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Where do you shop? [in the UK]

ficklefancyfree

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Next Camino Ingles Ferrol
Evening folks.

As I sit here pondering when I get to go away again, I wondered where my UK based pilgrims do their shopping?

I was very lucky to work for an outdoor retailer some years ago and used all my meagre earnings on building up a spectacular hoard of climbing equipment and outdoor clothing.

Unfortunately for me, I never quite manage to maintain the physicality required to improve in climbing and over the years got a little rounder so that my impressive hoard became quite redundant. Also, leaving a brand new tent tucked away for a few years means all the glue starts to degrade and peel off!

Anyway, I mostly use SportPursuit for clothing, SportShoes for footwear. I’ve also recently discovered a Rab outlet by Alfreton.

Am I missing any gems?
Fi
 
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I don't really need top-end technical gear for walking a Camino. Most of my stuff comes from GoOutdoors. Either own-brand or lower priced branded stuff like Vango or Gelert or Regatta. I wear the same boots and clothing for everyday use at home so there is no real change when I'm walking a Camino other than carrying a pack.
 
Yes me too. Apart from walking boots I just wear my everyday gear. I live in shorts anyway so I take a a spare pair of those (with pockets so I can carry my wallet and phone) and and a few t shirts and a tracksuit top that I wear and a pair of flip flops for the evening. And a bobble hat should it get cold and wet!
 
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I have always found that Cotswolds (Harrogate) has staff that understands your needs and doesn't "sell" but suggests what is best for your size/needs (6'4", size 11/12 shoes, and 15+ stone!). The staff are not on commission so they don't need to push the products that I found were reasonably priced. To be honest I don't even bother to look anywhere else nowadays. The first time I shopped there I had decided the rucksack I wanted, told the assistant who filled it up with weights, and tried to fit it to my long body. When he told me it didn't fit I thought that he was going to sell me something more expensive, however, he got out another rucksack and went through the same fitting process which was cheaper than the one I had selected just by looking online. I bought that one, he offered and I accepted that I return a couple of days before I was off on my walk with everything in and he fitted it again. It feels so good I can hardly feel it on my back. Good service provided a long-term customer - yes I did write to their head office to congratulate their staff but didn't hear anything back!
 
I have a wide range of gear some cheap and cheerful, others I invested in
My favourite long sleeve top is from Lidl, a short-sleeved top from Dunnes (Ireland/NI shop - somewhere between M&S and Primark), merino zip from Mountain Warehouse outlet, waterproof trousers from Trespass, I have Bridgedale socks bought in Cotswolds, I bought an Osprey pack from a local independent outdoors shop (but only my old rucksack finally decided to give up), a "buff" neck snood from a market stall, gloves in an xs size from Decathlon (I have tiny hands and delighted they have adult gloves in xs size!), a RAB raincoat which is still going well after 12 years bought in a local shop (this has been a great investment and i hope to get many more years out of it), an umbrella from Primark, trail runners bought in an online sale on a random website ( in last year's colours), a Karrimor runners jacket from SportsDirect.
High-end gear is not necessary for a camino - winter might need some more 'specialised gear but nothing overly extraordinary. And my favourite top for hiking is now 10 years old from Lidl - who would have thought!
 
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Harland2019 said:
I have always found that Cotswolds
Click to expand...
I do love Cotswolds, I just don’t enjoy retail prices

Ellis Brigham is pretty great at advice and then telling me to go find it cheaper online, have no idea how that works but they have shown me a few good items I then went to buy online.

I love Uniqlo heat tech and use that all over but nothing makes me happier than pulling out my 10 year old arcteryx and it still doing what it’s supposed to do, but perhaps a bit snugly! What I would do for a staff discount at arcteryx…
 
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ficklefancyfree said:
I do love Cotswolds, I just don’t enjoy retail prices
Click to expand...
I wonder what you think you are paying? Discounters are just as much part of the retail sales landscape as any high street outlet. Only when I am limited by time or some other thing am I likely to consider shopping in places like Cotswolds or Blacks (do they still exist?) when they aren't having a sale. All of these places have a cost structure that will turn some of the price into profit, even when they operate on low margins. I don't think that is any different anywhere in the world that I have shopped. I expect people engaged in trade to be able to make a living doing so.
 
