Clubs & Communities

Kit for All

A pathway for sustainable sport

We all have a responsibility to make sport and physical activity more accessible and sustainable for young people.

Kit for All is about offering recycled and pre-loved sports kit to individuals and families, for free.

By setting up an initiative in your local area, you can supply kit to those who need it, especially people who live in deprived or lower income areas. Sports kit can be expensive, and many people are faced with the financial burden of not only clothing but transport costs and club fees.

Initiatives will also help to raise awareness of the growing global environmental challenges as it allows people to reuse clothing, which in turn can reduce our carbon footprint and encourage a recycling culture.

Celebrating existing initiatives

There are lots of different ways to set up and distribute sports clothing and kit in your local area. We caught up with Aileen Stuart (Sports bank), Ross Robinson (PE Dropshop), Lesley Spence (Shetland) and Vikki Atkinson (Commit to recycle kit) who already run successful Kit for All style projects. Read the case studies in full here.

Sports bank – Alness

Aileen says the most rewarding part about this initiative is seeing the look on someone's face when they realise that they can take a pair of trainers or leggings for free.

She explains: “To some people that is a huge barrier to working out as the trainers could cost the same as their weekly shop. Just giving someone the opportunity to even pick a style of leggings is amazing, they might ask for any leggings or t-shirt and you say well what colour do you like? Does this look like something you would wear? Or would you prefer this? Giving them that choice is a great feeling. I love picking a whole outfit for someone.”

PE Drop Shop – Perth and Kinross

Ross told us about a young person in his class who wasn’t aware of the DropShop and arrived with no kit.

“After speaking to her for a few minutes she admitted that she didn’t have any PE kit at home and that her parent’s couldn’t really afford to buy any.”

Ross took her along to the DropShop, explained how it worked, and left her to it: “She came into class 10 minutes later absolutely beaming wearing her new clothes.”

The Shetland Sportswear Recycle Scheme

The initiative started in 2017 to help try and meet the needs of those living in Shetland.

Sport and Physical Activity Officer, Lesley Spence who runs The Shetland Sportswear Recycle Scheme says that “Thanks to the incredible generosity of people in Shetland and their donations, I have been able to redistribute clothing to many families, young people, adults, schools and sports clubs over the years. The scheme itself is ever changing to meet the needs of our community in Shetland”.

Commit to recycle kit – North Lanarkshire

Vikki says that the most enjoyable part of the programme was knowing that they would be helping young people within the local area and potentially providing them with a Christmas present they may never have received otherwise.

She said: “The Young People’s Sport Panel enjoyed creating the video and working with their peers and Active Schools Coordinators to highlight the importance of the campaign. Additionally, linking with local charities and understanding how they help the community and importance of what they do was both exceptionally sad and humbling.”