Sports Connection (Westmall)

Sports Connection is not your typical sports shop such as World of Sports. While it does sell backpack, saddles, track shoes and water bottles, the brands it stocks are not Nike, Reebok, New Balance or the likes. Rather it sells less commercially well-known brands, but brands that are established in the sporting world for durability and quality. Examples include Nalgene, Bodypac, High Sierra and etc.

Its prices are slightly lower than that of other shops that retail these brands. A Nalgene water bottle that I bought only cost $11 after discount. Its pre-sale price was only $16 which is still below that of another shop which was selling it for $19.

Its sale assistants are also fairly knowledgeable of their wares. I wanted a Nalgene bottle that was bpa-free, and they were able to point out all the bpa-free bottles easily. When I finally settled on one with a easy drinking opening, she informed me that the liquid will spill if I inverted the bottle. Well, at least they were frank enough to tell me about the shortcomings of their products.

I finally settled on one that was bpa-free and spill-proof. Here, I must comment on Nalgene bottles. Although it is the only range that sells bpa-free bottles, the designs of its bpa-free bottles could really do with improvement. Unlike Nike or Reebok bottles whereby you can drink by simply sucking or pulling up the top lid, you have to unscrew the top entirely and the opening are often very large making them prone to spillage. The only bottle that allow for sucking was meant for toddlers and the water that flowed out came in small trickle.