The UK Hiking Gear Price Index
How much does it really cost to get into hiking in the UK?
We price the same fixed kit of essentials every month, at three tiers, from the cheapest thing that works up to the full premium set. Original research into the cost of the British outdoors: what it takes to get started, where prices are moving, and how much of the top-tier bill is just the badge.
How much does the gear cost to get into hiking?
You can get on the trail for £241. The same kit in premium brands costs £1,985, 8.3× as much.
Live prices, 27 August 2026. The full itemised kit behind each figure is published lower down this page.
The index over time
Every tier starts at 100 in September 2025, so you are watching how fast each one moves, not the very different price tags sitting behind them. Watch the gap between the lines. That is where the story is.
Each tier indexed to 100 in September 2025, so these are rates of change, not absolute cost. Over the year premium rose 2.6% and budget fell 7.3%, while the mid-range barely shifted at 1.1% down. The tiers are pulling apart, and that is the finding.
What we found
Every product, every price
This is the full list. Every product we price, named, at all three levels. Each one links to our review or the retailer, so you can check any number yourself, and yes, the links earn us a little.
Every product is named, priced from live Amazon data and linked to our review or the retailer. Two of the newest, the premium jacket and premium gloves, are too new to have a full year of prices, so they show in this table but sit out of the historical chart above.
The gap is widening, and winter still taxes you
I have watched these baskets for a year now, and the pattern is not the one I expected. I assumed everything would drift up together. It hasn’t. Budget kit fell about 7.3% over the year, mostly on the back of constant discounting, while the mid-range barely moved at 1.1% down. Premium was the odd one out: up 2.6%, and the only tier heading in one clear direction. So the tiers are pulling apart. The cheap end gets cheaper and noisier, the top end quietly climbs, and the distance between them grows.
The other pattern is seasonal, and it costs you if you shop at the wrong time. Warm kit gets dearer exactly when you need it. The Icebreaker 200 Oasis base layer nearly doubled, from around £57 in September to £104 in January, before easing back by spring. Insulation does the same thing. If you can, buy your winter layers in the summer sales. Buy them in December and you are paying the peak.
What a complete kit costs in 2026
All three kits hold the same things: boots, waterproofs, insulation, a pack, layers, poles, a head torch and the safety essentials. The only difference is which product you buy at each line, budget, mid-range or premium. Same job, very different money.
Is premium gear actually worth it?
Sometimes, yes. You get what you pay for in most walks of life, and hiking is no different. Better gear can mean you are warmer, drier and more comfortable, and a day on the hill is simply more enjoyable when you are properly equipped. But that is not the same as saying you need to spend £600 on a coat. The premium basket costs 8.7 times the budget basket. It does not make you 8.7 times better equipped. Somewhere between those two facts is the right answer for you, and the specs, not the marketing, are how you find it.
Waterproof jackets: the biggest jump is the first one
The Regatta Stormbreak costs around £11. Regatta’s product page tells you it is Hydrafort 5000 polyester with taped seams and a two-year waterproof guarantee, and publishes no breathability figure at all. The Rab Downpour, at around £112, publishes both: a 20,000mm hydrostatic head and 20,000g/m²/24hr breathability from its 50D Pertex Shield 2.5-layer fabric, at 377g. The Rab Latok, around £432, is 80D 3-layer Gore-Tex Pro rated to 28,000mm, with pit zips, a helmet-compatible hood and a RECCO reflector built in. So the £100 step buys you a fully rated technical shell. The £320 step after that buys a tougher fabric, 8,000mm more headroom and mountaineering features most UK walkers will never use.
Insulated jackets: pay for what’s inside, or don’t know what’s inside
The Amazon Essentials packable puffer, around £40, lists its fill as 100% polyester and stops there. No fill weight, no fill power, no warmth rating. You are buying blind. The Rab Microlight Alpine, around £140, tells you precisely what you get: 152g of 700 fill power recycled down with a hydrophobic finish, inside 30D Pertex Quantum, 428g all in. That is roughly the same total weight as the Amazon jacket (OutdoorGearLab weighed theirs at 421g) with a known, rated fill doing far more work per gram. The Rab Mythic Ultra, around £420, carries 240g of 900 fill power European goose down and a heat-reflective lining. That is expedition warmth, and three times the Microlight’s price for it.
Boots: the category where mid money buys nearly everything
The gap here is the smallest in the basket, roughly 3× from bottom to top. The Karrimor Bodmin, around £43, has a suede and mesh upper, Karrimor’s own Weathertite membrane with no published performance figures, a Phylon midsole and a DynaGrip outsole. The Merrell Moab 3 GTX, around £100, swaps in the two names that matter: a Gore-Tex membrane and a Vibram TC5+ outsole with 5mm lugs. The Mammut Mercury IV Mid GTX, around £126, has the same headline pairing, Gore-Tex plus Vibram, and spends its extra money on terracare nubuck leather and memory foam around the ankle. Nicer materials, better fit. Not a different class of boot.
The pattern across the basket is consistent: the jump from budget to mid buys published, rated performance where the budget kit offers a brand name and hope. The jump from mid to premium buys durability, refinement and capability at the margins. Whether those margins matter depends entirely on you. Ten wet Saturdays a year on the South West Coast Path is a different requirement from winter camps in the Cairngorms. Do the research, read the actual specs, and buy the best kit for your walking, your budget and your requirements. That is the whole point of this site.
How the index is built
Quote the numbers
“You can kit yourself out for UK day hiking from £241. The same kit in premium brands costs £1,985, 8.3× as much, according to the Coast & Fell Hiking Gear Price Index.”
Where the money is worth spending
The index tells you what things cost. These tell you what to do about it: where mid-range quietly beats premium, where the badge earns its money, and when to buy the warm stuff before winter marks it up.