Sportsdirect


Sports Direct – The Sporting Giants

Sports Direct is a British retailer offering sporting equipment and clothing. They offer clothing and sports equipment to men, women and children. They sell casual wear but cater for specific sports as well. The sports they cater for include weightlifting, football, running, golf, tennis, snooker, watersports, yoga, boxing, basketball, swimming and many more. Their clothing and equipment come from high-end brands including Nike, Adidas, No Fear and Everlast, as well as cheaper and lesser-known brands. You will find swimwear, shorts, t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and trainers as well as equipment such as tennis racquets, footballs, basketballs and football boots. There are more than 650 Sports Direct stores spread across the globe as they also provide goods to customers in other continents.

Sports Direct Opening Times And Store Locations

The homegrown Sports Direct establishments are dispersed over 250 British towns and cities. London can boast the most Sport Direct outlets and Bristol and Glasgow also have a high number of stores in each city. Identifying a Sports Direct store is not difficult due to the company’s familiar branding and logo. The brand makes use of three colours, namely blue red and white. The logo simply reads the company name with the word “Sports” in the colour blue and “Direct” in the colour red. Both words are written in capital letters.

Sports Direct opening times may vary depending on the location but most stores follow a standardised routine. Sports Direct opening times are typically between 9am and 5.30pm from Monday through to Friday. Many stores which are located in shopping centers and busier cities will have later opening hours. Weekend times will also vary but most stores will remain open between 9am and 6pm on Saturdays and have reduced business hours of 10am to 4pm on Sundays. Sports Direct Opening times are subject to change on New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas, Boxing Day and bank holidays – it is advised to check with local branches to obtain holiday opening hours. Many stores will be closed on these days. You can find out the Sports Direct opening times for the branch closest to you on the online store locator.

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Sports Direct

Sports Direct is a well-known retailer of sporting clothes and equipment to most British residents. However, many of their customers may not be aware of some interesting facts concerning the business. These include:

  1. Owned by Mike Ashley, they operate on extremely low margins.
  2. They own many sporting brands, including Karrimor, Lonsdale and more
  3. They are over 35 years old
  4. They bought House of Fraser in 2018
  5. Mike Ashley Sports was the original store and focused on badminton equipment

Products And Services

As an extensive chain that owns many sporting brands, it is not surprising that Sports Direct has an exhaustive list of clothing items and sporting equipment for sale. They cater to children and adults in more than 40 sports with a range of different products. They also cater for outdoor adventures such as hiking and camping trips with suitable clothing, accessories and tents.

Some of their most popular products come from their casual clothing department and include jogging bottoms, training tops and trainers. Their football department is also popular and they sell many football kits and footballing equipment such as footballs, shin pads, football boots and training bags. Other popular sales feature in their running section and accessories department.

Some of the brands found at their stores include Dunlop, Everlast, Firetrap, Jack & Jones, Lonsdale, Reebok, Puma, Nike, Slazenger, Donnay, Asics and even more. The business owns many of the brands they sell.

A Brief History

Mike Ashley founded Sports Direct in 1982 by opening his first store in Maidenhead by the name of Mike Ashley Sports. Within ten years of existence, Mike Ashley had expanded his business to 12 stores. Over the following years and up to the present day, the company has continued to grow the number of their stores and now trade internationally in many different countries. It overtook competition in the UK to become the largest sporting retailer in 2006. The business has also bought into many other retailers and bought many sporting brands to help fill their shelves, including branding Newcastle United extensively and moving to buy Glasgow Rangers Football Club - both with the intention of carrying the logo into Europe.

More Sportswears in the UK

Sportsdirect closed? Then try one of the other Sportswears nearby.