Outdoor clothing shops

Being outdoors is often promoted as being good for our health and wellbeing, and having the right clothing and equipment is essential if you are to enjoy the outdoors in all weathers, and in some situations, be safe. We review the ethics of the clothing you may buy in our outdoor clothing guide and our sportswear guide and here, we turn to where you are likely to buy it from: the outdoor clothing and sports shops.

Sports and outdoor retailers sell a range of different brands, sometimes alongside own-brand items. They are often ‘one-stop’ shops selling everything from sports clothing to tents to climbing nuts, and exist both on the high street and online.

Only about a third of the brands in our outdoor clothing guide have their own physical shops. So if buying in person, most of us will visit a retailer to compare options and try items on.

How ethical are mainstream outdoor clothing shops?

Unfortunately, ethical policies amongst the retailers are generally not impressive. This shopping guide is remarkable for the incredibly low scoring brands across all that we reviewed. 

The top scoring retailer in our guide only gets 24 out of 100 whereas the top scoring outdoor clothing brand scores 81. It may be better to decide on your preferred clothing brand and get it straight from them if this is possible.

Which outdoor clothing and sports brands are in the guide?

We've included all the big names you would expect to see and which are on the high street, such as Sports Direct, Decathlon, Mountain Warehouse, Trespass, Millets and Blacks, along with other smaller chain stores and some online sports retailers. As you'll see below, several of the big name brands are actually owned by a handful of companies.

Sports Direct was the biggest player in the UK sports and outdoor shops market, but has been overtaken by JD Sports (which includes Blacks, Millets and Go Outdoors). Between them they accounted for over 60% of the market in 2019.

How eco friendly are outdoor retailers’ own brands?

As well as selling products made by other companies, many of the retailers in this guide also sell own-brand products. All of the money spent purchasing these products will go straight to the retailer. Because of the comparatively low scores achieved by retailers relative to brands in our outdoor clothes shopping guide, you may want to avoid the following own-brand labels:

Who owns what outdoor clothing brands?

As well as some retailers having several different own-brand labels, some of these brands are owned by bigger companies. Two of the biggest are:

• JD Sports: owns Blacks and Go Outdoors. But, JD Sports itself is 52% owned by the Pentland Group, which also owns Berghaus, Speedo, Ellesse and others. 
• Frasers Group: owns Sports Direct, Gellert, other associated own-brands noted in the table above, along with other clothing brands.

Low scoring retailers across several categories

The retailers in this guide were universally low scorers and rated poorly for a number of elements in our score table.

• All but Decathlon scored 0/100 for use of animal products and Decathlon only scored 10/100.
• They all scored very poorly for company ethos with only Mountain Warehouse, Cotswold, Snow and Rock, Nevisport and Trespass scoring 10/100, the rest scoring 0.
• Use of PFAS scored very poorly too with only Decathlon having a target date to phase them out; the rest had no target date and/or virtually no discussion about them.

Local independent outdoor clothing retailers

Although we haven’t been able to rate them all in this guide, your best bet if buying new is likely to be visiting a local independent store. While they’re not guaranteed to have stronger policies, at least you’re supporting your local economy. 

As well as professional fittings, some independent retailers will provide you with guidance on care and repairs, and ‘stretching services’ for boots if they’re pinching in one or two places. One retailer, Foothills in Sheffield, even offers free guided walks most Wednesdays.

Buying secondhand outdoor clothing and equipment

When buying outdoor gear, our key recommendation is to look for ways to buy secondhand. We haven’t rated secondhand retailers in this guide, and unfortunately many (e.g. eBay) are not renowned for their ethics. However, buying secondhand is a great way to address some of the environmental and human rights impacts of the actual item you’re purchasing.

We give recommendations for buying secondhand in our outdoor clothing guide. 

Plus we have rated some secondhand shops in our ethical clothing Guide. See also our article on charity shops.

What are outdoor clothing shops doing about forever chemicals (PFAS)?

We rated outdoor clothing shops on their policy of using the highly toxic and persistent ‘forever chemicals’, PFAs, which are used as waterproof membranes and coatings, like Gore-Tex. PFAS (per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances) are a group of harmful industrial chemicals linked to a wide range of health and environmental impacts. The outdoor gear industry call them PFCs (perfluorinated compounds or chemicals) but we are talking about the same thing.

Many companies are still using these chemicals even though PFA-free alternatives, that perform just as well, exist (such as Paramo's use of Nikwax).

Five of the eleven retailers (Mountain Warehouse, Trespass, Sports Direct, Field & Trek, and Nevisport) got our worst rating for not even talking about PFAs.

Blacks, Go Outdoors, Millets, Cotswold and Snow & Rock at least mentioned them as an issue but were still using them with no phase-out date.

Best scoring of the retailers was Decathlon who was still using them but at least had a phase-out dates for stopping.

We cover PFAs in more detail in our PFAS feature and in our outdoor clothing guide, including comparing the performance of the least ethical material options with more ethical materials.

Retailers selling hunting and fishing equipment

Outdoor clothing retailers sell a wide range of outdoor activity equipment, some of which is designed to hunt animals.

Four companies sold hunting and fishing equipment such as ammunition and fishing hooks. 

• Sports Direct, Field & Trek, Decathlon and Go Outdoors sold fishing equipment
• Decathlon sold the widest range of hunting equipment, including equipment for small game, big game and migratory bird hunting, mainly via its Solognac subsidiary.

Decathlon came under fire in 2020 after its UK arm advertised hunting products, including an ammunition cartridge, as “ideal” for “hunting thrush, songbirds, redwing, fieldfare and mistle thrush." Birders were quick to point out that small birds like thrushes are legally protected in the UK and over 61,000 people signed a petition calling for the company to: “publicly condemn the slaughter of songbirds and small migratory birds, revise their product range and marketing accordingly, and make a meaningful contribution to wildlife protection." Decathlon no longer sell these products on its UK website.

Tax avoidance and retailers

All but four of the companies in this guide got marked down under tax conduct for likely use of tax avoidance strategies. Mountain Warehouse scored top marks with 100/100.

Most companies were considered to be high risk for likely use of tax avoidance strategies and scored 0/100. These were Pentland Group and JD Sports (owners of Blacks, Go Outdoors and Millets), PAI Partners (Cotswold and Snow & Rock) and Frasers Group (Field & Trek and Sports Direct).