How Decathlon Took Over the Budget Sports Market

Decathlon sells shirts for €5 and crushes local sports retailers

Has Decathlon destroyed traditional sports shops or filled a void they left open? The French chain sells sports gear, but mostly clothes, which explains almost everything. Three decades ago, a branded tracksuit cost 100 euros at the exchange rate and mountain boots were the cost of a salary. Today, a gym shirt costs 5 euros and gloves 3. The problem isn't that it's cheap: it's what's been left behind.

How Decathlon Changed the Sports Equipment Market

It's not a newcomer. Decathlon operated in the mid-90s in the first major shopping centers in many Spanish cities. What it did next was copy the Ikea or Primark manual: low prices, huge catalog, and a visit that turns into a stroll. Alongside many homes, there is still a Forum Sport, another similar chain, but more expensive and with fewer people inside.

Neighborhood shops survive as best they can or have closed. Many of those surviving are franchises, because without franchises, brands don't sell to them directly. The explanation isn't just price. It's convenience and parking. Going to the city center for a small shop takes more time than entering a large store with free parking and everything under one roof.

How long do Decathlon mountain boots last?

It depends on use. The most repeated experience: Quechua boots for 39 euros peeled from the sole on a alucinación after six months. The mid-range ones, about 125 euros, lasted a couple of years of frequent use before wearing out. In contrast, Lowa boots for 150 euros have lasted six years, with Sierra Nevada, Picos de Europa, Pyrenees, and Alps on their backs, and still look like new.

That's the price trap: cheap becomes expensive if used heavily. Some argue the opposite, that expensive boots should walk by themselves and a 100-euro phone doesn't last three years. Both can be true at once. To start with, and for occasional use, the chain works. For intensive use, the account changes.

Who closes and why: the problem isn't just Decathlon

Neighborhood sports retail hasn't died solely because of the large chain. City councils played against it: paid street parking, spaces removed for bins, pedestrianized streets, and cars outside the center. The result is that going to the usual shop costs more than entering a shopping center with plenty of space. Online commerce has also bitten, including second-hand platforms.

What the large chain did break was the monopoly of kits. Before, you went to the neighborhood shop, paid a fortune for the shirt, another for the number, and the name wasn't even considered. Decathlon put decent shirts, with designs and colors, with number and name almost free. Neighborhood league teams and even clubs stopped visiting the traditional shop. That blow was as hard as the prices.

Does Decathlon sell sports or clothes?

It sells mostly clothes. That's its real gold mine: basic shirts, leggings, flip-flops, beach towels, fine sweaters, winter and transitional weather outerwear at prices only matched by Primark. Few people who practice a sport seriously buy specific gear there. For skiing, fishing, or demanding hiking, people still go to specialized shops or brands that the chain doesn't carry in its catalog.

The other bone is internal competition. With 40 euros, at El Corte Inglés you buy a shirt and pants with leggings; with those same 40 euros at Decathlon, you clear out the shelves. That differential, multiplied by years, is what has turned the store into the daily standard for dressing for many people, not just for going to the gym. Some summarize it by saying it's the Mercadona of sportswear, and the label sticks.

The alternative isn't so much quality as the channel

Those seeking real quality no longer depend on the physical store. Brand outlets like Columbia sell clothes that laugh at the basic range at the same price. Online stores with habitual discounts of 25-30% off the official price allow signing up for two or three brands and not fighting with sizes. And second-hand platforms have put practically new clothes with huge markdowns. The small neighborhood shop doesn't compete against that. Nor does it try.

And the quality of the chain itself? There's better and worse in any store. The one seeking boots that last fifteen years will still pay 150 euros at a specialized brand. The one seeking to start tomorrow for 39 also has where to go. The curious thing is that, with this level of prices, some neighborhood sports shop remains hanging in a corner, and still takes care to serve you. There are businesses that resist out of pure stubbornness.