Can you rent cold weather clothing? That’s the question I got from a friend of mine when he suggested it as a post. "Big D" recently moved from the northeastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania to the southeastern U.S. state of Florida. With his move, he jettisoned all of his winter clothes, never thinking that he might need them again. Realizing the error of his ways, he emailed me and, after thinking about the topic a bit, I thought he asked a great question about where to get warm clothing when you don't own any! And so, Big D, this week’s post is for you!
When I started my research for this post I expected to find websites that rent cold weather gear, like the parka version of Rent the Runway. For the guys out there reading this, Rent the Runway is a website that rents women' clothes for everything from work to formal attire.
What I found was actually something completely different. Cold weather clothing rental appears to be locational. It’s sorta like renting sports gear. For example, if you’re going skiing and decide to rent skis, you’ll look for ski rental places near where you’ll be skiing. Same concept. On several websites I saw individual items for rent, like parkas, boots, hats, etc. On others I saw "full gear rentals only" with the specific mention of "no individual rental items". And, just to be sure I hadn't overlooked a valuable resource, I even checked out a few hunting and archery forums to see what hunters do about having warm gear, since they also spend a lot of time outside in the cold.
As you might expect, extremely cold climates tend to have more rental gear outfitters, but rental gear tends to be associated with not only specific locations, but also specific activities, rather than with general use. Effectively, I didn't find a store or online outfitter like "Winter Clothes Are Us" that will simply rent out warm clothes. Of the sites I did find, some may not be where you're headed, or even offer what you're looking for, but this will give you a overview of what's available and where.
Final verdict: Unless you're going to an extreme climate, winter clothing rental may not necessarily be available. With that in mind, if you know far enough in advance, it may be worth it to try and catch a good end-of-season winter clearance sale at a sporting or hunting store. While that may not be what you had in mind, at least you’ll have your cold weather gear for the next time you need it! Good luck and stay warm!
Here are some of the websites I found that rent cold weather gear! Maybe you aren't headed to these places, but if you are, you'll know where to rent clothes to keep you toasty warm! And "Big D" - I hope this answers your question!
Outfitters.is (Iceland)
Fairbankssnowmobiletours.com (Alaska)
Westernmongoliantour.com (Mongolia)
Tromsooutdoor.no (Norway)
ArcticRangeAdventures (Canada)
Mybackyardtours.com (Canada)
Have you needed to rent cold weather gear? Tell me about it on Facebook or in the comment section below!
