — I laughed.
I will say, they were super nice when I paid.

Ah yes, this review is another one taking me back in time.
I got to Canada in the summer of 2007 and had pretty vague ideas of what winter here would really be like. In my mind, I assumed I needed some serious boots for snow.
(In L.A., we only ever seen news footage of cities in snow when the snow is really brutal. Hence, I didn’t quite understand that snow isn’t an all or nothing thing, that in Toronto you often got just a few centimeters that melted away – with no real need for serious boots.)
Doing research, I decided on Sorels. This is back before Sorel offered a lot more variety in their boots and were trying to become trendy – basically there were just a few models to choose from. They were no longer made in Canada (Vietnam) but might still have been privately held. (I suspect they are owned by somebody else now. This has happened with countless apparel companies – greedy holding company buys a small brand and starts pumping out everything they can with the brand on it while the quality goes down).
I honestly can’t remember why I settled on Getoutside as the place to go for these boots although I know I researched it online. They had ‘em, for a fair price, probably in my size and the store was near work. I bought them on a weeknight and the experience was fine, neither really good or bad; I assume this place gets crazy busy on weekends. If I had it go do over again, I’d go to a place specializing in outdoor gear. Since Getoutside sells everything, I doubt their staff can be experts in anything.
As for the boots? I wear them a couple of times a year, one of them often hurts and at this rate, they will be fully broken in long after I’m dead. Anyone wear size ten?
I suspect I would not return to Getoutside but only because the shoes they carry are not really what I’m looking for; I am happy to pay more to deal with some old sales guy that has been heeling people for years and truly knows footwear. But hey, if I was young and fashionable, this still seems like one of the go to stores in the city for shoes.

It isn’t often that a shoe store can be packed to the gills on a Sunday afternoon and still provide attentive service. But the folks at Get Outside were impressively attentive both of the times I’ve been there, even though there have been what seemed like a bajillion people inside poring over the large selection of Toms, Hunter, Birkenstock, and Frye boots. Lots of other brands popular with the hipster kids these days. (Moccasins, seriously?). Prices are typical retail, so you’re not necessarily going to find a hot deal here. It’s all about the selection. Highly recommended, though. I know my feet are going to be quite pretty this summer thanks to my new kicks from Getoutside. :)

LOVE this store.
They sell a wide range of Frye boots, but they also sell a decent range of Birkenstocks (took my mom here to buy a couple of pairs).
I also picked up some BIrkenstock insoles (well worth the $ 40), and the service was outstanding once you got a sales clerk to help you out.
The only problem is flagging down a sales clerk. They seem keen on avoiding you, and your blazing eye contact. I don’t enjoy shopping here as much as I do in other stores, but if you get a good person, it’s golden.
If not… you might as well feel like you’re the pink suede elephant in the room no one wants to talk to.
Still, BIRKENSTOCK INSOLES! :) (I must note that they didn’t have enough stock either, so that was a mild WTF moment. You’re a STORE. Stock up!)
Update: They STILL DON’T HAVE STOCK, since I last visited. It’s been what, over a year or two now? WTF?

C told me Melissa shoes are pretty comfortable considering they’re Jellies, I got a pair — cute.
They carry a lot of Melissa shoes here.

F*CK YEAH, shoe shopping!
This is probably my favourite shoe store along the Queen West Strip (loads of shoe stores here).
Getoutside occupies two separate retail spots right next to each other, giving you two rooms of shoe heaven. They have a very huge selection of inventory but they do not stock dress shoes or heels. Mostly casual stuff.
Everything is organized by brand, with each brand getting it’s own shelving area. Vans, Converse, Keds, Hunter Rainboots, lots of tree-​hugger type shite at the back too.
It’s always packed. They do have a lot of staff. I experienced very good customer service there after 3 different visits this week trying to decide on which pair of Keds I needed/​wanted the most.

Getoutside gets 4 stars for their great selection of boots… But I give them a MINUS 20 for their terrible service.
I’m a shopper, so I know good customer service when I see it. It sure wasn’t here. There was a black woman who totally ignored me when I asked her about the Hunter Gloss Rain boots. Sure they’re not $ 500 but they aren’t cheap either so a little customer service would be nice.
THEN she asks some guy to get me my size. he was equally as warm as she was — TERRIBLE! Perhaps because of the cold weather their face muscles froze since they couldn’t even crack a smile.
Whatever, I bought the boots. BUT if you expect people to be nice while you spend your hard earned money at their store — this isn’t the store location.

I ordered online on the 16^th of October. One week later, I called and left a message as I had not received shipping confirmation. I also emailed twice, with no reply. Finally, two weeks later I got a live person on the phone (after calling twice right beforehand, only to receive a message). Then they told me they sold of the boot I wanted AFTER I had placed my order. On top of that, they claimed they contacted me right away. There was nothing in my spam filter and there were certainly no phone messages left after my phone calls.
If I had not insisted on contacting them, they would have happily kept my money without delivering product.
Bottom line: poor customer service and dishonesty. AVOID.

Came here 2 days ago and it was VERY busy!
Sales people are running around this tiny store its hard to get someones attention.
Really cool shoes.

Recently ordered from this shop and was super impressed with the speed of shipping, plus– my shoes fit great!
Wanted to pick up a pair of Birkenstock sandals (they make them in non-​old man styles now) for an upcoming trip and was pumped to see that they carry all the styles in both ‘regular’ and ‘narrow’ fit. Not all of us have freakishly wide feet! Pretty excited not to have to suffer through agonizing side foot blistering while I break these puppies in…
Also grabbed a pair of Onitsuka Tigers by Asics which couldn’t fit any better! It’s hard finding funky lace up shoes that don’t look like gym wear or have absolutely no water proofing.
Overall, very excited with my purchases and will definitely order from getoutside again.

I remember when this store was just one store and not two stores fused into one. The original Getoutside is on the right-​hand side and still houses the coolest of cool shoes.
Ladies, you won’t find heeled things here but you will find a great selection of Converse ($ 60), Hunters ($ 100), and other sensible shoes. Moccasins seem to be all the rage as well and so really, these shoes will allow you to «get outside» as their name suggests.
Boys can find the same selection of Converse, Vans, Frye and even Fred Perry! The left-​hand side of the store seems to sell cheaper but trendy wellies along with a not-​so-​great selection of clothing for women. They also have shoes for kids so kids can be cool too.

Getoutside shoes is an awesome store! The Queen Street located is their original location (they recently opened a bigger store on Yonge Street, South of the 401). They have a lot of cool, different shoes — shoes that you won’t be able to find at your local mall. From Converse, Puma, Ben Shurman, to Tretorn and everything in between. I bought a hard to find pair of Tretorn rainboots there.
They have a pretty good supply of Converse (chuckies) as well as an ample supply of rainboots. There’s a few shoe stores along the south side of Queen, so I’d hit those up as well (this one being one of the last two before you hit Spadina — if you’re heading west bound).
You can shop online and there’s free shipping within Canada, so it’s good to take advantage of that — if you don’t mind waiting for your shoes.