Where to rent winter clothing in Yellowknife

The question where to rent winter clothing in Yellowknife is actually more common than you might think. Sometimes I get emails from tourists looking for answers before they come up. Other times I have friends asking for family members who want to visit. Either way, the options for renting winter clothing in Yellowknife are limited but getting better.

I had a couple leads before I started looking but I did what most people are doing these days and asked my Facebook friends. Yeah, I’m that guy.

From Facebook, I got the names of several tour operators within Yellowknife. According to their websites, these operators claim to offer the service of winter clothing rentals to their guest as an incentive to purchase a tour with them. It is a good idea, but what I was looking for was a company that would rent clothing to anyone. Nonetheless, I sent emails to all the operators hoping that some of them would offer the service to the general public.

While waiting for responses to my requests I tried to Google “winter clothing rentals in Yellowknife.” I was not surprised by the lack of results I found. If there had been a good resource via Google I wouldn’t be writing this today. I found results for a few tour operators saying they offer clothing rentals but it wasn’t clear if they were for anyone or only guests of that tour company. I then saw a link to my own article on how to survive your first winter in Yellowknife. Finally, I found several results of people asking this exact question on Trip Advisor. Admittedly, if you read some of the Trip Advisor posts you will find some answer, but I really don’t want someone spending more time than they need to find a simple answer.

As I heard back from different businesses around town I found out that although they are tour operators three businesses do provide winter clothing rents to anyone. This is what I found out:

1. My Backyard Tours

My Backyard Tours run by longtime resident and tourism operator, Margaret Peterson, offers winter clothing rentals and is who I would recommend the most. You can call her and arrange for the clothing to be dropped off at your accommodation when you arrive and picked up when you are leaving.

My Backyard Tours even has different sizes available. You can find out more and order what you need right on their website at yk.onli.ca/MBT-Clothes.

2. Yellowknife Outdoor Adventures

Another veteran tour operator in Yellowknife, Carlos Gonzalez, offers basic winter clothing rentals through his company Yellowknife Outdoor Adventures.

Carlos doesn’t provide any information about winter clothing rentals on his website but you can find his contact information here: http://yk.onli.ca/yko-clothing

3. North Star Adventures

The only other source that I could find that said they rented out winter clothing was the tour operator North Star Adventures. The small aurora viewing and fishing operator has more information on their website regarding what $39/day gets you: http://yk.onli.ca/2k4HFA6

In the end, there are three options for renting winter clothing in Yellowknife. Never did I think there would be a business for such a service but here we are. If you find yourself in need of some warm winter clothes to help you get out and enjoy a Yellowknife winter you now know who to call.

Happy wandering.