Sports retail in the UK: which brands and retailers ChatGPT recommends

We asked ChatGPT 28 questions that UK shoppers ask before buying trainers, tracksuits, gym wear, football shirts and kids' sportswear, then counted the sportswear brands and the retailers named in its answers. The brands are in almost every answer. Retailers are named in fewer than half, and mostly when the question is about where to shop.

The brands own the answers

Nike comes up in 20 of the 28 answers and Adidas in 16, usually first. Most questions are about products, and ChatGPT answers them with models (Dunk Low, Samba, Gel-Nimbus) rather than with shops. New Balance and ASICS follow on lifestyle and running shoes, Gymshark on gym wear.

1. Nike20 · 71%
2. Adidas16 · 57%
3. New Balance8 · 29%
4. ASICS6 · 21%
5. Gymshark4 · 14%

Retailers: JD Sports and Sports Direct tie at the top

Of the eight retailers we tracked, JD Sports and Sports Direct are named most, in 5 answers each. The sneaker specialists follow: Footpatrol with 4, size? with 3, level with ASOS, ahead of Foot Locker and schuh (1 each). Footasylum is never named.

1. JD Sports5 · 18%
2. Sports Direct5 · 18%
3. Footpatrol4 · 14%
4. size?3 · 11%
5. ASOS3 · 11%
6. Foot Locker1 · 4%
7. schuh1 · 4%
8. Footasylum0 · 0%

ChatGPT, October 12, 2026. One answer can name several retailers.

Each retailer is named for a different reason:

• Sports Direct is the value option: affordable tracksuits for kids, gym clothes for a teenager "without spending a fortune", gym t-shirts.
• Footpatrol and size? are named for launches: exclusive colourways, release-day drops and sneaker raffles.
• JD Sports is the default place to buy: "Shop: Nike UK · JD Sports" under recommended trainers, student discounts on tracksuits, and the comparison of sports megastores.
• schuh wins on returns: its 365-day window is "much more generous than the 28 days offered by ASOS and JD Sports".
• ASOS and Foot Locker come up for retro football shirts to wear with streetwear.

Position and tone

Nike is not only named most, it is named first: its average position is 1.3. Among the retailers named more than once, Sports Direct comes earliest (2.4), JD Sports and ASOS third, size? and Footpatrol later (3.7 and 4.0). The tone is neutral to positive for every name: 62 for JD Sports and 64 for Sports Direct, mostly listed as places to buy, up to 80 for Footpatrol, recommended for launches. schuh scores 95 and Foot Locker 50, on one answer each.

Sportswear brandRetailer

Right is a better position, up a better tone, and a bigger bubble more answers. Not shown, never named: Footasylum. A name found in one answer only has one position and one tone: read it with care.

Retailers are named when the question is about shops

The 28 questions cover six themes. Retailers are named in all 4 questions comparing shops, but in only 7 of the 24 questions about products. On teen fashion they are never named, and on football kits only once, for retro shirts: for official Premier League kits, ChatGPT talks about Nike and Adidas.

The sources behind the answers

ChatGPT cited 84 different websites in its 28 answers. The brands' own sites lead: nike.com is used in 11 answers and adidas.co.uk in 9. Retailers' websites are used in fewer answers: footpatrol.com, jdsports.co.uk and sportsdirect.com in 3 each. Mumsnet is used as often, in the answers about school trainers and coats.

Brand websiteRetailer websiteOther website

1. nike.com11 · 39%
2. adidas.co.uk9 · 32%
3. footpatrol.com3 · 11%
4. jdsports.co.uk3 · 11%
5. mumsnet.com3 · 11%
6. sportsdirect.com3 · 11%
7. asos.com2 · 7%
8. endclothing.com2 · 7%
9. goat.com2 · 7%
10. runrepeat.com2 · 7%

What this means for sports retailers

• Product questions are where shoppers start, and retailers are mostly absent from them. A retailer that wants to be named before the shopper has chosen a product needs pages that answer those questions: how a kit runs in size, which trainers last a school year, what to wear to the gym.
• Each retailer is known for one thing. Value for Sports Direct, launches for the specialists, returns for schuh. A retailer that wants to be named on another subject has to be described on it, on its own site and in the sources AI reads.
• Policies are compared, and the best one wins. On returns, ChatGPT recommends the longest window. The terms a retailer publishes, and how clearly, become arguments in the answer.
• Parents' questions are answered from parents' forums. Mumsnet is cited in 3 answers about school trainers and coats. What parents say there about a shop feeds what ChatGPT tells the next parent.

Method

28 questions in English, written for the UK from the ranges of UK sports fashion retailers and their customers (sneaker fans, teenagers, parents) and grouped in six themes. Each question was asked once to ChatGPT (gpt-6, with web search, from the UK) on October 12, 2026. We counted the answers naming each of 13 tracked sportswear brands and retailers (names and common spellings), their position (order among the tracked names of the answer), the tone of each mention, scored from 0 to 100 by a language model, and the websites cited.

This is a snapshot: one model, one day and 28 questions. AI answers vary from one session to the next, so a difference of one or two answers between two names is not significant. Names we did not track, such as END. or Mainline Menswear, are not counted.