sports direct

[backwoodsman]

yes l thought it was all cheap stuff too,
but look at there web site under the outdoors heading, great boots, even tera nova tents!!!!!
garmin gps's all cheaper than the usual outlets.

 

[scanker]

I think Sports Direct bought out Field and Trek (or the other way around), so the outdoor gear should be fairly competitive. The sites are identical apart from the headers anyway iirc.

 

[unsponsored]

There have been some pretty good deals on Montane and RAB kit in the last few months. delivery is very quick.

 

[Muddypaws]

We've got a Sports Direct store in Southampton and they've got Meindl Borneo boots for £135, wanted to buy a pair but they don't stock them in size 7 1/2 .
Also had lots of Karrimor footwear at ridiculously cheap prices.

 

[hiho]

Also had lots of Karrimor footwear at ridiculously cheap prices.

sports direct and karrimor belong to the same bunch of people...

 

[Old Bones]

I think Sports Direct bought out Field and Trek

Now I'm depressed... Sports Direct seems to have moved like a slime mould over once decent bits of the UK outdoor market, and trashed them. I only found out about their takeover of Karrimor when they sold off loads of kit in Lilywhites (another now trashed name).

Their basic procedure is to make it cheap, and sell it cheap. I've only bought two items of Karrimor kit in recent years: a daypack (which is OK, but nowhere near as good as my previous Low Alpine & Berghaus ones), and a pair of light boots, which fell apart in a fortnight, even though I was basically wearing them around the house. Perhaps there is 'good' and 'bad' Karrimor, but the quality seems to be a very poor compared with 'old' Karrimor.

The shops are awful, crammed with stuff, unhelpful staff and basically as nasty a retail experience as you can get on the high street. I only hope F & T doesn't go the same way.

The really annoying thing is that I'm probably going to go into the place now, just to see what they've got!

 

[hiho]

not a great deal in our local one as i work next door.

 

[helixpteron]

Now I'm depressed... Sports Direct seems to have moved like a slime mould over once decent bits of the UK outdoor market, and trashed them. I only found out about their takeover of Karrimor when they sold off loads of kit in Lilywhites (another now trashed name).

Their basic procedure is to make it cheap, and sell it cheap. I've only bought two items of Karrimor kit in recent years: a daypack (which is OK, but nowhere near as good as my previous Low Alpine & Berghaus ones), and a pair of light boots, which fell apart in a fortnight, even though I was basically wearing them around the house. Perhaps there is 'good' and 'bad' Karrimor, but the quality seems to be a very poor compared with 'old' Karrimor.

The shops are awful, crammed with stuff, unhelpful staff and basically as nasty a retail experience as you can get on the high street. I only hope F & T doesn't go the same way.

The really annoying thing is that I'm probably going to go into the place now, just to see what they've got!

Your post is insulting, inaccurate and contradictory!

Unlike a slime mould in trashing mode, Sports direct have rescued, reinvested and restructured "once decent bits of the UK outdoor market" which would otherwise have ceased to exist. In doing so, they retained jobs which would have been lost, created new ones, and continued to offer gear at competitive prices on the high street and web.

Karrimor is only one of the vast (and growing) variety of brands that Field & Trek sell. Sports Direct cannot "make it cheap" when their supplier is a manufacturer or trader with whom they have no connection, other than as a buyer of products!

If your boots "fell apart in a fortnight", return them for a refund!

Despite your being "depressed" that the company "seems to have moved like a slime mould over once decent bits of the UK outdoor market, and trashed them." and whose "shops are awful, crammed with stuff, unhelpful staff and basically as nasty a retail experience as you can get on the high street." All of which disgusts you to the extent that "The really annoying thing is that I'm probably going to go into the place now, just to see what they've got!" As you're probably going to be going there, you may as well return your boots!

For the record, I have no connection with Sports Direct and Field & Trek other than as a frequent customer of Field & Trek's four London shops for 2+ years, whom has only ever bought at the standard ticket price.

 

[Rebel]

I occasionally shop in the "Field & Trek" department of my local Sports Direct.

There are some bargains to be found but their prices on some gear is higher than the T K Maxx next door. Neither store have staff that know what they are selling so you won't be getting useful advice. However I find it interesting to have a browse now and then and I've picked up some great bargains.

It seems there are two quality of Karimor boot these days. There's the "trainer" style ones that are sold at around 20 quid and the higher quality walking boot. I bought a couple of pairs of both the former and the latter. The 20 quid ones are poor quality but great as a pair of cheap trainers for kicking around in and the more expensive ones I've found to be comparable to other mass produced brands such as Berghaus.

 

[kINGPIN]

Thanks for the heads up, I am going to be buying a Camelbak from there now 27quid aint such a bad deal.

