Summary

Decathlon is one of the few major corporations that doesn’t just experiment with circular economy — it scales it systematically. In this post, we explore how Europe’s leading sports retailer has built a profitable take-back and resale model, including buyback programs, repair services, refurbishment partnerships, and textile recycling. From its origins in the Trocathlon flea market to its strategic goal of generating 10% of revenue through circular services, Decathlon shows how sustainability and business success can go hand in hand. This article provides key numbers, insights from the koorvi webinar with Michael Kiess, and concrete takeaways for companies looking to approach reuse strategically.
Top-down view of various sports equipment surrounding a blue Decathlon vest: bicycles, paddles, dumbbells, tennis and golf rackets, water bottles, and a yellow kayak – all neatly arranged on a beige background.

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.

Decathlon storefront at dusk with large window posters promoting sportswear and a buyback campaign for used products

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.

FAQs

What makes Decathlon's circular economy approach different from other retailers?

Decathlon treats circularity not as a sustainability add-on but as a core operating system with dedicated teams, clear KPIs, and measurable revenue streams. The company has built a modular circular ecosystem including buyback programs where customers return used products for store credit, over 80 repair workshops across Germany, refurbishment partnerships like the Rebike shop-in-shop model for e-bikes, textile recycling collaborations with startups, eco-design principles with 53% of products now meeting ecodesign criteria, and rental pilot programs for equipment like e-bikes and camping gear. This integrated approach generated tangible 2024 results: 127,000 repairs, 88,000 second-hand products resold, and 10,800 items taken back through the buyback program.

How did Decathlon start its circular transformation and what lessons does this offer?

Decathlon began with the Trocathlon, an analog flea-market event in stores where customers could sell or trade used sports equipment without apps or complex infrastructure. This grassroots experiment delivered two critical insights: people want to pass products on meaningfully rather than discard them, and successful take-back systems require trust and transparency. From this foundation, Decathlon evolved into a Europe-wide digital buyback program where customers check trade-in values online, drop off products in-store, and receive vouchers while items are refurbished and resold in dedicated Second Life sections. Michael Kiess, Director Sustainability Operations at Decathlon Germany, emphasizes that circularity doesn't start with a tool, but with listening—to customers, teams, and products themselves.

What business results has Decathlon achieved with circular services and what are their revenue targets?

In 2024, Decathlon Germany completed 127,000 repairs, resold 88,000 second-hand products, and took back 10,800 items through the buyback program, demonstrating that circular economy has moved from pilot to scaled business segment. Initially measuring just 2-2.5% of total volume in circular services, the company has already exceeded this baseline and aims to generate at least 10% of total revenue through circular services as a permanent part of their economic strategy. The customer loyalty impact is equally significant: customers who return products for trade-in come back more frequently, creating a loyalty loop that drives revenue while reducing CO₂ emissions. Michael Kiess personally believes the 10% target needs to be significantly higher to reach 2050 net-zero goals, emphasizing that circularity must become a core revenue driver, not just a compliance measure.

Why is repair infrastructure central to Decathlon's circular strategy?

Decathlon positions repair not as an optional service but as the backbone of its entire circular ecosystem, operating over 80 specialized workshops and service points in Germany alone. Many own-brand products like bikes, scooters, and textiles are explicitly designed for easy maintenance with readily available spare parts such as brake pads, grips, and zippers that customers or trained staff can replace. This design-for-repair approach preserves product value economically and ecologically while creating a differentiated service offering that builds customer trust. Repair is actively marketed as a standalone service that attracts new customer segments—customers who repair products often choose the brand over purchasing new, demonstrating that reuse creates new forms of product relationships rather than representing sacrifice.

How can other brands replicate Decathlon's circular success and what strategic partnerships are essential?

Decathlon's journey offers clear insights for brands seeking to operationalize circular economy: start with low-barrier experiments to understand customer behavior before investing in digital infrastructure, build early internal KPIs because circular revenues only gain traction when measurable, and strategically partner with specialists rather than attempting to build all capabilities in-house. Decathlon's collaboration with Rebike demonstrates this approach—a shop-in-shop model where Rebike handles refurbishment while Decathlon provides retail space and customer access, creating mutual value. Similarly, partnerships with startups like Recyc'Elit for chemical textile recycling enable Decathlon to close capability gaps and make the linear-to-circular transformation measurable and scalable. Brands ready to move from circular intent to operational reality can explore how platforms like koorvi provide the systems, software, and operational support that transform buyback, refurbishment, and resale into scalable business models rather than one-off projects.