The best things to buy in Zakopane are traditional Góral crafts — items you will not find anywhere else in Poland. Look for: oscypek (the smoked sheep's cheese, often sold vacuum-packed for transport), carved wooden objects in the highland folk style, leather moccasins (kierpce) in the traditional pointed-toe design, embroidered textiles, and amber jewellery brought up from the Baltic coast and sold throughout Poland.
Krupówki Street has the highest concentration of souvenir shops, but quality varies. The stands run by Góral craftspeople themselves — often identifiable by the fact that the seller is in traditional dress or the goods look handmade rather than factory-produced — are worth seeking out over the plastic souvenir stalls. Prices on crafts are negotiable.
For ski equipment rental and purchase, the streets around the cable car station at Kuźnice have the best selection and most competitive prices in the region.