 

[Jakata]

I have a pair of Karrimor trainers for shopping, going to the pub and day to day whatever and they are fine, rugged soles with a decent grip. Not something I would hike or anything in but for £20 I am more than happy with them.

Ordered a Karrimor backpack from Sports direct last night, along with a fleece for the spring. Bushcraft is new to me and I don't have an awful lot to spend on it, nor the skills to make my own equipment so brands like Karrimor are a godsend.

 

[scrogger]

I have just ordered a fair bit of kit from Field and Trek website the communication upto now seems ok the good will (I hope ) be here this week. If not my Mother aint gonna be happy as one of the things is her Christmas gift for me.

I have to say I rang them before ordering and I was expecting someone at a call centre with little of no knowledge of the products they sell but in fact I got a really helpful young lady who was spot on.

Heres hoping the stuff arrives this week!!!

I will let you know what the service has been like.

 

[scrogger]

totally agree jakata for people on a budget you cant really go far wrong at all. Money wisely spent I would have thought. At least if you dont like the hobby or damamge something you have not lost a lot.

 

[Paul_B]

Thanks for the heads up, I am going to be buying a Camelbak from there now 27quid aint such a bad deal.

Suggest you go for a source bladder for £18 or so. They are better made, last longer and resist growth better,

 

[Paul_B]

Unfortunately Karrimor is a sad story after it was sold out by or under the original owners / founders to investors. The thing with investors is they want a fast turnaround on their investment, indeed many make 10 speculative investments but are happy with only 1 working out as that one will pay for the others and then some. Or at least that is the theory. As a result they do not develop the technology of the company but live off a name and pile out a load of cheaply produced product with a few good ones to pay lip-service to the old, good name.

Karrimor has since been passed around a bit before ending up being owned by the holding company that owns Sport direct.com and laterly F&T.

There have been numerous good and bad comments about this group on many of outdoors websites but my view is you have to look to your needs and whether what they sell meets your needs. I have been in my nearest Sportsdirect / F&T store (always in the upstairs F&T store) and thought what a pile of cr@p! I have also bought a Rab bivvy for 25% off the prices in other outdoors shops. I have also bought an "own brand" altimeter watch for £25. They have met my needs and been a good price. I have also bought a 3 for 2 deal of thermal mugs and flasks for a low price too, made for a series of top-up Xmas pressies at a low price. I have never wanted to buy the cheapo Karrimor sacks or the other cheap tat sold there. I have never bought from the downstairs sportsdirect store (although I did pay for F&T stuff down there when no staff were present upstairs in F&T).

Karrimor do cheap tat (school bags with zips mass produced for low prices) but they also do some very well designed and lightweight stuff aimed at serious hill types such as mountaineers. These second types were brought out when a new chief designer was brought in (a lass I believe) head hunted from a good company who had a good rep. These are the X-Type I think.

 

[Paul_B]

One thing you should know there is a tendancy to head towards the lightweight end of things in the outdoors market. People often think it is a new thing but Karrimor in the 70s apparently produced a sub 1kg 2 skin tent. Their load lugger sacks of 65-75 litres were sub 2kg indeed a mates top of the range 65 litre sack weighed less than 1.5kg which is good for a modern sack made out of dyneema and other "new" fabrics. It has an adjustable back length for the straps and belt yet it is not fussy with all the whatnots they put on in the 80s that are irrelevant to their use but all add weight. On the cover of a 70s The Great Outdoors mag there is someone doing a long backpack round the Munros or LEJOG in winter with a total load excluding food of well under 10kg (not sure but could be about 5kg load).

I just thought I would mention this as people seeing the Karrimor tat in F&T or SPortsdirect might not know Karrimor has made some really good kit that was ahead of its time for many years. They even made their stuff in a UK factory near Haslingdon in east Lancashire. You could get some real bargains at their factory shop too. I remember a top of the range 70 litre sack going for a third of the RRP just because it had three rows of bar tack stitching on the webbing strap that adjusted the shoulder straps to the body of the sack behind the head. If anything it made it stronger. That was the quality level they had. Now it is cheaper to pile it out and accept a higher returns rate. Afterall that is already factored into the cost of everyone of their products anyway.

Major cynic I'm afraid. Sad how things have gone.

 

[rik_uk3]

Those £20 KSB trainers are OK for a summer woodland camp when you more often than not don't really need boots.

The cheap rucksacks are crap though, I got one last year to carry baby changing kit for when I take my grandson out with me and the bag fell apart in short order.

Anyone been to Lillywhites in Piccadilly? They must sell hundreds of bags a day, there's money in tat.

 

[helixpteron]

Those £20 KSB trainers are OK for a summer woodland camp when you more often than not don't really need boots.

