History
Outdoor 2023

  • 1997

    Birth of the
    mountain brand

    A dozen employees from the Decathlon group leave the headquarters in Lille to set up in the Alps, as close as possible to mountain sports enthusiasts. The adventure starts at the foot of Mont-Blanc, in a 55 m² flat, converted to an office.
    The brand, destined to become legendary in the world of outdoor sports, is born: Quechua.
    This same year saw the first Quechua-signed terrain test: the hiking products are put to the test in real conditions in Morocco.

  • 1998

    Quechua's first products arrive in store!

    Less than a year later, in spring 1998, the group's mountain brand offers its products in all Decathlon stores.
    Quechua's products, which are designed and tested with and by sports men and women, have been subjected to rigorous field testing from the outset.

  • 1999

    A site entirely dedicated
    to mountain sports

    Two years after its creation, the Quechua team set themselves up in a 1000 sqm store, based in Domancy (74). Within these premises 15 employees designed mountain hiking, climbing, mountaineering, ski and snowboard products.

  • 2002

    The start of a beautiful history
    with our sporting ambassadors

    In order to design ever-innovative products, the brand called upon the expertise of famous sportsmen such as Dawa Sherpa. Our most famous ambassador in terms of journey and values.
    A Nepalese ultra-trailer and skier, native to the Everest Valley, and a sportsman and humanist above all! He won the 2003 UTMB® and also took part in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Olympic Games.

  • 2005

    The "2 Seconds" revolution
    is up and running

    "I dream about a tent that you can just throw in the air and that pitches itself:" words uttered by one of our testers in 2003.
    Inspired by this ideal, Quechua's teams accept the challenge. 2 years later, and after nearly 18,730 hours of research and development, they succeed!

  • 2007

    Quechua creates
    the ski brand, Wedze!

    This year marks the start of Wedze, dedicated to ski and snowboard activities. Then in 2009, Decathlon acquires the climbing and mountaineering brand, Simond; Quechua hands over their ski and climbing activities to focus on hiking.

  • 2010

    First eco-friendly fleece

    The Forclaz 50 fleece: a challenge that involves reducing our carbon footprint and protecting the environment while guaranteeing a high-tech product! In 2010, the Forclaz 50 fleece becomes the brand's first eco-friendly fleece, made from recycled polyester created from plastic bottles.

  • 2014

    A new site
    dedicated to design

    In 2014, our teams invest in a new headquarters: the Mountain Store. This shrine to mountain sports, with its environmentally friendly design, is dedicated to product design and features all the necessary facilities to allow our teams of enthusiastic professionals to develop better products every day: prototype workshop, Fablab, customer focus area...

  • 2016

    Forclaz becomes the face of Trekking

    Quechua decides to apply its expertise to hiking and camping equipment. And so the Forclaz brand is born. Its mission? To develop technical, hard-wearing and robust equipment for trekking and bivouacking.

  • 2020

    15 years on,
    the camping revolution continues!

    The new tent 2 Seconds EASY sees the light of day; more compact, easier to unfold and fold away, it promises great camping memories for many years to come!

  • 2022

    Launch of the first
    Minimal-Editions collections

    The Minimal Editions illustrate the best the brand can do in terms of eco-innovation, without compromising on technicality. They allow design teams to test new processes, explore possibilities, and map out a way that can be followed on a larger scale later on.

  • 2026

    Our commitment
    to preserve our playground

    At the end of 2021, 10.4% of DECATHLON's turnover came from Ecodesign products, in 2022 it was 23%.
    Understanding the challenges of climate change and the depletion of resources, Decathlon's teams aim to have 100% of their products designed using an Ecodesign approach by 2026.