Made a very fruitful stop into Kathmandu a few months back as I was prepping for my first…read moretransatlantic trip with a baby. I came looking for a rucksack. I left with a suitcase with detachable rucksack (a suitcase that can be carried as a rucksack, with arm straps!) and a huge duffel bag to stow the carseat in. I thought the prices to be competitive (the duffel bag only £14!) and the service top notch. The guy helped me with everything, took it to the counter while I looked around, helped me with the Summit Club membership and packaged it all up smoothly so I could get it back to my flat. The Kathmandu items are high quality and have already made many trips. They are durable and sleek, and high performance. Just what I needed. The last thing you want to deal with while traveling (with a baby or not) is crap luggage. Summit club membership is free and gains you access to great deals (most of the deals advertised, so...if you want 'em, you'll sign up). Sign up!

I've always been a bit suspicious of Kathmandu-type stores, due to the fact that I'm the least…read moreoutdoorsy person you could come across. I always believe 'outdoor' stores were specially for extreme snowboarders or wannabe Nepalese-mountain climbers. Boy, was I wrong. Set right next to Spitalfields Market and boasting some rather fit staff, Kathmandu has everything for the civilian to adventurer. Water flasks, jackets, thermals, little key ring things with torches on them, it has it all. I actually found heaps of stuff I wanted to buy - probably more in the way you deck yourself out with designer gym wear after only one visit, to realise you're not quite the gym junkie you thought you would become if in fact you had the correct gear. It was fun anyway.

This is a large store specialising in camping gear, out door gadgets, climbing, and snowboarding/…read moreskiing clothing and accessories. I found their best products to be out doors gadgets like The Meteotronic Weather Forecast hand held device which provides a professional weather- pretty useful for £40. This store could give you some great ideas for what to get Dad for Christmas/ birthday. In fashion wise... I find the clothes and colours to be quite plain jane, practical but not very attractive.

Pricey, but well worth it because of the personal service and the vast selection…read more On day 2 in London it was clear that the shoes that worked for me in Dallas would NOT work at all in London. I hobbled in, barely able to walk, ad in great pain from shows that had become too tight from all the walking I had done. I left nearly pain free, in shoes that not only supported and housed my swollen aching feet, but also corrected my tendency to pronate. It took trying 10 pairs and about 50 minutes to find the shows I needed, and In that time I realized how deeply knowledgeable staff was about hair products and issues customers have with their feet. I was so blessed to find such an experienced and helpful employee. My London adventure was almost at an end before it really began!

Avoid ordering online I would advise against ordering from…read moreBlacks website unless you are prepared to be out of pocket when trying to return items. Blacks take no responsibility for returns and despite the fact that I have received email confirmation from Blacks that my return was received by the company and after waiting for my money for over 14 working days, they are now asking me to deal with the company handling returns. I believe that once I have received a confirmation of my returns, it should not be on customers to handle Blacks' internal issues with the third party handling returns. It's a very frustrating experience, so unless you know the size and are sure of the quality of the product, do not buy from their site.

The shop is fine, but had a bad experience with one of the staff who was oddly hostile when I took…read more15 minutes to choose my jacket. Came over out of nowhere to comment that I could keep on trying jackets until they close if I like. Almost walked out without purchasing. The gentleman behind the counter was just fine, but make me not want to return.

This is a great store. I was forced to buy a whole bunch of outdoor equipment for hiking on my…read moreEuropean trip when my luggage was lost. The owner was kind and thoughtful and spent a significant amount of time with me going through all the options and helping me balance my desire to get good equipment without breaking the bank. I cannot imagine going to a chain store when you could shop here and get very personal service as well as having access to a good selection of high-quality products.

Brilliant! It was my first time visiting and Yusef and Tarran provided an exceptionally…read moreprofessional, friendly and knowledgeable service. Their attention to detail and personal touch is exemplary and cannot be found in the larger chain shops. They took fantastic care of me and have gained a customer for life.

As others have already mentioned the store is currently n the process of redevelopment and while…read morethey are working on the new building they merged their two old buildings into one but unfortunately in the process they removed the canteen. The whole redevelopment process will apparently end in 2017 and by then they will have underground parking & a completely different looking store. That aside the stores still offers everything that it used to offer, which is every single thing you can think of regarding sports equipment at ridiculously low prices! It is also worth noting that apart of the popular brands they also sell their own brands on store which even if you never heard of are of excellent quality if not superior to the main brands. The fact that it stays open until late makes it deserve the 5 stars

Splendid customer service with positive energy attitude . Always appreciated the great serviceread more

The people here are wonderfully helpful and friendly and shop is well maintained and stocked. A…read morevery nice experience!

