Decathlon in Pfister, Sühr 20th March, 2019

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
If anyone shops in Decathlon, there is one opening up in Pfister, Sühr. Replacing Athleticum. As from 20th March, 2019.

2
Also in Bern Wankdorf Centre, opening early April and Fribourg Sud (opening date unknown). Both replacing Athleticum.

3
Also Winterthur in April

4
Is this a big deal? Is decathlon such a good sports store?

5
Athleticum has been bought-out by Decathlon. They're changing all the stores to Decathlon.

Some stuff is okay at Decathlon. A lot is rubbish. It's great for kids' hiking clothes which they grow out of after one year.

Some of the trail/hill running stuff is pretty good.

6
It's huge in France and more recently the UK. They have a lot of good inexpensive own brand products, e.g. Wed'ze for skiing kit, Quechua for more general outdoors stuff, BTwin cycles etc. It's also very good for not-quite-sports clothing, and my day-to-day apparel includes a lot of their stuff.

Far better than Ochsner and the like, and prices are pretty much on a par with the French shops. We've had one here (Collombey, VS) for over a year and I've been very happy with it.

Oh, and they also have a no-questions-asked returns policy, something of a USP in Switzerland.

7
Do you have it yourself? How does it hold up?

I was thinking hard but opted out for sturdier stuff (Solomon, DC, etc.), we ski fast and tend to have ugly falls.

Wed'ze prices are unbeatable.

8
I've only ever been to the one near Evian. They have a huge range and prices are definitely cheaper than Athleticum. Having said that, the quality is not the same as a specialist bike or ski shop for example, but neither are Athleticum, Ochsner, or MigroSport.

9
You can find Salomon equipment in Decathlon too - sometimes almost half price than in Ochsner...

One should realise that all this equipment is made in the same factories in fact - it's a question of branding and maintaining a price point. What is now labeled Wed'ze is the same as what was your entry level Salomon boot last year...

10
The ability to cope with heavy falls is not part of my criteria for ski kit, but no, I've never tried their own-brand boots or skis, not any skiing outerwear. I'm sure, and I have this on good second-hand experience, that it's perfectly good, but it's all low-mid range stuff, not really suitable for my usage.

Do you have any factual basis for this suggestion? As it happens, I was looking at boots there on Tuesday, and the Wedze brand ones bore no resemblance to Salomon as far as I could tell.

It could happen, of course, and in any event I certainly wouldn't think that quality would be any lower than other entry level stuff from major brands.

11
A few seasons ago I believe they were produced by Salomon, not sure if it's still the case, however the skis are clearly made by a major manufacture, cost of tooling up is way to high to be viable, annual ski sales have been dropping for many years.

They also used to carry a lot of Dynastar stock, so it's possible Rossignol / Dynastar are making them now. I will take a look at country of manufacture, that will be a giveaway.

EDIT just looked at a Photo online & it says made in Austria, so it's not Salmon or Dynastar. Probably made by either Blizzard, Atomic, Kneissl or Fischer,

12
Just been into a Decathlon 'City' shop in Chamonix, they had only 4 models skis in stock however they were made in 3 different countries Spain, France & Czech Republic.

Rossignol / Dynastar make skies in both France & Spain so almost certainly supply those. I suspect they were unsold ranges that had new graphics replacing the original graphics. Historically the Dynastar factory in Sallanches would destroy 20,000 pairs of skis a year as they did not want them sold cheap & devalue the brand. There was an employee who drilled holes in the skies before chopping them in half & then dumped them at the déchetterie.