Decathlon at 50: evolution of a multi-sport retailer's global footprint

Retail

Decathlon celebrates its fiftieth anniversary Credits: F. Julienne

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The celebration of this anniversary was an opportunity for Decathlon to organise a business-to-business (B2B) event centred on its journey. At 50 years old, Decathlon is formalising a hybrid model at the intersection of retail, industry and services.

A French company founded in 1976 in the Nord region, Decathlon is a group majority-owned by the Mulliez family*, with a portion of its capital open to its employees. The multi-sport store has positioned itself around the practice of sport as “accessible, practical and affordable”.

Fifty years later, the brand covers 70 sporting disciplines; has 101,100 employees, including 53,000 employee shareholders; 1,817 stores worldwide; and a presence in more than 70 markets.

Its value chain is based on mastering several stages: design, manufacturing and distribution of its products.

Regarding innovation and R&D, the brand has filed 743 patent families and 1,700 employees are dedicated to product development. This includes 18 design centres worldwide, 80 sports covered in design and 35 mastered industrial processes.

Production and sourcing are carried out in 27 geographical areas, including China and India. According to the press release, 54 percent of products are eco-designed. The repair service has 3,841 technicians in 1,746 workshops worldwide. A second-life programme has been active since 2018, covering 150 product types.

Finally, more than 300 partnerships have been established with athletes, federations and organisations, including the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with 45,000 equipped volunteers. In 2025, Decathlon became the owner of a professional cycling team.

At 50, the challenge is not the assessment but the model's transformation

Decathlon celebrates its fiftieth anniversary Credits: F. Julienne

The brand is also broadening its positioning beyond sport, integrating uses related to movement and daily life. The B2B event highlighted lesser-known services that contribute to the brand's influence, beyond its retail operations.

Decathlon Travel is a booking platform for sports holidays, offering more than 3,000 trips; forty sports; and 150 destinations. It has served nearly 40,000 travellers, who have completed more than one million hours of sport.

Decathlon Outdoor is a free application for planning and sharing routes. It has more than four million users and over one hundred thousand available routes for activities like walking, cycling and snowshoeing. The app is available in ten countries, including France, Italy, Spain and the UK.

Decathlon Coach is another free sports coaching application. It has approximately 800,000 users and nearly one thousand programmes and sessions, with 21.7 million sessions completed in France in 2025.

Decathlon Activités is a booking platform for supervised sports activities. In 2025, it recorded approximately 200,000 bookings; trained 2,000 children to cycle; and organised 22,000 sports-themed birthday parties.

Activations are planned throughout 2026 to celebrate this anniversary.

*The Mulliez family, via the Association familiale Mulliez (AFM), owns or controls a large number of retail brands. These include fashion retailers Jules, Brice, Pimkie, Auchan, Kiabi and Decathlon.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

Decathlon