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I've recently discovered Paramo's e-bay outlet store. The trousers I wore for my Camino Portugues came from there (bought for a safari holiday next year, in the sort of bush sludge green I'd never usually wear). They were great because they dried quickly when I washed them and had a handy little zippy pocket for a back up credit card and emergency cash.

Having tried on Merrell hiking shoes in both a Decathlon and Mountain Warehouse and found they didn't fit, I ordered my La Sportivas from a German online store called Alpinetrek.

My waterproof trousers were from Trespass in Carlisle - emergency purchase on my Hadrian's Wall trek when the last ones proved to be no longer waterproof.

I have some Aldi merino base layers.
 
Over the past few years I have been transitioning my wardrobe to "homemade". All of my socks are hand knit...except for my injinjis! (I have actually knit one pair of toe socks, but they are too bulky to be useful)
I have years old merino base layers - they are so patched that I can now consider them almost homemade.
Microfleece and down vests and jackets and underwear are now the only "shop clothes" I have. The technical shirt and zip-off pants I've worn on my caminos each have a big rip in them and somehow they "shrunk" a lot over Covid lockdowns, so I'm not going to mend them and on my next camino will wear homemade tops and shorts instead. Bizarrely, they are lighter than the "real" ones!
 
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henrythedog said:
Ultralightoutdoorgear.Co.Uk

I live close to Ambleside, where every second shop is an ‘outdoor gear’ shop; and they all stock pretty much the same stuff. Over-engineered and over-priced with fashion colours changing every season.
Click to expand...

I love hunting in charity shops!

My best buy was a pair of Norrøna pants for £3!
 
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I'm a big Decathlon fan. My walking T-shirts, socks, pants, hat, headlamp and backpack come from there.

EDIT: duh, sorry, I missed the "UK-based" pilgrims bit. I'm in Australia, decathlon is a French chain that is also big in Spain. Not sure if available in the UK.
 
We have Decathlon here also, I’ve never found their clothing to fit me well, my own bug bear! I use a lot of their equipment though, who doesn’t love a decathlon quick dry towel! They were everywhere
 
ficklefancyfree said:
Ok @dougfitz maybe I should have clarified ‘full’ retail price.

Why pay that when you can wait a few months and buy gear at 50% discount at the end of a season?
Click to expand...
I think that is quite sensible, as I thought was clear from the rest of my post that you quoted from. I think it is possible to outfit oneself with good quality outdoors gear at reasonable prices by watching for sales, discounts, and end-of-line clearances.
 
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€46,-
I usually start online with

Ultralight Outdoor Gear | UK | Lightweight Gear Specialists

Lightweight Outdoor Clothing & Gear Specialist. Massive range of Backpacking, Trekking & Adventure Racing kit with reviews, specs & advice.
ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk

I like the fact that you can list items from lightest to heaviest. I also like that, in addition to the manufacturer’s description, they give their own reviews and recommendations. I have bought several items from them but usually once I decide what I want I search online to see where it’s cheapest. Cotswold Outdoor, Tiso, Ellis Brigham, Go Outdoors, Blacks and Mountain Warehouse are all easy for me to get to so I can I order online and pick up in store. I’ve also bought Salomon shoes from Wiggle and bought my rucksack from Trekitt at a very good price.
 
Mountain Warehouse! I find the quality and cost (ratio) of their products are better, although not many varieties to choose from.
 
