Arc’teryx

Great service, and products to match. Recently, I bought a backpack from the Portland store, and unfortunately left it at a store two doors down from them. The staff at the store where I left the backpack cared enough to let the people at Arcteryx know I had left it behind. The General Manager from Arcteryx called me to let me know that they were aware I had left it, and offered to send it to me. What I found to be most interesting was that I hadn’t left any kind of contact information behind, and from what I can tell, the GM and his staff went to great lengths to track me down at my office. Impressive! This may seem simple, but in today’s day and age… This is rare! I can’t thank you guys enough!

Staff is very professional, knowledgeable and best of all friendly – they handled an exchange flawlessly. The only downside is that the store is 400+ miles from SF.

I had a really solid experience here. I visited the store on a weekday afternoon to check out a jacket for warmer ski days and possibly back country ski touring. The store was not very busy. I was greeted immediately by Todd, a friendly and knowledgeable guy who helped me find the specific item I was looking for and a few other options for consideration. Todd was consistently helpful without being clingy. Not only did he seem quite knowledgeable about the gear, which I had recently researched to some extent, but he also offered helpful guidance on the activities for which the garments were designed. That’s something a true gear head can respect.
I didn’t explore the full layout of the store, but the space looked very clean and presented well. The companies White Line (ski gear) was very well stocked. They had all the colors and sizes I was looking for. Obviously, Arc’teryx gear is expensive, but they make some of the best stuff in the industry. If you can fork out the cash, this is a great place to shop.

While I’m a huge fan of Arc’teryx products, along with their quality, and their online customer service, I’ve definitely not a fan of their brick and mortar store, at least their Portland store.
Summary: Sales associates didn’t seem to care to help customers and didn’t know what they were really talking about which is terrible for a person that represents the company.
Pros: Great selection of Arc’teryx outerwear. From the mainline, they’ll probably have anything you ever want.
Cons: Don’t have a wide selection from their Veilance collection. The perhaps worse part was their customer service. I came in and was looking around, and out of their 4 sales associates, not one of them came to help me. It wasn’t until I directly came up to one of them, that they started to talk to me. After talking to him for a while, I’ve concluded they hire pretty much anyone. I inquired about their Veilance collection, and the sales associate didn’t seem to know anything about it. On top of that when I asked about a specific piece (Node IS) they tried to correct me and tell me it was from the spring collection, when clearly such a thick jacket is from their Fall Collection. It even says so on their website!

What a strange experience. I wanted to check out the new store and see if they had any of the LEAF line. (Which they did not) I walked in and wasn’t necessarily greeted but stared at by three people all standing behind the counter. I said” I’m just browsing,” no friendly «hey welcome to the new store» or «let us know if you have any questions» nothing! I literally couldn’t leave fast enough!

I love Arcteryx, I’m even wearing a green Arcteryx Sidewinder jacket on my profile picture here on this page… But I’m kind of sad they opened this location that takes away Arcteryx business from the local dealers like OMC and US outdoor. Can’t stop progress I guess.