There’s something about new gym gear that really helps to motivate me to work harder when I’m at the gym. Buying yourself a new outfit for the gym can set you back quite a bit though. A great way to stock up on premium sportswear at a fraction of the high street price is to head to a store’s outlet.
Bicester Village is undoubtedly the best outlet mall in the country and as it’s just under an hour on the train from London Marylebone it’s really easy to get to too. Earlier this month New Balance, Superdry Sport and Lulu Lemon joined the ever-growing list of 130 designer boutiques at Bicester by opening brand new premium outlet stores.
As I’d never actually been to Bicester before I decided to jump on the train last week to head up for a browse around the new and existing shops on offer.
I spotted the Lulu Lemon store right away (it’s right by the entrance) so naturally went in for a look round. Even though Lulu Lemon is slightly more skewed towards womenswear they do have quite a good selection of men’s athleisure clothing in the Bicester store too. I managed to pick up a couple of classic grey vests for the gym at less than half of the original ticket price so I left pretty pleased with myself.
The New Balance store at Bicester was easily my favourite of the new openings. As well as loads of performance wear they also have some of the limited edition ”Made in UK/US’ trainers. This shop needs to be on any sneaker heads list to visit. You are sure to pick up some obscure released from the New Balance’s special collections at a unbeatable price.
My one top tip for outlet shopping is to try and seek out the more ‘classic’ styles that are unlikely to date, that way your bargains will still be very wearable in the seasons ahead. Sometimes it is easy to be blinded by the saving but remember to try and take a step back and ensure that it is something that you want/need, otherwise it isn’t that great a bargain after all.
When the shopping tires you out there are plenty of places to refuel within the village too, I stopped at the Farmshop (a Soho House restaurant) for a bite to eat before jumping on the train back to London laded with shopping bags. The menu is packed with hearty by healthy British classics. It was delicious!
#BicesterVillage
