Where do you prefer to shop for your gear?

Is it where you can find the best price, or do you go for a specific brand?

Are there items you will only buy at a certain place, and items that you don't mind picking up on the fly?

Do you only shop local, or hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind?

Although I probably wouldn't shop there right now because our exchange rate sucks, I've gotten some really good deals from sunnysports.com. They are great for tents and gear. I live near the border so get it shipped to Point Roberts, Washington and bring it across. I always declare everything and found that they are pretty good about not charging duty at the border. I also like altitude-sports.com which I purchased a membership for $20.00 and gives me an additional 5% off on top of sales items. If you review your purchases, they will give you $8.00 credit towards future purchases. The best thing is that they are a Canadian site so it's all in Canadian $$$. They are also linked to thelasthunt.com which sells left over stuff usually size small or xxl or some really ugly colors that no one wants to buy. There are some great deals to be found on there if you can find your size. I'm not affiliated to any of these sites so hopefully this doesn't get seen as spam or promoting another website.

No spam! Nah, I anticipated the online shops would pop up of course. There are likely a lot of hidden gems out there that some won't know about.

I am not familiar with any of these sites so I'll be taking a peek. Thanks for sharing Though I am more for in-store shopping. I like to touch everything (I'm THAT person!) so I tend to tour the usual brick-and-mortar places like Bass Pro/Cabela's, MEC, Sail, Canadian Tire, etc. There are a few local shops up north as well that have some pretty sweet end of season deals.

I am the same - need to touch, try on etc. But online shopping is reality & is only going to get stronger.

I stopped shopping @ MEC after they abandoned number of brands in favor of their own. I like Atmosphere as selection is decent & their staff always treats me very well. If in Banff, good place to visit is Monods at main street; it has large selection of clothing, footwear, skis, climbing gear & it carries some Euro brands other stores don't.

Here in Edmonton we have a few choices for backcountry gear; MEC of course, Track n'Trail, Campers Village and Totem Outfitters come to mind. It used to be that MEC was a no-brainer with their prices and selection, but not anymore so I've been visiting the others more over the last few years. They all have their idiosyncrasies so it really depends on what I want as to which one gets the business.

I'd like to like Track n'Trail more 'cause they are in my neighbourhood but have had a few bad experiences. Took a pair of Mammut pants back when the glued-on pocket peeled off. They charged me $15 "postage" to send the pants in for warranty repair. That was a minor annoyance but the explanation that Mammut won't pay for return shipping and they shouldn't have to was galling as they already pocketed my money when I bought them, which included a healthy mark-up. The latest trouble occurred when I took a 15% coupon they distributed in our community newsletter to the store this fall and selected an item to purchase. At the till I was told that I needed to have a "customer profile" in their computer to use the coupon and proceeded to demand my name, address, etc. I warned they were in breach of our Privacy Act but they wouldn't bend. Long story short, I made a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner and they were delivered a notice to stop making the collection of private information a condition of sale as that is ILLEGAL (that includes postal code, telephone, anything). But I didn't get my 15% either.

Went to Campers Village today to check for boxing day bargains and way in the back corner we found dozens of clearance backpacks so got a couple of sweet deals. They were the same deals I saw there months ago, so it really wasn't a Boxing Day special. I will only buy sale merchandise from Campers - their regular prices are too high and there is never a shortage of sale merchandise. And speaking of customer profiles, they have the lamest loyalty program around. If you register with them, you get 10% off ON YOUR BIRTHDAY!

Totem is a nice place for a couple of reasons. Some of the staff have been there forever and they are nice to deal with. They have equipment rentals and a huge selection of used gear, which I like to nose around in. It is a smallish store so selection can suffer. Actually we bought four pairs of ice skates from them for Christmas presents this year, at reasonable prices too.

I know that some people are opposed to people doing this but I usually go to a shop such as Atmosphere or the North Face Store to try on clothing then go home and search online for the best price. I try not to bother the staff too much because I already know that I will most likely not be buying from them. I don't want them to waste their time on me if they are commission based. If I'm not in a hurry to purchase it, I'll wait for it to come on sale at Altitude Sports and usually pick it up cheaper and get an $8.00 credit after I review my purchase.

