MEC is a Must for a Tiny Tootle!
You and Your Kids will love Canadian-Owned MEC
So suggesting a store like MEC may not be a conventional offering as a day out. Here’s how we got there! Coming up with something to do with kids is EXHAUSTING. Right?! I cannot tell you how often we have sat wondering ‘What should we do today?’ We spend so long trying to think of something that by the time we come up with something, it’s too late to actually do it. Not to mention the fact that everything costs money, and while we want to entertain our kids and have them do incredibly fun things, we can’t break the bank every day by going to zoos, aquariums or theme parks.
The outdoors is always a popular option in our house. It gets the kids into nature, it’s fresh air and it’s fun for all the family. But, not every day has the appropriate weather for forest frolics or beach bashes. Then there is the idea of camping, but with two very young boys we are not quite ready for that excitement yet! That’s when the thought hit us. We don’t need to go on an adventure, we can go to an adventure store. Enter, the Mountain Equipment Company!
(Watch our YouTube video recap at the bottom!)
What is MEC? #AdventureStore!
MEC (Mountain Equipment Company) is a store centred around providing for all of your outdoor adventures. They have camping equipment, biking equipment and water sports equipment. They have hiking gear and high quality outdoor apparel for both adults and for children. Recently, the company announced that they are back in the hands of Canadians. After the majority of shares were bought in 2020 by a non-Canadian entity, the company announced in May 2025 that the majority owners were back in Canada.
Where are MEC stores? MEC stores are nationwide (23 total!), so check their website for your nearest store. As we live in Ontario, our two favourite stores are located in London and in Kitchener. You can find a video of when we visited the Kitchener store on our YouTube Channel!
What Did We LOVE?
1. A huge variety of unique and cool products!
The reason that MEC is a great place to spend a little bit of time with kids is because of all of the different products that they offer. Each store will have different displays, and they will rotate them fairly regularly. But often, you will find things like tents that have been set up on display, and our kids just love the opportunity to get into a tent. Of course, we are respectful to make sure that the children behave while exploring. We do not allow them to come into the store with food, and we don’t let them run riot. But the friendly staff have no issue with adults and kids poking around.
MEC sells very high quality clothing. From Patagonia to Arc’teryx, there are plenty of amazing products in the store. Yes, some of these brands come with very high prices, but there often pretty good deals on some lesser known branding, including MEC’s own personal label.
2. Bicycles and water sports equipment!
MEC also has road bikes and children’s bikes, so the kids love to take a look at them and pick out their favourite ones, and also look at all of the different crash helmets that they have. Our eldest discovered the bicycle bells and learned all about why some bicycles have bells, and what they are used for. Right now (June 2025), the store has a sale on water sports equipment. So there were life jackets at 30% off, there were stand up paddle boards and kayaks on display that our boys loved looking around.
3. The Yard Sale is a great feature
Something that we don’t often see in stores is an area for used items on sale or at discounted prices. MEC has what they call the Yard Sale. Products that have been used and returned, now offered at discount. You can find many weird and wonderful items here. It’s not something that we see very often, and it is something that we like the idea of. So keep an eye out when you go to the store as you may find something great!
Things To Consider
While this is a totally free experience we do encourage you to support the store in some way if you are going to use them for the purpose of enjoyment. They really do have many great items and we have bought hats, shoes, shirts and camping gear at the store.
We also encourage you to ensure that you do monitor your children and make sure that they do not ‘run riot’ in the store. Many of the staff were engaging with our children and had no issue with them enjoying, looking at, or touching the products. So please just ensure that children are behaved and they will have a great experience!
MEC does have a membership program that can provide a 5% discount on your first purchase, as well as other great perks throughout the year. If you will be going to the store regularly then this is definitely worth signing up for. The membership also has more incentives for you with the more you spend, so it’s worth checking out. The link for information on their free membership is here – https://www.mec.ca/en/p/member-reward. We signed up when we were in the store the first time, and when we went to purchase our items, the information had not yet synced up with the store’s systems. We showed them the confirmation email so they did provide us the 5% discount, but we would advise signing up before you go.
MEC has inclusive bathrooms, and they do have change tables in the ones that we visit. This is a big thing for us as we always check for these kind of things. So if you do have a sudden situation, then this is great to be aware of. Although, we have not visited every MEC store (yet!), so we cannot guarantee that every store does.
Overall Experience?
MEC is a great store with awesome products, and your kids will love to tootle!
MEC is a fantastic store, with lots for little ones to look at and engage with, it helps promote the outdoors to them, and it’s a great way to spend an hour or two. Our boys love going to the store just so that they can wheel around the shopping baskets that they have. It’s something different to what they are used to, and we have a lot of fun looking at all of the different products that they offer. And every time we go, we always find a great deal to bring home.
So the next time you’re faced with a rainy day, or needing to just have the kids be entertained for an hour or so, we highly recommend the Canadian owned MEC, and we have no doubt that your kids will enjoy it as much as ours. Happy camping!
Watch Our YouTube Video Recap:
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