By Karin Daly, Co-Founder, Go Green Glen Ellyn

How to Host a SportSwap: A Step-by-Step Guide 

What if you could wave a magic wand to clean out garages and basements in your town, transforming gently used sporting equipment into inexpensive, ‘new to you’ gear for your community – all while reducing what ends up in the landfill?  That magic wand exists, and it’s called a SportSwap!  

SportSwap events are a smart way to reduce waste, support sustainability, support inclusion and build community, all while helping families access affordable sports gear. Over eight successful swaps, Go Green Glen Ellyn and the Glen Ellyn Park District have honed a model that other organizations can adapt to their own communities.  Collectively, our events have seen over 3,000 items swapped and over $5,000 in funds raised for local nonprofits (split between ours and the Glen Ellyn Park District Scholarship Fund).

At a recent Sportwap, families line up like it’s Black Friday and rush in to find a little girl’s first pair of soccer cleats, a growing boy’s baseball bat upgrade and some pickleball equipment for mom. This article details how to create your own SportSwap using our model. 

What Is a SportSwap?

A SportSwap is a community event where people bring gently used sports equipment — from balls and bats to cleats and jerseys — and either swap it for a voucher or purchase new-to-you gear at great prices – usually $1, $5, and $10. This keeps equipment in circulation longer, cuts down on waste in the landfill, and supports equitable access to sports activities.

Sounds great, right? Running a SportSwap takes some work and coordination, but the outcome is well worth it and can help your organization build your reputation in your community. It is an idea that even the biggest sustainability skeptics can get behind! Here are some tips learned over the past four years:

1. Build Partnerships Early

  • Partner with local park districts & recreation departments, community centers, or schools to secure space and operational support. Go Green Glen Ellyn partnered with our local park district to host events at the municipal sports facility. They also served as a repository the week  before to collect the gear swapped and donated. 
  • Identify volunteers — many hands make the event run smoothly. Recruit from your board, local athletes, parent groups, and environmental volunteers.

2  Create a Voucher & Swap System

  • We determined that the best incentive for people to create our ‘inventory’ was to offer a swap value and issue vouchers to those who drop off gear ahead of time — these act as credits toward items at the swap. For example, someone might bring in cleats which are valued at $5 and a ball, $1. The voucher would list both items, which would then translate into a $6 credit to “shop” at the SportSwap event. Prices for our items can be found HERE.
  • We purchased voucher/receipt pads and issued a swap voucher when items were collected. That way we had a record of what came in and from who.  
  • The goal is to keep equipment in use, not fundraising, so we kept item prices low.  Your organization may have different priorities.
  • We also determined that if we did raise money, we would split it with the park district. They used it towards their scholarship system.
  • At the swap, customers can shop using vouchers, cash, or credit.
  • Donations are welcome (if people just wanted to ‘recycle’ their gear, and not get new gear.) In fact, the majority of our gear is donated, which is why we have raised money in each swap. 
  • So that we had time to sort donations and swaps, no vouchers issued on the day of the swap.
  • Make sure to put in place a system to track things. It is great to have data that shows impact. (number of shoppers, number of items swapped, donated, etc)

3. Plan the Logistics

Go Green Glen Ellyn starts planning the event about six months prior by setting the date. It is important to do this early, particularly if you are working with park districts who often set their calendars, catalogs and facility schedules far in advance. We also have a spreadsheet that we use for planning with tabs for timeline, room set up, volunteers, items to bring, notes for next time, resource guide for leftovers, etc. 

  • Set Location & Date

    • Space: Find a large, accessible indoor space (gym, community center, park building).
    • Date: We hold ours on a Sunday as that is more often when families can shop and facilities are open and available. You also need to book time before the swap (can be same day but we usually do it the day before) to organize the equipment in a way that makes it easier to ‘shop.’
    • Time of day:  When we first started, we set the swap for three hours long. This is too long! We found most people come in the first 45 minutes, so we shortened our swaps to 90 minutes. We sometimes reduce prices in the last 15 minutes in an effort to clear out as much stuff as possible!
    • Time of year: We do our swaps in March (before spring sports) and July (before school/fall sports).  

