Play a sport? How much gear do you need?

Consumerism can creep its way into even the healthiest of habits. Think for just a moment of the rampant consumerism that surrounds, for example, healthy and organic eating. It’s certainly not just about the food anymore, it’s also about the brands and lifestyle that accompany those eating choices. But we’re not talking about food today. Today’s consumer topic is another healthy lifestyle choice – playing a sport. Yes, we know there may be some debate about the mental and emotional health of sports participation at some levels, but for today we’re going to bypass that topic and operate under the assumption that practically any athletic activity is a healthy choice and that, overall, sports can teach important social messages. But just like healthy eating, sports have been largely co-opted as an avenue for sending consumer messages and making profits off of “stuff.” Today we’ll take a closer look at how that works, and it all starts with the gear.

When It Comes To Gear, More is Better … Or So You’re Told

Let’s get the most obvious statement out of the way – some sports that you or a family member may play do require a lot of safety gear. Football, hockey and skiing come to mind immediately in this category. And pretty much all sports require some gear. But how much gear do you really need? Let’s break down what you actually need versus what consumer media would have you believe using a relatively simple sport – basketball.

For the sake of argument, we’re going to say that the basketball gear that you require is what an average high school team would require you to provide on your own.

So, taking basketball as an example, what you need is a ball, a pair of shoes, at least one pair of workout clothes (no uniform here since that would be provided by the school), and let’s say generously speaking you also need a practice hoop for your driveway or garage (though you don’t actually need this since just about every rec center or community park has hoops you could use). But we’re aiming big here.

That’s it! That’s really all you need to actually play basketball on a team, other than of course the skills to play.

Now, here’s what the consumer media would tell you that you need. You need shoes, but you probably need more than one pair and they’re only going to be good for basketball if they are basketball specific shoes and you’ll certainly also play better if the shoes are “designed” by a professional basketball player and include “completely unique” features that elevate your jump and make you a better basketball player. You need workout clothes, yes. But you don’t just need workout clothes. You need workout clothes that are designed to “breathe” so that you don’t overheat during your workout (newsflash, a cotton t-shirt breathes very well). You also need shorts that are for basketball, not for soccer or running. So you need specific clothes to wear while you’re working out as well as to put on when you’re done with your workout. You’ll also need compression socks and sleeves to help with muscle development. You’ll need squishy balls and clamps to use for working on hand strength. You’ll obviously have to have a practice hoop at home. You need branded water bottles and bags. You need some instructional dvds to improve your ball handling. You need a separate shower gel to use after games that’s designed for athletes and sports sweat. And that’s just the list that we can think of. Chances are pretty good that if we sat here brainstorming for another half an hour we could come up with about twenty other things that the consumer media tells you that you need in order to play basketball. In fact, you don’t need any of these things. And this is just the gear – this isn’t even beginning to touch all of the affinity marketing related to your love of basketball (which is now tracked because “the man” knows that you buy basketball gear).

So How Do You Combat This Individually?

We consider tackling this problem two-fold. On the one hand, if you find yourself in the situation where you’re falling prey to sports gear consumerism, you hopefully want to stop the pattern in yourself. But as we’ll address below, we also feel that an important step is to squash the sports gear merchandising in any kids you may have – as the school years are the first years that they are exposed to it. But let’s start with you – the adult! As we often say on the Postconsumers website, knowledge is power. And you now have the knowledge about exactly how you’re being manipulated into thinking that you need more “stuff” (and to spend more money) than you do. But we think that if you actually applied budgeting rules to your sports gear purchases, it is the most effective scenario. You may not even realize how much you’re spending on sports gear. So start to track it. Then think about where you could be spending that money and also apply some basic clutter control techniques in terms of thinking about how much of your gear you actually use. We’re fairly confident that it won’t take long before you realize that you don’t want to be spending this much money on this much gear and set some limits on how much is enough for you.

So How Do You Combat This With a Kid?

We’re also going to immediately concede that breaking the sports gear consumerism habit with a child or teenager is going to be harder than doing it for yourself. Kids and teenagers are, of course, influenced by their peers. Chances are slim that your child is surrounded by peers who aren’t influenced by the mass consumer media, which puts you in the unfortunate position of being the “uncool” parent saying the opposite of what the “cool” kids say. Again, we think it may be best to focus on the finances here. If your kid needs to pay for his or her sports gear out of a fixed allowance or earned money, then he or she is more likely to think twice about the wisdom of needing a fourth set of compression socks. However, at the end of the day, the most important step that you can take in this instance is to have ongoing conversations with your child or teenager about the existence and prevalence of addictive consumer marketing in society and specifically in relation to sports gear. You may not see the fruits of your labors during the difficult teen years, but you’re helping to give your child the knowledge that he or she will need when they’re ready to begin their own journey of postconsumerism.

Did we miss a thought on consumerism and sports gear that you want to share with us? If so, just tell us about it on one of the social media channels below.