Abstract
‘But why don’t you make a tent that sets up by itself?’. This request from experienced hikers was the starting point for a radical innovation, in the terminology of economist Joseph Schumpeter, for the world of sporting goods. From 2005 onwards, the 2 Second Tent became successful worldwide. Decathlon, a French sporting goods retailer which initially was among the first to apply the methods of big supermarket chains to sports retailing, is the name behind this success. How did one of the first big box sports channels in France also become a global and original designer of innovative and affordable sporting goods dedicated to non-elite athletes over the course of thirty years? Building on economic archives, press articles and interviews with key players from the firm, this article aims at understanding this path towards innovation and to show how Decathlon’s identity as a retailer has shaped its innovation model.
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