%20(6).png)
Last updated: October 2026
Most sports equipment spends its life waiting. Skis wait for one week in February. The paddleboard waits for summer. The rowing machine waits for January resolutions, and then waits some more.
The numbers back this up.
In a survey commissioned by Decathlon, 50% of UK adults said they have unused sports equipment at home, and 48% of parents said their children use their bikes only occasionally or not at all.
In a separate survey by Hussle, more than a third of people who bought home gym equipment in the past three years admitted buying equipment they don't use.
Meanwhile, rental is where the growth is: at Intersport Austria, rental was the main winter sales driver in 2023, up 13%.
That gap between what people buy and what they actually use is the opportunity behind a sports equipment rental business.
This guide walks you through how to start one: which models work, which equipment to pick, how to price it, and what to set up before your first customer books.
The short answer: Start by choosing your model (short-term rental, seasonal lease, monthly subscription or try-before-you-buy), then pick equipment that is expensive, used occasionally and easy to refurbish. Price it based on realistic utilisation, not the best weekend of the year. Set clear rules for damage, cancellations and safety checks, and use a system that tracks every item through every rental cycle. Start with a few categories, learn, then expand.
What is sports equipment rental?
Sports equipment rental means customers pay for access to gear instead of buying it. It covers very different time frames, and each one works like a different business:
- Short-term rental: hours or days. Skis on holiday, a kayak for the weekend, a tent for a festival.
- Seasonal lease: one season, paid upfront. Common for kids' ski gear, which is swapped for the right size as children grow.
- Long-term rental or subscription: monthly payments for as long as the customer needs the product. Typical for e-bikes, fitness equipment and kids' bikes.
- Try-before-you-buy and rent-to-own: customers rent first and can buy the product later, often with part of the rent counted towards the price.
Not sure which one fits you? Our guide to sports equipment rental vs. lease vs. subscription compares them in detail.
Why sports equipment rental is growing
Trying a new sport is expensive
Nobody wants to spend €1,500 on kitesurfing gear to find out they hate getting water up their nose. When Decathlon launched rentals in all its UK stores, its sustainability lead said the high cost of buying gear is one of the biggest barriers to trying a new sport. Rental removes that barrier.
Kids outgrow everything
Children's skis, bikes and skates fit for a season or two. Parents know this, which is why US ski shops have run junior seasonal leases for years. At Grand Targhee, for example, families lease a kids' ski or board package for the season and swap gear during the winter to keep the right size.
Retailers want relationships, not one-off sales
When Decathlon analysed its short-term rental customers, it found they were younger, came back around seven times a year and spent €315 a year on average, compared with €257 for regular retail customers. That's one reason Decathlon Belgium moved on to long-term e-bike rentals powered by circuly. Rental isn't just another way to sell. It's a way to see customers more often.
Regulation is pushing products to stay in use
Under the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, large companies can no longer destroy unsold clothing and footwear from July 2026. Sports retailers selling apparel and shoes now need second-life channels anyway, and rental, buyback and resale are the obvious ones. Rules like these are making access over ownership a business requirement, not just a marketing line.
Which sports equipment works best for rental?
Not every product belongs in a rental fleet. The best candidates tick most of these boxes:
- High purchase price: the more expensive the item, the stronger the reason to rent.
- Occasional or seasonal use: people use it a few weeks a year, not every day.
- Durable: it survives many users and many rental cycles.
- Easy to clean, check and refurbish: it can go back out quickly after a return.
- Outgrown or outdated fast: kids' gear and tech-heavy equipment lose relevance before they wear out.
Categories that work well:
- Winter sports: skis, snowboards, boots and touring gear, short-term or as seasonal leases
- Bikes and e-bikes: from weekend mountain bikes to monthly bike subscriptions
- Water sports: stand-up paddleboards, kayaks, surfboards, wetsuits
- Camping and outdoor: tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, often rented as trip bundles
- Fitness equipment: rowers, bikes and treadmills for people who want to test before committing (see how Peloton uses rental)
- Kids' sports gear: bikes, skis, skates and protective kit that's outgrown quickly
And the ones to think twice about:
- Safety-critical items like helmets and climbing harnesses, where a customer can't see hidden damage. Decathlon Belgium, for example, excluded safety products from its monthly rental subscription, and REI doesn't resell used climbing gear.
- Items worn close to the body that are hard to clean properly, like running shoes.
- Cheap items where cleaning and shipping cost more than the rental brings in.
- Highly personalised gear like heat-moulded boot liners.
How to start a sports equipment rental business: 10 steps
1. Be clear about your starting position
Where you start changes everything about the business:
- Sports retailers already have stores, customers and supplier relationships. The challenge is running rentals next to sales without confusing staff or systems. Read how stores can sell subscriptions.
- Brands and manufacturers control the product and its repair. They can use rental to win new customers and keep products in their own lifecycle.
- Rental-first startups start from zero inventory, so capital and supplier access are the first problems to solve.
- Ski and bike shops often run short-term rental already and can add seasonal leases or subscriptions.
2. Choose your model and rental duration
Short-term rental is about availability, booking calendars and fast turnaround. Monthly subscriptions are about recurring billing, longer contracts and keeping customers happy over months. Mixing both is possible, but decide which one leads. Many businesses start with one and add the other later, like Eddy's Adventure, which runs short-term outdoor gear rentals and is preparing long-term subscriptions on the same system.
3. Start narrow with your fleet
Pick two or three categories you understand well, not twenty you hope will work. Buy durable, mid-range models rather than the cheapest or the flashiest: cheap gear breaks, and top-end gear scares customers who worry about damage. Check whether your supplier offers buyback or refurbishment, and consider partnerships where a brand provides the fleet. Running a pilot with a limited group first is what Decathlon did: its Belgian rental subscription followed a test with 70 customers and launched with a cap of 1,000 subscribers.
