10 reasons why I love Decathlon

I have to admit that I knew the existence of Decathlon for quite a while. Even when I was living in Amsterdam. I knew there was a store in the city, but I never really bothered visiting it. I thought it was just one of those discount stores. But ever since I am living in Paris and discovering the enterprise better through my work….I just really fell in love with what they do. To explain it I made a list with 10 reasons why I love Decathlon.

10 reasons

Sports Heaven
Next to all the great camping stuff, the store has clothing, kits and gear for almost every sport there is. Tennis, Football, Basketball, Handball, Golf, Swimming, Climbing, Skiing, Surfing…you name it and it is there.
Reasonably priced
The prices at Decathlon are always very reasonable. Just because the prices are often cheaper than other stores/brands, people think the quality must not be that good. But that is not the case at all.
High Quality
Decathlon stands for quality. Every product they make, if it’s clothing, bikes or balls, the high quality is their standard. Their main goal is: making sports more accessible and more fun by making quality products affordable.
Made in France
One of the reasons that Decathlon can keep the price reasonable is that the store exists already for almost 40 years and every city in France has a store. More importantly, Decathlon has it’s own factory where the design, creation and production takes place.
Innovation
This is actually my favorite reason. Since Decathlon creates everything themselves they have a whole team on Innovation and Design. Before the product is there they go through a whole process: what does the customer want and what do they need. The technology they use for their running shoes is for example something so good and innovative that it makes other big sports brands envious. They even come up with gadgets you didn’t even know you wanted/needed. Anecdote: the marketing director told me that for optimizing the step bicycle for toddlers they created a huge bicycle for themselves so they could experience how it feels for a toddler. This way they discovered the handbrake was to big and not on the right spot, so they changed it…
Expertise staff
In the store the staff are mostly sport people themselves, therefore they can give good advise on products and tell their own experience and give you explanations in detail how to use certain gear.
Try-out
The stores are huge with a lot of space, which gives you the chance to try-out certain products before buying them.
Every level present
In sports there are different levels. There are beginners and there are professionals. There are people who just want to do something just for fun and there are people who do their exercises very seriously. For each level Decathlon has their products/brands and their prices.
Technical gear
There is clothing/gear for every weather condition and any body support you need. Waterproof, Breathable, Windstopper etc…
Kids and Color Heaven
As I already mentioned before, Decathlon is heaven for buying sport gear or holiday stuff for kids. Bags, winter jackets, shoes, outdoor toys, ski outfits…you name it, they have it. Often in great design, colors and again…very affordable.

Check out the store yourself and let me know what you think. For know I’ll show you some of my favorite items for this autumn/winter and not to forget great Christmas gifts!