Decathlon, a globally-recognized sporting goods retail brand, announced Tuesday that its first U.S.-based major brick and mortar store will hold its Grand Opening at its new Bay Area location on April 12. Located at 3938 Horton Street in the East Bay Bridge shopping center in Emeryville, Calif., the 47,000 square-foot store is scheduled to officially open to the public with a weekend-long Grand Opening.
This new, full-scale and first-of-its-kind store will feature ample parking and provides easy accessibility for Bay Area residents looking for the best all-around sports gear at affordable prices. The Emeryville location is situated at the intersection of three major interstates: I-80, I-880 and I-580, an area shared by other major retailers including Ikea, Target, Best Buy, and Home Depot. With its excellent location, Decathlon looks to make an exciting impact in the thriving Bay Area sports scene, including the introduction of its line of youth products.
“Decathlon has been making sports more accessible to everyone around the world for more than 40 years, and we’re excited to be launching our first full-scale store in the Bay Area,” said Michel d’Humières, Chief Executive Officer of Decathlon USA. “The Bay Area is a place where sports thrive, where we can come together and do just about any activity. Through the affordable, high-quality products at Decathlon, it is our hope that even more people can get out and play– and maybe even discover some new sports along the way.”
The new Emeryville store will be six times the size of Decathlon’s first “lab store,” which officially opened in April 2018 at 735 Market Street in San Francisco. Decathlon chose to open a smaller-scale store in San Francisco before expanding to this larger retail center in order to better understand the needs of local sports enthusiasts and develop interconnected retail and online experience.
“The Bay Area is the home of our first pop-up location, and we have felt a strong sense of community since we first opened our doors,” said Sophie O’Kelly de Gallagh, Chief Operating Officer of Decathlon USA. “With the launch of our new store, we’ll be able to introduce gear for kids for the first time. It is important to us to provide Bay Area kids and residents affordable, high-quality sporting goods so they can live their best active lives.”
The Emeryville store will be an experiential center, with places to test products prior to making purchases. With new technology, including RFID checkout and cashless systems, the Emeryville store will expand on the Lab concept of the San Francisco store to make the shopping experience seamless and fun for the community.
Since being founded in 1976, Decathlon has created over 25 brands and innovative equipment for over 80 different sports. Decathlon designs, tests, manufactures and sells its own products. This vertical integration and company-wide mission to make sports more accessible to everyone mean that Decathlon’s products are affordably priced at a high value.
Using feedback from millions of in-store and online customers around the world, Decathlon designs and creates award-winning products without the high prices Americans have become accustomed to. This allows Decathlon to further reduce the barrier to entry for sports and makes sports more accessible to anyone, anywhere by providing real value at true cost.
