The Rising Costs of Sports Gear

There are many families that spend a great deal of money on sports gear. My family is one of them. It seems that each week there is another trip to the store to buy sports gear for one of my children. Between the children’s school activities and my love of the outdoors, we are always spending money at the sports store. The schools used to provide sports gear for the children for any sports they participated in, but budget cuts and decreased funding now means the parents have to fork out. This is difficult for families on a tight budget and it may mean that their child will not participate in an activity because the family can’t afford the sports gear. Most schools do have scholarships that help with the cost of the gear for sports, but this is often embarrassing for the student so they choose not to participate.

Of the sports gear that we purchase, the most expensive is hockey equipment. With growing teenage boys the size of hockey skates will often change within one season. Because of this, we are on a first name basis with the owner of the sports store since we spend so much time there. An additional cost for sports gear involves the uniforms, which often have to be rented from the school for a fee. I also love to fish and hunt. This means that our budget for sports gear needs to include me as well. The sports gear that I use however does get handed down to the children, as I purchase new equipment form our favorite sports store. It seem there is always new and improved equipment coming out on a regular basis, which ensures our sports store stays solvent. Several times each week we also have catalogs in the mail that are filled with sports gear. My eyes light up like a child’s at Christmas when I get one of these catalogs!

There are second-hand merchants and sports stores available that handle used sports gear. This is an alternative way to purchase equipment for a child that is trying a sport for the first time. This way you can avoid a huge financial commitment only to find out your child does not like that particular sport. Some of the used sports gear stores will purchase sports gear or sell it on commission for you as well. This is a good way of getting rid of gear that you may have accumulating in storage areas.

Ian Botham (no relation) runs his own online sports goods mail order business as well as several sports related websites. Go here to visit one of his sites regarding Sports Gear [http://www.sports-gear-world.info]

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