Sports Locker Buying Guide: How to Buy Steel Sports Lockers for Your Facility

Sports Lockers Buying Guide

Steel sports lockers are used by student athletes, and also at sporting facilities such as soccer clubs, cricket clubs and football clubs. Other facilities such as Golf Clubs and RSLs throughout Australia also use sports lockers. When purchasing sports lockers, here are some important considerations:

• Construction
• Assembly
• Configuration
• Number of Openings
• Door Features
• Interior Features
• Stands and Locker Room Seating
• Locks and Accessories

Construction

Sports lockers are ideally constructed from steel. Steel sports lockers, especially Australian Made steel sports lockers, are either going to be welded or riveted frames and have the flexibility to include door and/or frame ventilation. This is a necessity for allowing sweaty sports clothing to air. in the US, the gauge of the steel is indicative of the strength of the steel, however in Australia manufacturers simply refer to the “thickness” in millimetres. 0.55mm to 0.7mm is strong enough, however thicker doors are better since they are they take more abuse. Some Australian manufacturers we deal with can work with steels up to 1mm but it’s seldom used as it’s not usually needed. Other techniques are used to reinforce lockers, which will be discussed soon.

Assembly

When a steel sports locker is made in Australia, it almost certainly will arrive to you assembled. The pros outweigh the cons. Imported lockers have to take into account overseas shipping and usually come into the country flat packed, then are assembled once they arrive. This is a cost savings exercise. Australian made lockers tend to be assembled prior to painting. This means they can be welded where they need to be, allowing for a stronger, more durable and more rigid locker. Despite costing more in freight, once the lockers arrive they will be ready to use and will not easily fail.

Configuration

Locker units can be supplied in banks (a.k.a. ganged) from one unit to three. This refers to the way the lockers are physically and irreversibly joined when delivered. They can often be joined into larger runs with rivets. Banking has several benefits, those being; often cheaper freight costs since it’s less trips by a delivery driver; safer use on site as each unit is more difficult to accidentally pull over, and; more aesthetically pleasing, as lockers are unable to separate leaving unsightly gaps.

Number of Openings

How many openings, or tiers, you need for your steel sports lockers will depend on what’s going in them. Sports lockers generally need storage for sporting equipment and sports attire. This generally limits the number of tiers to 2 or 3 max, as hanging space is required. A four tier (or door) sports locker may be suitable if patrons and athletes are only bringing bags. Having said that, then the depth would be of concern as sports bags tend to be quite big.

Door Features

Not all sports lockers have doors, but the ones that do have a few considerations:

• Ventilation: As previously mentioned, steel sports lockers area fantastic at creating a ventilated space for sweaty clothing. This is traditionally in the form of door mounted louvres, however more modern lockers opt for the clean look from perforated ventilation.

• Locking Method: What kind of locking method does it have? Single-point locking is a method in which locking takes place only where the door latches. Multi-point locking, or three-point locking, typically uses movable rods to secure the top and bottom of the door as well.

• The above picture also highlights a door reinforcement method we mentioned earlier; the door stiffener. While stiffeners are usually just there to prevent excess door flexing, this doubles as a strengthening technique that reduces the risk of a door being forced open.
• Lock System: You’ll want to consider the locks on the sports lockers. Locks range from traditional key, to padlock facility, to digital pincode or built in combination locking.

Interior Features

Many sports lockers include hanging rails for clothing, coat hooks and personal shelves. This is more often than not only available in single or two tier lockers. Sports lockers with smaller compartments wouldn’t have room to use these kinds of features and thus won’t have them.

In sports lockers that are open faced, you may want to opt for lockable foot lockers at the base, or lockable personal compartments for phones, wallets and other personal items while the user is wearing their sports attire.

Stands and Locker Room Seating

Sports locker rooms are often specified by architects and designers as requiring stands to elevate the lockers off the floor. This makes it easier to clean under, less likely to rust and also provides a bit of extra space for the odd item that patrons or athletes don’t want to put into their lockers, like shoes. To increase the overall functionality of the locker room, bench seating built onto the stand is recommended. Just be advised to measure the overall height. Stands without seating can be as low as 100mm, making your average locker and stand less than 2m in height. Stands with seating are on average 450mmH, which takes a standard locker up to 2.25m high. You can check out our buying guide on standard Australian locker sizes here.

Locking and Accessories

While locker lock systems is a topic that can take up an entire article by itself (you can read about our Keyless Locking Systems recommendations here and see our lock range here) let’s just say that keys or padlocks aren’t the only locking solution available, if you have the budget.

In regards to sports locker accessories, some handy ones include number or name plates, or even internal mirrors.

Hi Tech Lockers features a wide range of sport-specific steel sports lockers as well as standard or traditional lockers that cater to any locker room requirement. You can check out our sports lockers here. If you still have questions, you can send our knowledgeable sales team an email at sales@hitechlockers.com