Decathlon’s Take-Back Program: Circularity That Pays Off

Why We Need to Talk About Decathlon

Decathlon isn’t a green startup. It’s an international retail giant with over 100,000 employees, its own product brands, and a clear growth strategy. That makes it all the more remarkable that circularity at Decathlon isn’t treated as an add-on — it’s becoming the operating system.

What still sounds like complex change for many companies is already everyday reality at Decathlon. Take-back, repair, resale, and recycling aren’t marketing stunts — they’re measurable business units with their own revenue, KPIs, and teams.

And that’s exactly why we need to talk about Decathlon.

Because they show what circular economy looks like in real life. And because their learnings are incredibly valuable for anyone asking the same questions we often hear from koorvi clients:

• How do I launch a take-back program that delivers real results?
• How do I convince internal stakeholders that reuse is worth the investment?
• How do I build circular processes that don’t collapse under their own complexity?

Michael Kiess, Director of Sustainability Operations at Decathlon Germany, summed it up perfectly during our The Reuse Playbook webinar (the link to the whole Webinar is at the end of this blog post):

“Circularity doesn’t start with a tool — it starts with listening.”

That kind of listening — to customers, teams, and the product — is at the heart of the strategy. And it’s the reason Decathlon isn’t just interested in circularity — they’re making it work.

What Decathlon’s Circular Offering Includes

Over the past few years, Decathlon has systematically expanded its circular services – evolving from isolated take-back initiatives into a modular, scalable circular ecosystem. Today, the offering includes:

🔁 Buyback & Second Use

Customers can return their used products – from bikes to fitness benches. After inspection and refurbishment, these items are resold in the Second Life Section of the stores.

🔧 Repair Services

Across more than 80 workshops and service points in Germany, Decathlon professionally repairs products – from minor fixes to complete restoration.

📦 Refurbishment Partnerships

In collaboration with specialized partners like Rebike, Decathlon offers refurbished e-bikes in its own product range – through a shop-in-shop model within its stores.

🧵 Textile Recycling

Decathlon works with start-ups on new recycling technologies that reintegrate blended textiles into the raw materials cycle.

💡 Eco-Design & Spare Parts

More and more products are designed for repairability – including readily available spare parts and modular construction.

🚴 Rental & Sharing

In pilot markets, Decathlon is also testing rental models, e.g. for e-bikes, skis, or camping gear – aiming to promote usage over ownership.

From Flea Market to Platform Strategy

How do you start a circular transformation? Decathlon’s answer was surprisingly low-tech: with a flea market.

The so-called Trocathlon – a type of second-hand event held in stores – wasn’t a digital launch, but an analog experiment. Customers could sell or trade in their used sports equipment. No app, no complex infrastructure – but with one clear goal: understand what people really want.

That first step was crucial. It revealed two key insights that still form the foundation of Decathlon’s platform strategy today:

1. People don’t want to throw things away – they want to pass them on meaningfully.
2. A good take-back system requires trust and transparency.

Today, that experiment has grown into a Europe-wide buyback program. Customers can check the resale value of items like bikes or scooters online, drop them off in-store, and receive a store credit in return. The items are inspected by experts, repaired, and resold in the “Second Life Section.”

Quote from the webinar with Michael Kiess:

“We’ve seen that customers who return products are more likely to come back. Reuse strengthens loyalty in a whole new way.”

This take-back program isn’t just a sustainability initiative – it’s a carefully calculated customer retention strategy.

With every trade-in, Decathlon strengthens its customer relationship and opens the door to future purchases, upgrades, or new sports categories.

A loyalty loop that drives revenue – and reduces CO₂.

By the Numbers: How Decathlon’s Circular Strategy Performs

2024 wasn’t a pilot year — it was a scale-up milestone.

Decathlon Germany delivered tangible results:

• 🔧 127,000 repairs completed
• ♻️ 88,000 second-hand products resold
• 🔄 10,800 items taken back via the buyback program
• ✅ 53% of the product range now meets Ecodesign criteria

With new urban repair hubs in Munich and Hamburg, Decathlon is rapidly expanding its circular service infrastructure.

“Of course you go for it, but most of the time you get it wrong in the first year. We started by measuring the share of our total volume linked to circular economy—and initially, we were at around 2 to 2.5 percent. We’re already well above that now.”

– Michael Kiess, Decathlon Germany

Long term, Decathlon aims to generate at least 10% of its total revenue from circular services — as a core part of its business strategy. But Kiess sees this only as the beginning:

“If humanity wants to reach net zero by 2050, 10% won’t be enough. In my vision, it’s significantly more than that.”

Repair as the Backbone

Take-back is just the start — true circularity begins when a product is prepared for a second (or third) life. That’s why Decathlon puts special emphasis on repair — not as an add-on, but as a core element of its product and service strategy.

Many of Decathlon’s own-brand products — bikes, scooters, textiles — are designed to be easy to maintain. Spare parts like brakes, grips, or zippers can be replaced by customers or trained staff in-store.

“We invest in repairability because we want to preserve product value — not just ecologically, but economically.

– Michael Kiess, Decathlon Germany

What’s especially interesting: repair isn’t just a backend operation. It’s actively marketed as a customer-facing service that builds trust and attracts new segments. People who repair often choose not to buy new — but stay loyal to the brand that supports them.

It’s a powerful retention strategy — and a clear signal that reuse doesn’t mean compromise. It means building a new kind of product relationship.

Partnerships That Scale Impact

Decathlon understood early on: circularity can’t scale in isolation. Strong partnerships are essential to rethink and rebuild value chains.

One standout example is the collaboration with Rebike, a specialist in refurbished e-bikes. Together, they launched a shop-in-shop concept in select stores: Rebike handles the refurbishment, Decathlon provides floor space and customer access. A clear win-win — for both businesses, the environment, and most importantly: the customer.

“You can’t do refurbishment halfway — it requires expertise, processes, and trust.”

– Michael Kiess, in The Reuse Playbook

In textile recycling, Decathlon is working with the French start-up Recyc’Elit to develop cutting-edge chemical separation technologies for blended fabrics like polyester and elastane. The goal: fully reintegrate product waste into the material cycle — a true system shift.

What all of these partnerships have in common: they are strategic, not symbolic. Decathlon uses them to plug gaps in its own infrastructure — and to make the shift from linear to circular measurable and scalable.

For any company on a similar path, the key takeaway is clear:

You don’t have to do everything yourself — but you do need to know where to reinforce.

Circularity That Scales

Decathlon makes one thing clear: circular economy isn’t a campaign — it’s a business model. From the Trocathlon flea market to refurbishment partnerships, from eco-design to textile recycling, Decathlon has built a system that drives revenue, builds loyalty, and conserves resources.

Key lessons:

• Circularity works — not just on paper, but across the retail network.
• Repair, take-back, and resale are revenue drivers, not side projects.
• Listening, testing, and scaling are what turn intent into impact.

And that’s exactly where koorvi comes in:

We help companies move from concept to circular business — with technology, structure, and operational support.

Talk to us!

And for the ones interested in watching the whole conversation we had with Michael Kiess, here you go.