Mel Cotton's Sporting Goods

We go to REI a lot, but for camping and hiking supplies Mel Cottons is a winner as well. Excellent selection with friendly, helpful staff. They have good sales and other special events.

Mel Cotton's is an institution in the valley! They have a large supply of all kinds of outdoor gear. It's not as swanky, as say, REI, but it's been around forever. It's also not as pricey as REI. My only complaint is that it seems a little disorganized and messy at times.

PROS:
CONS: A little messy and cramped

I have been going to Mel Cotton's since I was a kid. And what I remember is the huge selection they have for all our outdoor needs.

Fishing, skiing, hiking, you name it they have it. Also good to catch all the year end sales - excellent prices.

Mel Cotton's is the best Sporting Goods store in the south bay. They have the best, most knowledgeable service people. When I recently decided to buy skis, one of the sales people dropped what he was doing and came and helped me pick out what would be right for me. He asked a lot of questions about what level skier I am, and how often I ski, before recommending something.

I also shop there for all my fly fishing supplies. They also have a huge selection of camping equipment for sale and rent. Overall, a great place to shop.

My wife and I bought our boards here and the staff is really helpful. We were novices and they guided us toward what we would need and not need. They suggested the types of boards we should look at, but weren't pushy. They didn't try to oversell us. We found a good selection of snowboarding gear during the winter and a good sale during the holidays.

Another small somewhat specialty store which carries a fairly good line of sporting goods. They seem to mainly concentrate on the seasons sports vs. the larger marts that have everything, all the time. I mostly shop there for winter goods: jackets, boots, gloves, thermal underwear and such. Pricing is good on sale items so we check them out often during ski season to get those "need to have" items for seasonal sports.