You’ve got your bow, arrows and all of the accessories and you’re headed out to go shooting, or maybe to your first archery competition. But there’s just one issue – What should you wear?!
Clothing and equipment for archery will vary due to what type of archery you’re practicing – are you in an Olympic archery tournament or headed out to a casual 3D archery shoot? Are you training to one day become a pro archer, or just trying to improve on your personal skill and accuracy?
We’ll cover what you’ll want to wear and bring with you for any type of shoot you might be planning to attend, and we’ll be throwing in some pro tips along the way. So if you’re ready, let’s get started…
General Clothing for Practice and Backyard Shooting
When you’re just practicing your shot, shooting in your yard or just messing around with a friend, you’ve got a lot more choices and freedom when it comes to what you can wear.
Each of the different types of archery shoots all have their own specific individual rules for what you’re allowed to wear or compete in when it comes to their tournaments and shoots.
For laid back shooting, the most important things to keep in mind are safety, comfort, and clothes that will stand up to a few hours in the elements.
First, take off any rings, long necklaces or other pieces of jewelry that might be dangerous while shooting. If you have long hair, be sure to tie it back or wear a hat that holds it well away from your bowstring. Also, no over sized or baggy clothing that can get in the way of your bowstring.
You’ll almost always want to have a pair of sunglasses, and a hat if you want to prevent the glare in your vision and also to protect your head from excessive sunlight.
Generally speaking, for archery you should wear well fitting clothes, short or long sleeve shirts with no buttons, jeans or short pants and comfortable, stable footwear. Avoid baggy clothing and wearing jewelry.
I like to wear t-shirts in the summer (just remember to use sunscreen), but light long sleeved shirts are great in the Spring and Fall months. Some tournament archers like to wear long sleeved t-shirts year round as well.
For all purpose shooting, jeans, shorts and any type of athletic pants will do just fine.
You’ll want to wear footwear that is comfortable, waterproof (if you’re hiking through the woods stump shooting or shooting 3D targets), and breathable. Boots, sneakers and tennis shoes can all work for backyard shooting.
I normally wear all purpose hiking / outdoors type of boots for all around shooting. Whatever you do choose, just keep in mind that comfort is key, as you’ll be standing up for a prolonged amount of time.
Body Protection While Shooting
No matter what type of shooting you’re practicing, whether it’s casual or competitive – you’ll need to have one of these. Trust me, you can thank me later.
Not only do you need to protect yourself from any injury, you’ll have to use whichever type of string contact accessory feels best for you. If you don’t use a release aid for shooting, you’ll want to have either a shooting glove or tab.
Probably the biggest problem archers seem to have with archery gloves are weak gloves that aren’t durable enough and start to wear out or fall apart too soon.
The trade off is that most durable gloves that will last a long time can cost a fortune. After shooting through a lot of gloves over the years, I finally found this glove that’s both long lasting and durable – yet pretty inexpensive as well!
With archery shooting tabs, the most common problems archers face is that they can be uncomfortable and interfere with your shots. That is actually quite typical with most archery tabs. If you’re interested in shooting with a tab, I would recommend one of these which should cut down on those issues quite a bit.
The choice between the two is really just up to which one feels best to you. After shooting a dozen or so arrows with each, most archers will notice that one of them just feels more right to them than the other. If you can, stop by a local archery shop and try shooting with each one to see which one feels better to you.
Regulated Archery Tournaments and Shoots
When it comes to archery tournaments and organized shoots, each organization has their own rules as to what clothes are allowed in their competitions. You’ll want to double check their rules before heading out to enter one, but here’s an overview of each of their rules in regards to clothing:
Generally speaking there are a few types of clothes that are prohibited by all of the main archery organizations, these are:
Jeans or denim of any kind, tank tops, and shorts that are more than two inches away from the knee. Obviously, you’ll need to wear shoes of some type for any organized shoot, no bare feet and no sandals or open toe footwear.
The primary archery organizations in the US are the National Field Archery Association, the U.S. Archery Association, the Archery Shooter’s Association and USA Archery, respectively. Let’s quickly cover each of their general rules and guidelines for clothing.
National Field Archery Association
One of the most well known archery organizations, the NFAA is the largest field archery association in the US. A non-profit club, the NFAA was first founded back in 1939 with a chapter in all of the states but one.
The organization is part of the larger International Field Archery Association and are a sister organization to USA Archery (covered below). NFAA archery supports bare bow shooting, traditional archery, recurve, several freestyle disciplines and even crossbow.
In NFAA rules as with most other tournaments, there are no t-shirts, jeans, or open toe footwear of any kind. Shorts are allowed, but they must be within two inches of the knee and no shorter – this also applies to skirts as well.
All shirts worn must have some type of collar, and competitors are allowed to wear shirts with sponsor logos and promotional material provided that they meet the other requirements. Generally, most archers will wear khaki style pants in the typical plain flat colors, with no stripes or patterns.
U.S. Archery Association
Again, no t-shirts, tank tops, or sandals. Only collared shirts are allowed, with mock turtleneck shirts being acceptable as well. Shorts are allowed in tournaments, but may be no shorter than two inches to the knee.
Archery Shooter’s Association
The Archery Shooters Association, or ASA, is a professional tournament organization which holds many different archery tournaments every year.
They hold a wide variety of archery tournaments and shoots sponsored by some of the largest archery gear manufacturers like: Hoyt, Elite, Easton, Delta McKenzie, among many others.
In ASA tournaments, surprise, surprise – All competitors have to wear shirts with collars. Don’t ask me, I have no idea why all of these guys are all obsessed with wearing shirts with collars!
Again, no jeans, short shorts or t-shirts and no sandals, or other open toed footwear.
USA Archery
Originally founded way back in 1879 and called the ‘National Archery Association’, the organization is now known as USA Archery.
The club supports target archery, field archery and 3D archery, although they do seem to focus primarily on Olympic style target archery. They do hold over two hundred different types of archery shoots, tournaments and events every year and are one of the largest archery clubs around today.
Unlike the other above mentioned organizations, USA Archery has some different and interesting rules that you’ll definitely want to take note of before heading to one of their events. Some things are allowed during field outings, but not in official tournaments, etc. – so it’s worth double checking their rules if you’re planning to head to an event.
No jeans of any kind at target events, yet their rules for field events vary. Jeans are not allowed to be worn at target events – yet it is okay to wear them for field events – Don’t ask, I have no idea why.
No camouflage can be worn at either type of event. However, camo on your bow or other gear is allowed at either event though, so no need to go get new equipment just because of that rule.
Both short or long sleeves are allowed for Men, while Women’s upper wear must have either sleeves or a strap of at least three inches. Again all footwear is required to have toe covering, and be of the athletic variety.
I hope this has cleared up any questions that you may have had about what you should wear for archery. If you’re new to archery, check out the following guides I wrote about the different types of archery out there. I wrote this guide for people new to 3D archery, and this post all about field archery. You should also check out the recommended gear section before buying your next piece of gear. Now get out there and get shooting!