Our reviewers evaluate products and services based on unbiased research. Top Consumer Reviews may earn money when you click on a link. Learn more about our process.
Regardless of the sport you're into, all of them require some sort of gear in order to participate. You're into running? You need good shoes. You like football? You'll have to get a good helmet. Your friends invited you to play pickleball? Go find some good paddles! Trying yoga? Buy a good mat. You want to be a tennis player? You get the idea.
Some sports are more common and easy to find equipment for - like soccer, football, and baseball. As newly-created sports like spike ball or pickleball become popular, it might be harder to find what you need to play. Ideally you'll want to know what sporting goods store will keep up with the latest trends in sporting equipment function and design.
Thursday, September 28th
Scheels is not only known for their wide range of sporting goods that cater to every age group, but also their arcade games, ferris wheels, and aquariums found in their brick-and-mortar stores. Scheels is dedicated to making shopping fun, easy, and affordable, which is why they have earned our highest rating for sporting goods stores.
Anthem Sports is a family-owned sporting goods store based out of Connecticut. They sell just about every type of accessory you would need for commonly-played sports like baseball, football, and soccer. They carry name-brand items, but have a variety of options in a big price range to meet all budgets. Not only do they cater to athletes, but also to coaches, families, and large sports entities.
From climbing to hunting to football to yard games, Dick's Sporting Goods takes the cake as far as having all the sporting gear you can imagine. They don't just carry equipment that you'd think of for traditional sporting needs: they basically carry everything to do with any physical indoor or outdoor hobbies. We wanted to give DICK'S Sporting Goods one of our highest ratings for these reasons, but we're a little concerned by the amount of customer complaints.
Paragon Sports caters to customers who want to look good while playing their sport. Their inventory is more about high-end apparel than gear. For example, if you're looking for fancy cleats, warm-up sweats, and a nice gym bag to play football, Paragon Sports will have it. If you are just wanting to buy a specific football, your best bet is to look somewhere else.
eSports Online has a seemingly endless number of sports categories, but a slim selection of products within each category. From the products available, it is obvious that this online sporting goods store caters primarily to the needs of children and young teenagers. Although some adult sports gear is available here, it would probably not be most people's first choice due to the limited selection.
Dunham's Sports is a sporting goods retail chain with over 240 brick-and-mortar locations as well as an online store. Although they carry many products that relate to a wide variety of hobbies, their selection of accessories within each sports category is more limited than their competitors.
Online Sports proudly advertises that they supply over 150,000 sports products. Their focus is more on team sports than individual outdoor hobbies like climbing, camping, biking, or yoga. Some of their selection is very random and their photos appear outdated. Sorting through the random product makes it a bit harder to find exactly what you're looking for, putting this sporting goods retailer at the bottom of our rankings.
Equipment isn't the only thing you might be looking for to participate in your sport. A store's selection of apparel, accessories, and even energy-boosting foods should be taken into consideration. When you're looking for high quality gear, it can be frustrating if you can't find everything you're looking for at one store. Finding a store that has "thought of everything" when it comes to equipment for a wide range of sports is important.
Before jumping online or heading out to make a sports-related purchase, we suggest you keep the following criteria in mind when choosing a sporting goods retailer:
TopConsumerReviews.com has reviewed and ranked the best Sporting Goods Stores available today. We hope this information helps you find all the gear you need to be at the top of your game!
Select any 2 Sporting Goods Stores to compare them head to head