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DECATHLON works with 1,240 suppliers in 45 countries or regions, where national standards and regulations on health, safety, labor and environmental impacts vary, and where issues identified by intergovernmental organizations (International Labor Organization, OECD...) are taken into account.

In this context, our responsibility is to ensure
- through our locally based teams and regular audits
- that working conditions comply with regulations and the requirements of our Code of Conduct, wherever the product is manufactured, on the following subjects:
- human rights: decent wages, child labor, forced labor, freedom of association, discrimination, etc.
- health and safety: prevention of chemical risks, fire safety, working environment, building safety, safety of workstations, and if provided housing and transportation of people, etc.
- respect for the environment: prevention of direct pollution (water, air, soil) around our production sites - corruption: with regard to corruption and influence peddling, we adopt a zero tolerance approach.

If despite the numerous checks made during the design and manufacturing phases, the quality of a product available in the store is defective or if there are any doubts, several solutions are considered to protect the user and ensure compliant products can be put back on sale as soon as possible: Defective Returns are an indicator.
Our users must bring or send back their defective products to help us improve their quality. Some are directly sent to our design teams for analysis: by being proactive, our teams can then decide with full knowledge of the facts (withdraw from sale, repair, return products back to the supplier, destroy or recall the product if it is unsatisfactory from a quality or safety perspective).
Product returns are a real resource for putting to good use when dealing with the causes of poor quality and constantly improving our products' quality.

With regards to its suppliers' environmental impact, DECATHLON provides them with support by especially asking its suppliers concerned by discharge of industrial waster water to respect particular specifications and ensure compliance with pollution issues. Our suppliers are subsequently evaluated according to an environmental audit checklist (A, B or C according to the pollution risk they represent) and the teammates in the manufacturing offices trained and coordinated to make sure these requirements are complied with every day.

How does DECATHLON combat child labour?
For us, child labour is unacceptable. Our Code of Conduct, signed by our subcontractors, requires that no children be present on the manufacturing site. We are committed to refusing or ceasing to work with subcontractors who do not comply with this principle.

Why does DECATHLON choose to train its teams to audit working conditions on manufacturing sites?
We think it is important to establish demanding criteria for our subcontractors and ensure they comply with these on the ground
That's why, we directly position dedicated in-house teams, trained in audit techniques, in manufacturing areas. These in-house experts are also assigned the responsibility of training our manufacturing teams, who are present on a daily basis at our subcontractors' sites. The in-house training optimises the support we provide our subcontractors in implementing improvement plans.
We want our teams to conduct 85% of the working conditions audits, with the remainder done by external auditors. Meetings are regularly organised between Decathlon teams and those of external auditors to discuss and harmonise practices.

We've been conducting, since 2002, a responsible purchasing policy entitled “Human Responsibility in Production”. It aims to improve working conditions in the supply chain and, reinforce the safety of the men and women that produce the products. These are priorities for Decathlon.
The strength of this policy is down to the training given to our in-house teams for rigorously assessing the subcontractors. The tools associated (guidelines, code of conduct, audit checklist, …) are updated as regularly as necessary to meet new challenges, opportunities and risk in the world.

PFCs (or PFAS) are treatments commonly used on outdoor sports items that require a strong water repellency against rain. These persistent and bioaccumulative substances represent a major environmental and health risk.

DECATHLON began working on this issue in 2014 by studying the different technologies and alternatives on the market.

By 2022, we will have banned PFCs from our textile production.

Currently, in 2024, most of our products requiring water repellency are already using those PFC-free new technologies whenever technically feasible.

At DECATHLON, since 2007, a specific team of seven people has been in charge of chemical risk management and, is responsible for identifying hazardous substances, tolerance thresholds and the frequency of controls. 

This unit is responsible for quickly and accurately answering users' questions relating to the possible risks of chemical irritants linked to the use of DECATHLON sports equipment.

Our goal is based on the following observation: not all users have the same sensitivity to certain components and while the vast majority of our sports users do not trigger any reaction, we work to provide the best possible support for the few people affected by hypersensitivity and allergies. We are aware that there is no such thing as zero risks, which is why we demand the  highest degree of transparency on the composition of our materials, along with effective and personalised support for each allergic feedback.

DECATHLON sports goods comply with the safety conditions of our sports users well beyond European standards. We are striving to protect people's health better and, preserve the environment from the hazards of chemical substances.

In three ways:
· By gradually replacing conventional cotton in Decathlon products with more responsibly sourced cotton: BCI, recycled cotton and organically grown cotton.
· Utilising a code of conduct formalising requirements concerning working conditions, human rights and respect for the environment for its suppliers and by regularly inspecting them. Among other things, it prohibits forced labour and the purchase of cotton from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
· By actively participating in the work of international institutions (OCDE, DAEI… ) aimed at defining good practices for the clothing industry.

Following the revelations of forced labour practices in Uzbekistan during 2005-2006 (among others by NGOs such as IRLF and Environmental Justice Foundation), we asked our suppliers, starting in 2007, to sign a letter of commitment prohibiting the use of cotton sourced from Uzbekistan in our products.
Our code of conduct, issued in 2017, also includes a ban on cotton from Turkmenistan in addition to Uzbekistan.

What makes DECATHLON unique is its ability to control its entire activity chain. We are a sports goods distributor and designer. Our teams, therefore, work on the design, as close as possible to the production sites, in the warehouses, on the logistics flows, right up to the DECATHLON stores.
This specificity allows us to reduce our costs at every stage to make our products accessible to as many people as possible.

We innovated by making it with just one seam, reducing this product's costs. Just one seam is just one manufacturing step, meaning less fabric used, and therefore, a reduction in production and transport costs, which we pass on to our customers in the retail price.

The environmental display corresponds to the environmental performance of a product and is represented by two complementary data on our textile & footwear products: - the carbon footprint, which allows understanding the impact of each product on climate change. It is calculated by measuring all the greenhouse gases (nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, etc.) emitted by the product at all stages of its life cycle. To simplify the reading of this footprint, we convert these gases and also their impact in Kg equivalent - a grade A, B, C, D, E (A being the best grade). It allows to compare products of the same type between them (T-shirt, pants, backpack, etc.). For this, the environmental impacts are calculated on 5 criteria: global warming, resource depletion, marine water pollution, fresh water pollution and air pollution. These impacts are evaluated over the entire life cycle, and each phase has impacts.

At DECATHLON, no product contains animal fur.

We use feathers in some of our products for extreme cold. At the same time, we are testing alternatives to feathers with free fibers and polyester fibers, but the weight/heat/compactness ratio does not yet meet the requirements of the sports use for which these products are designed.


Nevertheless, it is essential for us to know where the feathers come from and how the animals they come from are treated. All the feathers and down used in our products are now labeled with the RDS (Responsible Down Standard). Regular audits are carried out at our suppliers to ensure that the requirements of this label are met. Our suppliers must respect decent breeding conditions (no animal mistreatment or force-feeding) for geese and ducks. They also commit themselves not to practice plucking on live animals. These animals have been raised for their meat and slaughtered before the collection of down and feathers.