The Trail House — Local services in Frederick

I could not recommend a store OR it's staff more highly.

Back in June, I was visiting family and shredded my well-worn and much loved Vibrams to pieces on a trail. Hiking was on our daily schedule and I was in a major pinch to replace them quickly.

The store was well stocked with a variety of brands and shoes. The way they made Vibrams had changed a bit since my last pair, but Katie and Jeff helped me find the PERFECT shoe that was also perfect for my price range. They actually made the whole shopping process (which I typically dread) a lot of fun, too. During my time with them, the staff also introduced me to the Altra brand – just for consideration and because I was open to it. (They weren't, in any way, pushy.) My feet felt like they were walking on air, but I was hesitant to make such a drastic change from a minimalist shoe on the fly with so many more miles immediately ahead. Fast forward to this past week/late September: My (super cool) mom knew that I had decided to get a pair of Altra's and headed to the shop to purchase a pair for my birthday. Katie was working, amazingly remembered our encounter (down to which Altra shoe I had tried and loved so much) and helped Mom pick out the right pair. WHO DOES THAT?! Well, Katie does. She's awesome. The store itself is beautiful. It's wonderfully stocked. Even if it was neither of these, I'd go just because the staff are THAT good. They know their stuff, they know what to recommend if you're open to recommendations, and are so very personable. The only problem I had at the place? It would be entirely too easy to spend a small fortune there and not even be sorry. Walking out the door with just a pair of shoes was nearly impossible. I'm still dying a little on the inside. My husband was on a military climbing team and I absolutely can't wait to take him when we visit again this holiday season. See...

This place is amazing and the people working here are SO nice. I broke a shoe walking through downtown Frederick today and immediately started darting in and out of every boutique I could find looking for a pair of cheap flip flops, sadly to no avail. Every place I went either had nothing or a few $100+ pairs of fancy sandals. I went into The Trail House, told them my tale, and one of the associates took me straight to their clearance section, told me which pairs were an extra 20% off, then BROUGHT ME THEIR SHOE GLUE SO I COULD FIX MY BROKEN SANDAL. She could've tried to sell me a pair of $80 leather sandals but didn't, just genuinely tried to help me. I fixed my shoe right there in their store and she kept checking on me just to make sure the glue was working. This seriously blew me away and really summed up what I love about Frederick, it's full of nice people who's first instinct is to help their neighbors. I will DEFINITELY be back to support this...

I received a pair of shoes from this place for my birthday. Needless to say but they were not my style so with receipt in hand I travel all the way to Frederick. I was greeted pleasantly and made the sales associate aware of my return. She informed me that only a store credit was available. I am not local to this store nor did I like anything stocked there so I asked to just credit the gift givers card. This was not possible is what she told me as he paid cash. Cash? I asked for cash then. She became rude and said all that she could do was a store credit. As I said I did not want anything there as I am a loyal REI member. She responded that they have similar things "just like REI'. Well I can tell you what they do not have that REI does- good customer service. Avoid this place, its not user friendly. Over priced and...