La Cordee

I bought a pair of Keens here 3 months ago and the sole on one of the shoes became completely unglued. (Since I barely wore them, this was bizarre.) Anyway, I found the receipt and took it back to the store. After verifying that they had another of the exact same shoe, in the exact same size in stock, I spoke to the «customer service» person who told me they couldn’t exchange it after thirty days. They would be willing — if I had the receipt — to send it back to Keen and perhaps in 4 to 6 weeks Keen would decide what to do. I was pretty shocked by this, since it was clearly a defect in the shoe (the person who verified that the same size exists in the shoe department took one look at my shoes and agreed that that was a shoe defect). I couldn’t believe that this was the best that La Cordee could do! (I’ve easily spent $ 700 — 1,200 at the store in the past three years, including shoes, boots, and clothes.) I ended up taking the shoes to Tony Pappas on Mont Royal to see if they could fix them instead of waiting for 6 weeks to see if Keens would replace them. The people at Tony Pappas — which also carry Keens — were shocked that La Cordee refused to replace the shoes and just deal with Keen, since it was clear that the sole should not come off after 3 months. On the way home, I stopped by Plein Air Entrepôt, also on Mont Royal, and asked what they thought. (Plein Air also carries Keens.) They were equally surprised that La Cordee didn’t just deal with this. Their experience is that Keen almost always is willing to replace defective shoes (within 6 months through their dealers). Plein Air also noted that the normal turnaround from Keen is about 1 – 2 weeks, max, so they weren’t sure what the «4 to 6 weeks» was about.
Anyway, I have always found La Cordee to be very helpful selling me things. Now I have discovered that while that may be true, they clearly are not willing to support their customers once they’ve bought something. Noted. I’ll do my best to buy my Keens from Tony Pappas or Plein Air Entrepôt in the future.

3 floors of sporting goods, sportswear, in one of the oldest outdoor/​sporting goods/​clothing stores in the city. All your sportswear or gear under one roof.

stuck in Montréal with woefully inadequate boots? This is the place for you! Ok, it’s *a* place for you. The other REI-​like option would be Mountain Equipment Coop,
, but that’s harder to get to if you don’t have a car. La cordee is well located just off the gay village, near the metro and has a really decent selection. We got great service too, our very friendly boot salesguy heard we were new to town and was giving us tips on everything from metro passes to banking. But most of all La Cordee will have a soft spot in our hearts for supplying my friend with well-​priced, comfortable, montreal-​weather-​worthy boots. And we all know the value of comfy toesies.

Great place to stop in and pick up a pair of gloves if you didn’t bring any. Didn’t have a great selection of snowpants or coats, though obviously march isn’t when locals would be buying them. Decent selection of warm stuff otherwise, as well as guidebooks in English and French, climbing and camping equipment, etc. Standard sporting goods store… like an REI or EMS equivalent.