Hand Made in the Mitten

Welcome

To our little ole website. When we closed our store front a few years ago we had many people ask us to continue making our world class Moose Mitts. Which are often coped, but never replicated. The site changed focus, but still maintains the core principals we have always had, helping you enjoy the outdoors. One of the things we miss is our regular customers and helping new riders with expert advice and support. n

Our history goes back way beyond our when we created the original trails-edge.com information website in 1998. But all of use have grown up on on two wheels, enjoying nature, exploring, and supporting local advocacy. The site has changed over the years, but rest asured our focus remains focused on provide customers and site visitors with information, products, and service to make the outdoors fun, and safe for all.

Mike @ Poto circa 1989

The photo of myself (and Chris) on the right working on my then race bike a few days before my second attempt at the Leadville Trail 100 back in 1998. I was fresh out of college, single, lots of time, and had always been an avid cyclist from racing BMX local and nationally to hitting the roads and local trails. I remember the concept of the store developing as I drove home from Leadville (solo) in 97, it rained almost the entire way, radio stations were very intermittent and there was only so many times I could listen to the same 5 CD's.

The next year my friend Mark Goerlich and I started pooling our collective knowledge of areas we had visited, and taught ourselves HTML (basic web code). We did the free information site to help outdoor enthusiasts find and enjoy new adventures. Mark and I had a unique knack for learning the hard way, we decided to write about the areas we visited and hopefully prevent others from repeating our mistakes. The first version if our website was really started with an Online version of my then guide books for or Grand Ledge, MI (Climbing).

1998: Mark and Mike started climbing more and taking climbing trips. Mike’s second attempt at Leadville was thwarted by a bad crash months ahead of the event and severely blown out knee during the race. Mike mentioned to Mark “I have a business License; maybe we can establish a few accounts to get nutrition or equipment cheaper for ourselves". Mike rented the upstairs of Marks house, helped expand the climbing cave in his basement. “Hey what if we put the grand Ledge guidebook Online”? Sure, how hard can it be.? We both read “learn HTML in 24 hours” and began creating the first generation of trails-edge.com. purely as an information resource.

1999: We began creating a simple catalog with Clif Bars and WTB bike products. Soon we had our first official order…Now what ? trails-edge.com office, shipping, receiving, and warehouse was officially in 300sq ft of Mark’s basement. We kept taking trips and updating the site with more information as well as expanding our Online catalog with more nutrition and added climbing equipment.

2000: More trips, more part time website work as we held day jobs in engineering and architecture. “Hey let’s start a mountain bike team” Mike had known a lot of the local cyclist who were on a team that had folded before the jersey could be delivered. Many of them were our first team and some are still with us. The team concept was truly grassroots. Our goal was to sponsor and support local cyclist who are involved with advocacy, approachable and help support the local cycling community. Our team is still around and we have expanded to other cycling disciplines. But our team philosophy is the same.

2001: Mike and Abby are married, Mark decided to go back to school and leave trails-edge.com as an officer. Life challenges and changes shift the direction of trails-edge.com to more cycling and cycling related products. The Mini-guide for Coopers Rock that was to be published was killed by the magazine. Losing my architecture job caused me to re-evaluate the future of trails-edge.com. I decided to take a year and see if I could make the website better and into a real job. 12 months later I found myself working part time at a local bike shop and still running the website on the side.

2003: It’s go time! After being asked to stop the site from the shop I worked at, I made the decision to give it a go on my own. Early in the year I had purchased the old inventory and equipment from a defunct shop to start my own. Of course my lovely wife kept food on our table as I spent many many free hours as the sole employee at or the newly established Trail’s Edge Cyclery. The first response was good and luckily the people I had ridden with and help do trail work with over the past 5 + years were coming in and sending customer my way. Our first location was right at the end of Hines Drive and afforded us some visibility with cyclist as they rode by. The next we grew in our our 1200 sq ft space and even hired a part time employee.

2005 - 2009: With the store outgrowing the 1200 sq ft, we moved a few doors over (in the same building) to a 2500 sq ft space. With the new space came more product lines, part time employees, better work areas, and more display space. We gained the reputation as “The Bike Geeks” with our staff being super geeky about bikes. We know history, how to fix and helped customers determine the best bikes for their needs. Customers drive many many miles to see us, usually driving past other stores for our advice or services.

BMX Days circa 1984

Local racing Bloomer Trails

Mark one of our trips to Coopers Rock, WV

2010: After a few years of looking and discussing a 2nd location we added our Milford location. This was one of the city’s we had looked at initially back in 2002. Milford had transformed into a very bike friendly city and we were excited about being part of the community. Again this meant more staff and more new staff. Some growing and learning pains of course came along with this location.

2011: Trail's Edge Plymouth store moves to a more visible and accessible location. The new digs at 232 N. Main Street providing main street presence, walk by traffic, and ability reach more budding cyclist in the local community.

2014: Trail's Edge Milford is closed based on the simple realization that having 2 stores was killing our participation with local events, rides, volunteering, and community outreach all suffered over the 4 years of opening Milford. The 2 stores were also taking a toll on our staff being stretched thin and working harder. Not to mention my personal family time was cut to a minimum. it was a hard decision and we are still grateful of our Milford customers and friends.

2015: Back to our roots! We condense back to the one location in Plymouth This will allows us and our staff to be stronger partners with local cyclist and organizations. Promoting cycling to all levels of riders and types. We are really looking forward to a great year and lots of interaction and events.

2016: New Direction and plan. We decided to close the bike shop and put more focus on our family (our son 8 at the time) and local cycling community (where our passion was really driven from anyhow). Our goal has always been to make your outside experience the best it can be, so we'll keep offering Moose Mitts and the site will go back to its original roots of some basic information resource. The Bike Shop was a great experience and wouldn't trade those 15 years for everything. We couldn't have asked for better customers and the friends we made through it. But in the end we started Trail's Edge in 1999 to help outdoor enthusiast.

2017: Much needed help. We found a great cut and sew partner in Pontiac, MI to help us develop and make the Moose Mitts and most importantly to us - Keep it local! We also made great new relationships with several great bike store to make getting the Moose Mitts easier locally. Its all part of our drive to add value to your outdoor time. We still do all the testing, development, shipping support etc for Moose Mitts. with the help from Detroit Sewn we can redirect this time back to volunteering, hosting rides/events and supporting the local cycling community.