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ficklefancyfree said:
We have Decathlon here also, I’ve never found their clothing to fit me well, my own bug bear! I use a lot of their equipment though, who doesn’t love a decathlon quick dry towel! They were everywhere
Click to expand...
My observations on Camino is that Europeans buy little else that Decathlon kit. Cheap and does the trick.
I have several items by them from UK a stores and so far it has all held up fine .
 
Sports Direct was surprisingly good - wide selection, inexpensive, and no problems with them - for synthetic tops and shorts, and I also got my Merrell Ventilator shoes there. This is in Cambridge, where there are also some dedicated outdoor shops, but they are outrageously overpriced. (I saw a puffy jacket for something like £160, and that was the "discounted" price. Shoes were on offer at £300+.) Shell jacket I bought from North Face.

My Osprey pack I ordered from Amazon, because it was 60% off, and I'm very pleased with it. Also I used Amazon for miscellaneous things like dry bags, emergency blanket, pack cover, and I believe I got my cotton sleep sack there too.
 
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Not now, you are getting all the gems in the replies! I too love to find gems in charity shops, but you do need to have the time and opportunity. Just sit back a little bit from the table and your good gear will fit you again!
 
All my favourite sources are mentioned here ... I suppose we might as well face it, we're addicted to gear. Are we real pilgrims at all any more, or is it all about the gear?
 
Gerard Griffin said:
Are we real pilgrims at all any more, or is it all about the gear?
Click to expand...
Don't know about you but I like to wear some clothes on my Caminos. Against sunburn in summer and frostbite in winter. I'm quite modest in that respect. Even our infamous Naked Rambler here in the UK wore boots and a hat. And carried a puzzlingly large rucksack in the circumstances.
 
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Kiwi-family said:
Nope!
I have ended up with a sock collection that rivals some of the gear collections mentioned! Here it is minus what is in the wash:
View attachment 160066
Click to expand...

You definitely have more patience than me, knitting a sock was the first item I knitted purely because I needed it to be complicated enough to keep my interest. Problem was, after I finished one sock, I realised I had to knit another

A very impressive stash, maybe I’ll dig out my needles again, keep me occupied over winter
 
@ficklefancyfree you absolutely have to knit both at once so you don’t get Second Sock Syndrome! I’ve also knit for my father-in-law who is appreciative (3 pairs for him), husband who is ambivalent (1 for him) and eight kids (lost count!!)
 
I recommend Cotswold, especially for buying boots. They ensured that I bought the correct type and size and I suffered no blisters on the Camino expect for a tiny one on a toe after trekking downhill all day.
 
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ukjohn99 said:
I recommend Cotswold, especially for buying boots. They ensured that I bought the correct type and size and I suffered no blisters on the Camino expect for a tiny one on a toe after trekking downhill all day.
Click to expand...

I’ve worked in a Cotwold, when they were Cotswold Camping.
Fitting a boot was my favourite task. They have been excellent at doing this for at least 40 years.
(which is how old a lot of my ‘gear’ is )

Edit:
My Salomon Mountain X boots have only just ‘gone home’. I treated them well and got 1000s + 1000s of km from them. It was the plastic bit around the mid-foot that eventually broke up.
I know I’ll never find a pair like them .. it felt as if they’d used my feet for the original last, they were incredibly lightweight, kept my feet dry, and I used to dance in them.

We would have celebrated our Ruby Anniversary had they lasted another 6 months.
 
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A more apposite reply to the OP::

I wear Alpkit merino because it’s so well cut and hard-wearing, though rather more expensive now than when I purchased most of mine. I wear it every day.

Rare mail order online from Alpinetrek, Decathlon, Rohan … anywhere with a good sale on.

I have stuff from ebay and charity shops but most of my outdoor stuff is, as I said above, about 40 years old.

If it can be repaired or darned, or, as @Kiwi-family once showed us on here, ‘embroidery-darned’ (thank you ), it’ll be rescued and it won’t be going to landfill.

Old wool makes excellent ground cover and deters slugs
 
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Rohan specialise in lightweight, packable clothing, and they always have a sale.
 
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