Awesome selection of all gear for hiking, leisure etc. Liked the layout of the store and sizes were…read moreall available.

Large and well-stocked outdoors shop with decent prices. It's actually quite a large chain, owned…read moreby JD Sports, and sells a wide range of well known brands. This store is on the market square just behind the church. It runs the length of the block, and is the largest outdoor store in Kingston. It has a cafe and soft-play area inside. I was on the look-out for a specific knee-high mid-weight sock, which I've been looking for, for ages, and was delighted that they had it in stock. It'll be a regular calling point for me from now on. Reasonably friendly staff, though I only needed to speak to them at the till.

Sorry, no other word for it: horrible Chinese crap. Not suitable for the real outdoors…read more Irresponsable. Do not buy here - even if you think you should buy crap, you can get it on AliExpress for one-tenth of their price.

This place has incredible pricing. Stopped here to pick up everything we needed to camp out at…read moreWimbledon for show courts, including a tent, sleeping bags, chair, and a couple odds and ends. Many items are marked down or discounted, and they were even running a sale where we got an additional percent off of our total- everything came to under 70 pounds, which was still under 100USD, which we predicted to be our minimum budget for all the items we needed. Besides the good selection and prices, the staff here were extremely helpful and kind. Our cashier suggested a different tent when she found out our needs and gave us a few tips to grab other items in the area. Highly recommend, wish we had this chain in the US.

Well the name says it all for this place. Its got a lot more than one of the chain shops like…read moreMillets in my opinion and the staff are all really enthusiastic 'out door' types too so are more than happy to give some advice - not just on gear but on where to head for a good campsite. There's everything you need here from tents for festivals to hiking equipment. They also stock a small amount of skiing gear too as well as steel toe-cap boots and other work wear.

Campers Paradise seems to be a quintessentially British camping shop. It stocks all the regular…read moreequipment you're going to find yourself needing for, say, a trip to Wales. The selection is well balanced though a little limited, but they have made good use of the space they have by suspending a whole tent from the ceiling fully erect. The British nature of this place isn't just brought into place by the stock of two season sleeping bags and big bins of tent pegs, they also have buckets and spades, inflatable boats and flat caps. I suppose this isn't a bad idea with them being so close to the sea side but it did leave me wondering where the canvas deck chairs and knotted hankies were. The slightly odd selection of stock is definitely balanced out well by the great customer service. When I discovered this place today I entered into a discussion with the South African guy who works there about Swiss army knives and their virtues by comparison to the ever popular Leatherman tools. Not only did the guy clearly know what he was talking about but he was funny and great to chat to.

While greeted at the door, once on the floor that held my purchase, no one was there to assist…read more There were several other shoppers also in need of assistance.

Lillywhites in Piccadilly Circus, London is a large sports shop, which is much to my surprise owned…read moreby Sports Direct in central London (not too far away from their own large, flagship branch which is less popular on Yelp in terms of the number of reviews). It is located in a fairly old building and the only disabled/wheelchair entrance due to the oddly shaped step going into the store is the offputting, dirty, back "staff entrance" I have long avoided this store as its name Llilywhites is associated with Tottenham Hotspur FC - I stupidly thought this was actually their club shop until I noticed a sign which confused me "The world's finest sports store", after doing some research later I found the name comes from the family which used to own and run the store, located at 25 Regent St since the year of 1925 - it is nice to see it is still in its' original old building, which surely must be Grade listed by now - fairly impressive for a sports shop and especially considering it is now owned by the UK's largest sports retailer, for them to keep the original branding including the website (same website as Sports Direct just with the Lilywhites logo), despite other branches in other cities changing hands such as Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham. It seems despite seeming to be a higher-end brand the overall store feel and layout is the same - and that includes the staff who didn't seem friendly or helpful by any means to struggling disabled customers or just shoppers looking to find something. It is over multiple floors and does have a decent selection, however. Is it as good as Sports Direct's flagship central London location? No, of course not - other than keeping the brand name it seems the store which seemed so historic and cool has become a boring branded store in every other regard, it's just a more expensive Sports Direct without improved quality/service etc. 2* - For the store size and location, nothing else.