fortressgeek.com Website Review

It’s that time again! Time to dive into another geek factory website and review all aspect of the website’s content! This week we have fortressgeek.com, a Canadian website based in Vancouver that launched in 2013, and proclaims to serve the Canadian geek market and curb the high shipping prices from other countries. As per usual, for websites I have not personally bought from I use the following criteria: website layout/design, selection/sizing/stock, pricing/shipping, and outside reviews. Again, with all reviews it should be noted that this review is by no means affiliated with superherostuff.com, this is my personal opinion and judgment of what I see based on the website and others reviews of products.

Website Layout & Design: The website’s design is quite simple and plain, it features the logo in the upper left hand corner in teal-blue and gold with a Canadian flag symbol on the end, a drop down menu of categories to search through, and icons for various fandoms available to look through. I’m not sure if this was my browser’s anti-virus or not, but in some sections of the website, the drop down menu was non-functional; I also noted the logo at the top reverts to a plain Arial type font in the sub-sections of the website, and that if you didn’t click a link within a few second of having a subcategory in the drop bar opened, it would redirect you. The store appears to only carry a few fandoms however, as they had far fewer to choose from than larger websites. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find more variety in smaller fandom categories, such as Portal and Firefly, than what I have found on other sites.

Selection: The number of products available on this website are much less than other, more well-known website retailers like thinkgeek.com and Hot Topic. However, the content available is actually more diverse in my opinion. As I said prior, the smaller fandoms seem to have a bit more selection that other websites I have reviewed, which is nice for those who struggle to find merch for their fandoms.

Sizing: Sizing on clothing is fairly standard to most geek retailers, with the standard S/M/L/XL sizes in addition to going as high as 3XL. The children’s clothing section also offers sizes from 0-6 months up to 12 months, however no toddler sizes were listed.

Stock: When scrolling through the website, I noted a lot of “Out of Stock” labels on items. None of these items had an indicator of when items would be restocked, which is not entirely uncommon. However, though many were not in stock, there was plenty more to fill in the spaces for the time being.

Pricing: When viewing the variety of items offered, I felt that the prices offered for the products were no higher or lower than what you would see on another geek retailer website or even at a convention. Certain costumes or novelty items were quite expensive, such as a Firefly Browncoat that was well over $400 and models from $75 to over $150; but most clothing and accessories ranged from as low as a few dollars to up to $100, depending on the item. T-shirts seemed to fall around the $14.95 to $24.95 mark, which is pretty standard for clothing.

Shipping: The website offers free shipping in Canada for all orders over $100, but for those who aren’t planning on spending that much, $5 flat will get your geek t-shirt to you in no time! Upon inquiring about shipping from British Columbia to my residence in Ontario, I was present with a plethora of shipping options. If you are a local Vancouver resident, you can drop by their store location for free pickup; however, for anyone else in Canada, expedited parcel is about $14, Xpresspost is about $16, and Priority is about $31. US shipping is bit pricier for some, starting with $18 for standard shipping, $20 for expedited, and $26 for express. Overall, shipping is on par and quite reasonable when compared to other companies.

Other Reviews: Since this company is fairly new, it doesn’t have too many reviews available on their Facebook page or other business review websites. The few I did find gave generally positive reviews with little to no criticism of their store or website. Though I am the type to go on a lot of review before purchasing, sometime you don’t really know what something will be like until you’ve bought it.

Overall, this website has potential to be an excellent and successful business in the future. No negative reviews and a solid stock of various fandoms merchandise are always positives; however, I would recommend revamping their website, as it is a bit boring and seemed to not be completely cohesive throughout. What I will say is that it is genuinely nice to see major retailers catering to their specific countries in a way that makes everyone in the geek community feel included. This site gets a 7.5/10 rating from me!