4. Price for realistic utilisation
The most common mistake is pricing as if every item is rented every sunny weekend. Your price has to cover the purchase cost, maintenance, cleaning, payment fees, damage and the days the item sits on the shelf, minus what you can sell it for at the end. We cover this step by step in our guide to sports equipment rental pricing and unit economics.
5. Decide how you'll handle risk
Sports equipment gets used hard. That's the point. You need clear rules for:
- Deposits or credit checks: deposits protect you but put customers off. For high-value items, a credit check can replace or reduce the deposit. Decathlon's Belgian e-bike rental asks for no deposit, only the first monthly payment.
- Damage and wear: define what counts as normal wear and what you charge for. Scratches on rental skis are normal. A snapped ski is not.
- Theft and insurance: essential for e-bikes and other high-value items. Decathlon includes damage and theft insurance in its e-bike rental, so customers don't have to think about it.
- Late returns: what happens when the kayak comes back three days late, and how that's charged.
Read more about fraud prevention for rental businesses and how to recover failed payments when the product is still with the customer.
6. Build safety checks into your process
Some sports equipment comes with real safety standards. Ski bindings are the best example: ISO 11088 sets out how bindings are assembled, adjusted and inspected for skis owned by the user or rented for 15 days or more, while ISO 13993 covers shorter rentals. If you move from day rentals to seasonal leases, the standard you follow changes too. E-bikes need regular brake, battery and drivetrain checks, and protective gear needs a clear inspection and retirement rule.
Document every check against the specific item. If something goes wrong, you want to show exactly when it was last inspected.
7. Write cancellation rules for real life
Sports are at the mercy of the weather, and your cancellation policy should admit it. Decathlon UK lets customers cancel up to 24 hours in advance to account for weather changes. Eddy's Adventure uses a five-day weather cancellation window at the start of a rental, shown directly in the customer self-service portal only when the customer is eligible. Flexible enough to be fair, firm enough that nobody cancels a two-week tent rental on day 13.
8. Plan pickup, delivery and returns
Bulky gear like kayaks, bikes and fitness equipment is expensive to ship, so store pickup is often the default. Decathlon UK lets customers order online and collect in store an hour later. If you deliver, factor the reverse logistics into your price: every rental is two shipments, not one. If you sell through stores, your staff need a quick way to create rentals at the counter. Decathlon's store teams create subscriptions in store in a few steps.
9. Design what happens after the return
Every returned item should follow the same path: inspect, clean, repair if needed, test, mark as ready. Intersport Rent, for example, cleans and dries every item after each return. Decide early what happens at the end of an item's rental life. Paceheads refurbishes returned equipment and sells it at a reduced price, and REI sells used gear in most of its stores through its Re/Supply programme. The resale value is part of your business case.
10. Choose systems before you need them
Spreadsheets work for ten rentals. At a hundred, someone spends their week chasing return dates. You'll need:
- A booking calendar with availability per item for short-term rentals
- Recurring billing and invoicing for monthly models
- Asset tracking that shows where each item is, its condition and how much it has earned
- Self-service for extensions, returns, cancellations and buyouts
- Automated emails for pickup reminders, return dates and payments
Read our guide to features to look for in rental management software.
Legal points to check
Rental contracts for consumers come with rules. Check the consumer protection laws in your markets, including withdrawal rights and, in Germany, the cancellation button requirement. If your model includes a purchase option or rent-to-own, it may fall under consumer credit rules: read what the EU's Consumer Credit Directive (CCD2) means for rental businesses. And get your terms reviewed by a lawyer before launch. We're marketers, not your legal department.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Pricing for peak season and ignoring the months the gear sits in storage
- Buying too much inventory before you know which sizes and models actually rent
- Forgetting that kids' gear needs a full size range, not just the popular sizes
- Treating maintenance as an afterthought instead of part of every rental cycle
- Making cancellation rules so strict that customers book with a competitor instead
- Running rentals on a shop system built for one-time sales
- Not planning the second life of your fleet, and leaving resale value on the table
How circuly supports sports equipment rental
circuly is a subscription management software for physical products. It runs short-term rentals, long-term rentals and subscriptions from one system: checkout, billing, asset tracking, returns, buyouts and customer self-service, connected to the shop system and payment provider you already use.
Sports and outdoor businesses running on circuly include Decathlon Belgium, Paceheads, Eddy's Adventure and Line Up. If you sell on Shopify, the circuly Shopify app adds rentals to your existing store. Book a demo to see how it works for your sport.
FAQs about starting a sports equipment rental business
Is a sports equipment rental business profitable?
It can be, but profit depends on utilisation more than on price. An item that's rented often and lasts several seasons pays for itself many times. An item that sits on the shelf most of the year rarely does. Run the numbers per item before you buy a fleet.
How much money do I need to start?
The biggest cost is inventory. Start with a small fleet in two or three categories, and consider financing options: our guide to financing a business for durable products explains the options, including revenue-based financing and sale-leaseback.
Do I need a physical store?
Not necessarily. Online rental with delivery works well for smaller, lighter items like tents and camping gear. For bulky items like kayaks, e-bikes and skis, pickup points or a store make logistics much cheaper.
Should I offer a buyout option?
For try-before-you-buy models, yes: it turns a satisfied renter into a sale without returning the item. For long-term rentals where you plan to reuse the product, maybe not. Decathlon's Belgian e-bike rental, for example, doesn't allow buyouts. Read when to let customers buy their rented products.
Related reading:
%20(13).png)
%20(12).png)
%20(11).png)
.png)
.png)
