Cotswold Outdoor

Cotswold Outdoor is a British outdoor retailer with a Covent Garden store on Mercer Street, near Seven Dials. The company is known for its wide range of outdoor clothing and equipment, and the Mercer Street shop brings that kit to shoppers heading for the hills or the everyday city commute.

The store carries waterproofs, insulated jackets, fleeces, base layers, footwear, rucksacks and camping equipment for men, women and children from leading brands including Rab, Mountain Equipment, Patagonia, The North Face and Meindl, alongside the retailer's own ranges. A Runners Need and a Snow+Rock shop now trade inside the store, covering running shoes and snowsports gear with free running advice, gait analysis and ski and snowboard servicing.

Outdoor shop in Covent Garden

Service is the reason to visit rather than buy online. Free in-store services include Volumental 3D foot scanning, outdoor footwear fitting, rucksack fitting, a footwear protection service and kit-list advice for adventures and camping trips. Appointments with the experts can be booked ahead, and the store also takes unwanted kit for recycling to keep it out of landfill. The outdoor clothing and equipment is laid out so you can compare brands side by side.

What to expect on a visit

Opening hours are 10:00 to 19:00 from Monday to Saturday and 12:00 to 18:00 on Sunday, and the store is reachable by Tube and bus, a short walk from the Seven Dials monument and Neal Street. Cotswold Outdoor is the technical end of the fashion shops in Covent Garden, and Barbour on nearby Neal Street covers the heritage side of outerwear if you want a wax jacket rather than a shell.