The cheap rucksacks are crap though, I got one last year to carry baby changing kit for when I take my grandson out with me and the bag fell apart in short order.

Anyone been to Lillywhites in Piccadilly? They must sell hundreds of bags a day, there's money in tat.

I have to battle my way through the hordes of shoppers in Lillywhites Piccadilly branch to reach the Field & Trek shop on the 3rd floor mezzanine. I can't believe just how many there are, even up to 11pm! My original Karrimor (alloy framed) rucksack was very well made and liked by many, including the person that stole it from me.

Some of the cheaper outdoor brands are excellent, Regatta for example. I've worn the Regatta Outdoor Trousers (they used to be called Action Trousers- nudge, nudge, wink, wink!) for years, and they're really good, in fact when I had a particularly bad motorcycle accident, which wrote off the bike, Lewis Leather jacket, gloves, boots and Arai helmet, the Regatta trousers were the only item to survive, even the tarmac abrasion marks washed out!

Several years ago, I bought a Regatta Survivor 45 (litre) rucksack from a stall in Brick Lane market for £12. It was marked 'R' indicating that it was a reject. I examined it inside and out, yet could find no faults, so I bought it to carry my helmet, jacket and gloves, when I'm off the bike.

I ended up using it every day, and have had it loaded so heavily, that I've dreaded lifting and carrying it. It has never, ever failed to work faultlessly, it even has a built in rain cover.

I can find nothing in the same size, with 3 outer pockets, built to the same quality and spec'..... at any price.

I'm occasionally asked why I've got a crap pack, when I'm known to use good gear, the questioner invariably has what I refer to as a 'Brand Name Fixation'. Good gear is good, irrespective of the price, whereas high profile brand name products often trade on their name, and that's what the buyer pays for.

 

[Breeze]

The red shirted staff working there are ordinary working decent folk usually, actually mainly poorly paid kids. The managers and their underlings also in red shirts are amongst the nastiest on the high street in my experience and this applies to quite a few branches in London except the smaller one specializing more on gear near the other camping shops at Covent Garden.

As with the take overs of quality small to medium gear makers/sellers or any other industry for that matter by a larger scrapper type giant which in this case is a large box-shifter, not maker or even commissioner of anything, and the usual scenario is as follows. Board members and managers are talentless loud hyper overpaid people who jump from job to job every few years. They find the companies that suit them or rather they find each other. They need to do things and show their non-existent worth as they have no particular skill in anything. So they constantly work out profitable takeovers of quality firms, easy in this climate, and sack loads of people, asset strip and drive their good names to the ground as they can only think in terms of short term profit for greedy shareholders and their own next juicy job next year somewhere else before they get the inevitable sack themselves. This is by no means all the big names but a few and it is more common in the States where asset stripping was turned into an art form with a little help from a few Brits like Goldsmith in the early 80's though in reality it goes back decades. So in time the once quality names are thrashed or even closed down and usually in time the parent company too or at best rebranded and sized down though not always.

Next, the age old story of new shoots coming up to replace the good old dead or thrashed names as small quality cottage industries grow to take over the turf. Which today means designing and merely overseeing remotely semi-quality products manufactured in the People's Republic of China and paying a few bribes to the right local party officials who own the industries with their friends to keep the winning designs and manufacture exclusive which is becoming near impossible.

By the way they have an aluminum nested multi pot package, two pots and two mini pans/lids (use cut away baking tray/foil as lids), which is on sale for a tenner that I recommend due to its nice size and very light weight. It comes with a mesh stuff sack and a light pot grabber which sells for about £4 on it's own usually but the pots are great.
http://www.sportsdirect.com/karrimor-2-person-cook-set-799088

This is good for the price too as it packs small and light. They have it in black too but fewer sizes as well as women's. Go for extra large.
http://www.sportsdirect.com/lonsdale-rain-jacket-605026?colcode=60502622

 

[helixpteron]

As with the take overs of quality small to medium gear makers/sellers or any other industry for that matter by a larger scrapper type giant which in this case is a large box-shifter, not maker or even commissioner of anything, and the usual scenario is as follows. Board members and managers are talentless loud hyper overpaid people who jump from job to job every few years. They find the companies that suit them or rather they find each other. They need to do things and show their non-existent worth as they have no particular skill in anything. So they constantly work out profitable takeovers of quality firms, easy in this climate, and sack loads of people, asset strip and drive their good names to the ground as they can only think in terms of short term profit for greedy shareholders and their own next juicy job next year somewhere else before they get the inevitable sack themselves.

I challenge you to back up your astonishing statement with actual, verifiable confirmation that what you post about the board members and managers of this company has any basis in fact!