Decathlon lines up 175 events across 61 stores to support its new initiative ‘Play’

With an aim to encourage sports and make them more accessible to everyone, Decathlon has announced a fresh application and website, ‘Decathlon Play’, a promise to facilitate interaction, offer advice, and support for those participating in sports with a community of like-minded enthusiasts. The initiative, which was formerly known as ‘AllForSport,’ now assists pan-India sports enthusiasts by connecting them with local communities, helping them to locate events for their individual discovery and challenges for excellence, providing access to coaching sessions for them to receive guidance, and finding playgrounds based on their location and preferred sports, including cricket, football, basketball, yoga, running, badminton, and cycling, among others. 

To support the initiative, more than 175 events will take place across 61 Decathlon stores bringing together localities in the cities including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Noida, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata, among others, says the company statement. The in-store sports challenges will feature a variety of exercises such as running, cycling, Zumba, fitness cardio, and others. 

The company statement cites a 2021 National Noncommunicable Disease Monitoring Survey (NNMS), which shows that four out of ten Indian adults (aged 18-69 years) are physically inactive. It adds that with such initiatives, the brand intends to make sports accessible to all people, whether they are beginners, intermediates, or professionals. 

Dheeraj Somani, Decathlon Play Leader - Decathlon Sports India, said, “We are thrilled to present 'Decathlon Play' which aims to move people through the wonders of sports. It will enable us to reach out to more people, inspire them to become even more active by giving them a space to practise and organise sessions/events to give them appropriate assistance. We believe that such initiatives will help Decathlon in achieving its goal of creating an ecosystem that fosters a sports culture in the local community. Through this initiative, we intend to use a variety of methods to inspire more than 1 million Indians to play sports in 2023.” 

The company informs that the app focuses on five elements: 

Playgrounds: With this feature, users will have access to all Decathlon Playgrounds across the nation so they can play their favourite sports such as Football Turfs, Cricket Nets etc. The brand’s stores also offer a wide range of facilities such as table tennis, volleyball, skating rink, carom, a fitness section and more. 

Events: This feature will give its users information on regular sports events hosted by Decathlon and its partners. This list can be used by sports fans who desire to learn a new sport, improve at their current one, or compete against others. 

Coaching Classes:  For children and other age groups, Decathlon and its partners host coaching classes all year long. The coaching classes are accelerated courses that teach their users the proper fundamentals of the chosen sport and its techniques in simple steps. It’s the fastest way for beginners to learn how to play

Community: This will help its users in connecting and interact with fellow athletes in sports. All questions will be answered by experts, teammates, and other enthusiasts. 

Decathlon currently has 104 retail stores across India supporting over 70 sports and over 5,000 products.