You might not know it, but we don't just sell sports goods, we also design them. Yes you can! Most of the products sold on our shelves are designed by our teams.
Designing a product is a job. In fact it's a lot of jobs.How about we introduce them to you?
Their role: observe sports users to create and improve products. Based on their observation, they draft specifications that they pass on to design teams. They then accompany the different stages of the product's development. They also analyse customer reviews and feedback!
What I like about my job as a product manager is that I don't feel like I'm working.I have fun every day with my colleagues and my customers..
Their role: explore trends worldwide to offer product concepts guaranteeing function and aesthetics. They imagine a product concept that must be functional and meet the needs of the user and their environment. They co-develop and co-valid product design.
You have to have your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground when you're a designer.
Their role: model the product in 3D using computer-aided design tools. They then coordinate their development with the project's other active players. They guarantee the product's aesthetic appearance. They must ensure that the design team's intentions and expectations are respected.
What I like most about my job as a 3D designer is the "“interface”" work between designers, engineers and suppliers; adapt the style, challenge the technique, integrate the notions of perceived quality at the service of a better product. The best moment being the reaction of the first customers when the product arrives in stores for the first time!
Their role: develop technical specifications based on functional specifications. And select the materials and components to optimize value for money. They also ensure that customer and environmental regulations are complied with. Once the product is in store, their role is not over: they listen to feedback to ensure the best quality.
What I like about being a product engineer is developing new, innovative products from the very idea of the product to the finished article in the store!
Their role: establish the link between the product design and manufacturing teams to optimize quality and costs. They calculate the technical and human resource requirements needed for manufacturing the product. And suggest to manufacturers improvements to adapt their machines to technological developments.
What I like about being a method engineer is establishing the connection between the design and the production teams by training them so that everyone can successfully carry out their projects and optimize the finished article's cost, quality and deadlines.
Their role: design products suitable for the sports needs. And guarantee the industrial feasibility, along with the balance between cost, quality and environmental impact, by using digital modelling.
What I love about my job as a mechanical design engineer is the enjoyment I get from creating high-quality products for our customers, by bringing the ideas of the project group to life, thanks to computer-aided design.
Their role: test the product concepts in the field. And check, via protocols and with a panel of testers, the product meets the specifications. Then they analyse the test results before communicating them to the design team, which takes them into account to readjust the product concept.
What I like about my job is being able to combine my technical skills and my passion for sport by supporting the creation, development and optimization of products.
Their role: evaluate the quality, the safety and the performance of the product by carrying out themselves laboratory tests.They analyse the results and guarantee the reliability of the test results.
What I like about my job as a lab manager is the good atmosphere we have in the team, but also realizing every day that what we do has a real impact on the safety of our users.
Their role: develop and offer exclusive components with the best value for money. They put together the catalogue of components. And controls their origin, their environmental impact, the manufacturing conditions and their durability. Their objective:choose components that respect our human and environmental commitments!
What I like about my job is finding components for the right sports use. And also how versatile you have to be to achieve this: development of technical specifications, analysis, project group work, international communication and organization.
Their role: take part in designing a textile product by transforming the designer's drawings into patterns. They guarantee that clothes adapt to all body shapes.And advises suppliers on instructions so that the textile product is manufactured as imagined in our design centres.
What I like about my job as a garment maker is being in contact with the product, creating, designing and modelling the clothing designer and the product manager's ideas.
Their role: make a functional and aesthetic prototype with industrial sewing machines to offer an initial version of the product concept. The prototype maker works directly with the garment/model maker and the methods engineer, responsible for producing the products in the workshop. Their other role: approve the compliance of prototypes produced in the factory.
My job as a prototype maker is above all a job I'm passionate about, and by the way, and time has just flown by (29 years at DECATHLON)! I love touching the material and bringing it to life, working on everything from a swimsuit to a ski suit, working hand in hand with the garment/model maker.
Their role: analyse the sports users' body and its movements. Using cutting-edge tools, they observe and analyse the product's effect on the sports users' body. And work collaboratively with design teams to improve the product.
What I'm motivated by and proud of is that thanks to my work, young tennis players benefit from optimal cushioning to play longer and with less risk of injury.
Over 300 designers take part in designing our products. Which makes DECATHLON the biggest designer employer in France!
