More than just a brand, DECATHLON has had strong values from the beginning.
The company is based on simple rules: focus on what you love to do, you have the right to try, to make mistakes and to try again.
Four values flow from these simple rules: VITALITY: being positive and full of energy. RESPONSIBILITY: taking responsibility for yourself and being an active player in your own life.
AUTHENTICITY: being true to yourself and to others.
GENEROSITY: doing things from the heart and looking out for others.
In a 1991 editorial by Michel Leclerc, it was stated that there were 6 values, which has since evolved... However, certain pillars were already present:
"What we seek to live by every day are our 6 values:
Vitality - Pleasure - Fraternity - Nature - Truth - Responsibility.
What we try to do every day are our 6 entrepreneurial values:
1) Satisfied sportsmen and women, that's my job!
2) A true company.
3) Enriching people through responsibility.
4) High-performance, profitable teams.
5) A growing international company.
6) Working with nature.
In an interview in 2022, Michel Leclercq explained how the DECATHLON values came about: "I had read a book, Le prix de l'excellence, which ended with the idea that the great companies that had succeeded had certain characteristics, including having a why, having a meaning that was easily stated and that everyone knew.
Theteam andI went to Mont Saint Aubert, behind Tournai, in Belgium, to think about this, 10 or 15 years after DECATHLON was founded. At the time, there was a meeting room there with a beautiful view. I like to have meetings when you can see far away: it gives you a height of view, a sense of perspective when you're taking a break. At Mont Saint Aubert, you can see the city of Tournai, but at Mont des Cats, at Mont Cassel, you can see the mine slag heaps... it encourages you to look up.
So we worked on the reasons for DECATHLON. Everyone put words on paper. We then grouped these words by affinity and came up with a title. And we came up with a title for them. There was sport, fitness, running... which translated into VITALITY. There was truth, in that order. Brotherhood. And responsibility.
Then we gradually changed them, and at one point we had just two. In between, we also changed 'true' to 'sincere'. Truth is a statement. And a truth is often relative: what is true for one person is not necessarily true for another... So what is sincere, or authentic, says something else.
For me, the two most important values are Generous and Responsible, the most original in the capitalist system. This "and" is important."