In general I like altitude-sports and sometimes also thelasthunt – because it’s reduced (more than 20 percent), outdoor stuff is mostly overpriced. Until now I bought clothes and especially tops aren’t a big deal regarding sizes – if the price is convincing I don’t bother if it’s a bit tight or a bit large. Bottoms are more complicated - I have three pants at the moment for summer just because they were considerably reduced once in a while, a cheaper home-label from a shop where I could send it back for free (not North America), over the years in different colors so after the first I knew what I ordered and now I'm fine for a decade, they surprisingly won't break (I usually have more complaints about more expensive branded things not only because my expectations are higher).
Thankfully after a while one has everything so there’s no need to shop for gear so often or one knows more or less what could fit and buying online isn’t really a problem – but I also just don’t believe in all the promises the miraculous gear can fulfill so it’s okay if something isn’t perfect.

Latest gear: smaller items directly from China: 2 pairs of microspikes (amazon), a headlamp (really bright, definitely cheap appearance but was cheap, 2,50, performed well during the last early morning hike in the dark, much brighter than the petzl), a little stove, a foam mattress, hiking poles, titanium cup –. One pair of microspikes broke a bit during the first use, I glued it, usable again. It broke because it was stretched too much. I ordered a third one similar to the other pair with thicker rubber – cost altogether like buying one pair of Kahtoolas. Maybe it depends on your needs. Generally I would make sure that the price is convincing to order something at aliexpress. And if your expectations aren’t high you should be pleased in the end.

Camper’s Village: a considerably reduced backpack online, hiking shoes in person! Nice staff, nice atmosphere for an outdoor shop I would say. Still a bit grounded.

The newest sleeping bag from TAIGAworks. I like to have stuff from smaller companies with hopefully reasonable prices (alpkit.com from uk, got a daypack from them without any customs and my old beloved sleeping bag is Alpkit, it was just almost destroyed by an American washing machine… – they are becoming a bit more expensive but somehow I like them, they e.g. started an interesting range of jackets – probably promising too much… if I needed one I would just order, if in doubt size up).
Regarding Taiga I must admit one has to be patient and even though I was patient with a positive attitude and it’s obviously a strange shop - I wasn’t really satisfied in the end with the procedure. All in all I guess I won’t buy there again. Until now I like the sleeping bag even though it doesn’t seem to be so sophisticated (e.g. there could have been 2-3 more baffles instead of less and larger ones). But I get entertaining newsletters now…and perhaps they do offer interesting items here and there, the second I ordered were overmitts.

It really depends on what I need. Despite the urbanization of MEC, it's still a good store. My other go-to store is Valhalla Pure.

I also like a couple of consignment stores. Climb On in Squamish is a favourite of mine. In Vancouver, Sports Junkies.

+1 for Altitude and Taiga for online purchases. Altitude has the best returns policy and includes the return shipping label with your order. Taiga just makes bomber gear at reasonable prices for the quality...I have three of their sleeping bags!

Sports Junkies is first-stop for us. It's hit and miss but sometimes the deals are unbeatable. In early fall I got nearly new Merrel Trail Runners for $40.00

Another old fave in Vancouver is "3 Vets". Back in the early 70's, when the hiking/backpacking bug first hit me, this was pretty much the only outdoor gear store around. They still have good deals on oddball clothing, packs and footwear.

I've been checking out some of these places online and now I'm just sad that I'm all the way over here in Ontario. At least most of them have an online shop. I guess I'll have to skip the *touch everything* part of my shopping. And make sure returns are reasonable. Or come visit!

Europe Bound is another shop in downtown Toronto that I like to browse for deals. I never thought to look at consignment stores.

Looks like time to make that trip west! You got Rockies, Coast Mountains, Rainforest and Pacific Rim -- what else could you wish for?? Only, you can't cheer for Leafs

Visting family in Victoria over the recent holidays I was reminded what a good shopping experience Robinson's Outdoor Store downtown can be: Solid gear, lovely customer service and a fly shop that kept my better half busy for a good while. Their sale area always has good prices. Back when, as a first year UVic student dabbling in the outdoors and on a budget they set me up with a sleeping bag/ insulated mat combo that I used for 10 years.

It's great to see a family store going strong for 85 years!

Locally, I still end up in MEC a lot. Can still usually find what I need, though I think I need to look elsewhere for my next pair of boots.

Three different ones? I had a hard time to figure out differences, I'm still confused - took the 1001 Nights also because it seems to have a lot of features of the other models in one.

Or Edmonton or Calgary... your only decent choice is Vancouver. On another note, I've see a few stores called Mountain Warehouse pop up around here. Most things they sell are their own brand which I think is a European brand. I haven't been able to find any reviews on the quality of their clothing though. Prices are ok compared to other name brands.