School sports kit checklist

Before you buy anything

Two rules save most of the money and most of the frustration.

First: ask the coach. School and club requirements vary considerably — especially in martial arts, where different associations mandate different equipment styles that are not interchangeable in competition. A five-minute conversation prevents buying the wrong thing twice.

Second: buy for now, not for later. The exception is clothing, which shrinks. For protective equipment — helmets, pads, gloves, shin guards — buying oversized so a child grows into it makes the equipment less protective and often teaches poor technique.

Cricket

Essential: bat (sized by height, not age), batting leg guards, helmet (mandatory for junior batters in most SA leagues).

Often supplied by the school: balls, stumps, keeping gear.

Sizing notes: bat size 5 for approx. 144–150cm tall, size 6 for 150–157cm, full size for 168cm+. Helmet by head circumference — and never buy a helmet oversized. Kashmir willow is the right wood for school cricket; English willow is a professional's expense.

See the full cricket bat size guide and ball weight guide.

Soccer

Essential: shin pads (compulsory under the Laws of the Game, and referees will not let a player on without them), boots, socks long enough to cover the pads entirely.

Usually supplied: match kit and balls, though a ball at home is the single best thing for a young player's development.

Sizing notes: ball size 3 for ages 4–8, size 4 for 8–12, size 5 for 13 and up. Shin pads Junior up to roughly 150cm tall, Senior above that. Full detail in the soccer ball size guide.

Karate

Term one: just a gi and a belt. Beginners spend months on basics before any sparring, so there is no need to buy protective gear on day one.

When sparring starts: gum guard, mitts or cotton gloves, shin and instep guards, and groin protection for boys.

Critical: ask the dojo whether they require cotton or foam protective gear. Associations differ and the two are usually not interchangeable in graded competition. Gi sizing is by height — see the karate gi size guide.

Boxing

Essential: hand wraps and gloves. Wraps first — they are R120 and prevent more injuries than anything else in the bag.

Later: shorts, gum guard, and 16oz gloves once sparring starts.

Sizing notes: junior boxers aged 8–12 usually take 6oz or 8oz. Adults buying one pair should buy 14oz or 16oz so they can spar in them. See the boxing glove size guide.

Gym and conditioning

For high school strength and conditioning programmes, the useful items are gym gloves for grip and skin protection and, for anyone lifting seriously, wrist supports for pressing movements.

A lifting belt is worth having only once a student is lifting genuinely heavy loads with good technique — it is not beginner equipment. See gloves, straps or grips for which is which.

Buying for a whole school or club

The pattern we see with schools that manage kit well: they buy a range of sizes rather than the best available product in one size. A correctly sized basic pad protects a child better than a premium pad that does not fit.

For consumables — cricket balls especially — budget for the full season rather than buying reactively. Running out mid-season means either training with dead equipment or paying rush prices.

Everstar supplies schools, clubs, dojos and community sports programmes across South Africa, with bulk pricing on mixed-size orders. WhatsApp 083 563 2999 with your kit list and we will quote it.