  • Determine accepted items & quality standards

    • Make a list of accepted gear and the swap price. Here is ours.
    • Emphasize “gently used” condition — encourage people not to “wish-cycle” (donate items no one would actually use). We have received some pretty woeful items over the years!
    • Exclude items you cannot legally or safely take (e.g., helmets).
    • We also collect water bottles from the lost and found, sanitize and sell from $1 – $5. (This proved very popular, and yes, some people bought their water bottle back! There are so many water bottles over the year that we even hold pop up sales for that alone at the facility).
    • We take clothing and offer it for free (e.g. spirit wear from local schools, baseball pants, socks, etc.) This is the only thing allowed to be dropped off day-of.

  • Procure the equipment you need

    • Purchase voucher books for the collection staff that create a record of a swap and the value. We use these so one copy is given to the donor and the other is kept for records (or in case someone loses their receipt).
    • Procure large plastic bins to store everything that is collected. This can also allow you to do some pre-organizing by labeling them (cleats, balls, etc).
    • Determine transaction platform. We first used the park district’s, but found it easier to have our own. We use Square through our phones and a reader, and have $100 in small bills for cash sales. 

  • Organize your volunteers. We usually used a Signup Genius or the like with different shifts for the sort, pre event set up, the sale, and post event clean up. 

  • Equipment Drop-Off

    • We found the best way was to work with the park district to take donations and swaps. Open drop-off times the week before the event during regular facility hours.
    • Provide clear dates and times on your promotional materials. 
    • Train the staff on how to use the vouchers, what is allowed to be swapped, and prices offered on swaps. We also created a script to gently tell people their stuff is not ‘gently used.’
    • Make sure the facility has a plan for where they plan to put items that are donated/swapped. We once accidentally sold an employee’s gear due to a mix up in storage!

4. Create a marketing plan

Awareness drives participation and gear! Inventory and customers are needed for this to work.

  • Post on your website & social media at least a month before.
  • Partner with local media, community calendars, and partner organizations.
  • Send out short press releases.
  • Share photos and stories from previous years to show impact and attract new participants.
  • Put flyers/posters in facility, as well as local shops
  • Send eblasts to local sports teams and club sports
  • Underline sustainability of the event – it’s a lesson in circular economy principles.
  • Explain how extended reuse reduces landfill waste and consumption.
  • Tie the event back to your mission.
  • Track and share results: number of items exchanged, estimated waste diverted, fundraising totals, etc.

5. Event day setup & Volunteer roles

Set up your “store”

  • Tables or racks sorted by item type (balls, bats, gloves, shoes, uniforms). We are also considering setting up tables by price ($1 items, etc.).
  • Creating clear signage sets expectations and guides shoppers.
  • Table for checkout – separate lines for credit, voucher only, cash.

Volunteer Roles

  • Presort day (usually day before for 2 hours)
  • Greeting & check-in
  • Voucher redemption and checkout table
  • Clean up areas as people shop
  • Photographer
  • Crowd/line control (can get crazy at the beginning!)
  • Clicker to count number of people (app on phone)

Things to have in your “Sportswap” go box

  • Signs for pricing: $1, $5, $10 and FREE  We had dry erase and laminated signs for flexibility
  • Cash and square reader
  • Tape, scissors, pens, etc.
  • Notepad to tally large purchases
  • Granola bars for volunteers
  • Information about your organization

6. Have a plan for what you do with the leftovers

After our first SportSwap, we all looked around at the remainders and thought, “what now?”  We stored most of what was left over for our next swap. But our goal was to get the gear to be used! So we researched and reached out to different organizations to find homes for some of the gear. The local skating rink took some adult hockey gear for their special needs league, a charity that donates gear to a soccer club in Africa took some of that inventory, and local thrift stores could take some things.  We keep a list, and contact some of them before the event so that they can come to the end of the event to scoop up any leftovers so we don’t have to store or transport!

7. Refine

After the event:

  • Survey volunteers and participants for feedback.
  • Meet with partner organization and review what worked — and what could be streamlined.
  • Use your findings to plan the next swap!
  • Share your results on your website, newsletter, etc.

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SportSwap events helped get Go Green Glen Ellyn’s organization on the map when we were first starting up. We found it to be a  great way to combine community building, sustainability, and helping to define our brand’s mission and ethos. If you have questions, please let us know. You can email us at info@gogreenglenellyn.org. Or better yet, come to our next SportSwap and see how it all comes together. It is March 22nd 2026 at Ackerman Sports and Fitness Center in Glen Ellyn. Let us know you are coming so we can watch for you. Hope to see you there!