Decathlon has a repute for good worth sporting items throughout its full vary of actions. Head to the game superstore’s web site, and you possibly can package your self out for all the pieces from kayaking to horse driving, to rollerblading, tenting (is {that a} sport?), and biking. The French model just lately upped its recreation within the latter, nonetheless, signing a sponsorship deal to package out the Decathlon-AG2R professional workforce, and concurrently dropping the worth of WorldTour worthy bike possession by round by a number of thousand kilos.
The Van Rysel RCR Professional bike – designed and manufactured by Decathlon – prices £9,000, round £2,000 to £3,000 cheaper than professional degree bikes accessible from different manufacturers. It’s usually stated that it’s the ‘scale’ of Decathlon that makes this attainable. However what precisely does that imply?
Title any main metropolis in Europe, and chances are high, there’s a Decathlon retailer inside a 5 mile radius; the corporate has round 1,800 shops worldwide. While it’s not alone in catering for a number of sports activities – Scott Sports activities, for instance, caters for winter sports activities, operating and moto gear in addition to a variety of bikes – it does stand out in catering for rookies, from the beginning of their journey with an exercise, growing the general gross sales quantity.
This permits it to soak up R&D prices whereas nonetheless conserving its costs low. In finalising the design of the Van Rysel RCR Professional, ten completely different prototypes had been examined, with the ultimate design’s aero credentials examined in three completely different wind tunnels, for instance.
A go to to Decathlon’s R&D laboratories
Decathlon’s helmet drop checks use between 50 and 60 particular person helmets to check the protection of every design
(Picture credit score: Future)
The Decathlon HQ constructing in Lille, a office for 1,600 individuals, is constructed on the positioning of an outdated airport and is over one kilometer from one finish to the opposite, with employees utilizing scooters to get across the buildings. There are over 100 employees working for Van Rysel on highway bikes alone.
Decathlon’s HQ is dwelling to a variety of ‘laboratories’, used for creating and testing gear, with learnings shared throughout its sports activities portfolio.
One such facility is the Tech’Off laboratory, which assesses merchandise’ high quality. There are ISO requirements that each one sports activities items should meet, however Decathlon goes additional, with a number of drop checks for its helmets on completely different elements of the construction.
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Decathlon has drop testing rigs on website to make sure that its helmets meet and exceed security requirements worldwide, with every helmet being marked up with the completely different positions and impacts for which they are going to be examined. European requirements require drop checks on six positions on every helmet design; Decathlon influence checks at sixty completely different positions.
The Tech’Off laboratory doesn’t simply check merchandise on the macroscopic degree both. It has its personal scanning electron microscope on website, a tool used to look at the microscopic construction of supplies utilized in its sporting items, similar to carbon fiber laminates.
There’s but extra prototyping happening within the Booster Innovation lab, the place the workforce develops early prototypes and concepts to assist product groups devise new merchandise by turning out ‘monsters’.
For instance, it has produced a sequence of prototypes for packaging-free sports activities diet. None of them may even see the sunshine of day, however they’re dialogue factors for tactics to ship the mission’s goals. In one other nook of the identical lab, a conveyable assist for a badminton internet was being welded collectively.
Sports activities lab
Decathlon’s sweating model is positioned in a chilly chamber to evaluate the effectiveness of chilly climate gear
(Picture credit score: Future)
Decathlon’s Sports activities lab covers 900 sq. meters and its employees embody PhDs in biomechanics and sports activities physiology. It has its personal sweating model, which it makes use of to check the efficiency of materials in its scorching, chilly and windy environmental chambers.
Once we visited the lab it was testing gloves for Decathlon’s Wedze ski clothes model, utilizing a thermal hand model to see how properly they protected the person’s extremities from chilly. It’s analysis that’s simply as related to winter cycle clothes.
There’s one more a part of the Sports activities lab which focuses on digital human modeling, performing 4D digital scans of person place and clothes throughout a variety of sports activities, together with biking. Its analysis is used to reply questions similar to what number of sizes a motorcycle must be supplied in to accommodate the complete vary of rider heights.
The lab has used stress sensors to establish the optimum steadiness of stiffness and weight for biking sneakers, permitting Decathlon to cut back the load of its sneakers by round 30 p.c whereas conserving them stiff sufficient for optimum effectivity.
In addition to creating Decathlon’s merchandise, the Sports activities lab acts as a middle of excellence in assist of French Olympic athletes. It’s additionally scanned among the Decathlon-AG2R professional biking workforce to assist tailor its merchandise for his or her particular person wants.
Additive manufacturing
The body adapters used within the RCR Professional meeting line had been 3D printed in home
(Picture credit score: Future)
Decathlon has invested closely in additive manufacturing – or 3D printing – in each plastic and metallic. It’s used closely for prototyping new merchandise, with 2,300 3D printed gadgets produced monthly throughout its product improvement portfolio.
It additionally produces round 20,000 elements monthly for manufacturing use and even among the instruments utilized in Decathlon’s factories. The adapters used to mount the RCR Professional bike body on its 5 meeting strains had been 3D printed in-house. It’s 3D printed prototype aluminum bike frames and can 3D print customized merchandise similar to bike saddles.
However Decathlon can also be utilizing 3D printing to cut back stock. Whereas up to now, extra inventory of some elements may be manufactured and saved in case prospects wanted a alternative, 3D printing permits it to provide alternative elements on demand.
It’s nonetheless costlier than producing an element in a typical manufacturing run, however there’s no storage price. Some plastic elements can degrade over time in storage too, which isn’t a problem if a spare half is 3D printed to order. It’s permitting Decathlon to cut back waste and its environmental influence.
Power in scale
The variety of sports activities and quantity of merchandise offered permits Decathlon to keep up world-class R&D services whereas conserving its costs low
(Picture credit score: Future)
It’s been stated earlier than that Decathlon’s capability to hit low costs is enabled by its ‘energy in scale’, however these three easy phrases are exhausting to understand till you’ve seen a ski glove rigorously examined beneath the identical roof as a brand new commonplace in portability for badminton, all whereas carbon seatposts are flexed to their limits. Don’t suppose that Decathlon has lower corners to succeed in its low costs, it’s simply, properly – greater.
