extend the life span: repair & recycling

Worn or broken products:
what if you could change how the story ends?

Forclaz products are ultra-resistant but not eternal.
This is why we think about repair and recycling at the design stage.

Repair & Recycling

Observation

Extending the life of products is one of the key areas for reducing the impact of the global industrial sector. This is particularly true for the textile industry: it is estimated that 40% of the reasons why consumers throw away their clothes are related to functional alterations, such as signs of wear or holes. (source)

There are many solutions to postpone the end of life and the waste of natural resources. A more sustainable design, , regular maintenance, repair or recycling are all ways of approaching this.conception plus durable.

Who hasn't dreamed of having their favourite possessions passed on from generation to generation, as our ancestors did?
The product becomes a heritage, the traces of wear and tear and the repairs tell of past adventures.

Our objectives for 2026

  • Extending the life span

    Our products are repairable

    Done in 2022: 14%

  • Extending the life span

    Repairable products are repairs

    Done in 2022: we have not yet found a reliable enough measurement tool but we are working on it!

Action no.1: design as "repairable"

We believe that the repair of a product should be integrated from the very beginning of the design process, just as much as its technical properties.
For example, at the start of a product project, our engineers analyse similar old, worn and defective models to determine the main areas of failure that cannot be improved in strength.

Based on these findings, the design teams create this product by already integrating accessible and easy-to-implement repair solutions. This sometimes involves developing ranges of spare parts in parallel with product development.
Our performance indicator: the rate of repairable products, which corresponds to the share of repairable products in our total active range.

More specifically, here are a few examples of repair solutions that were conceived at the design stage:

  • Tent poles as spare part

    Standardised poles

    We have reworked all our tents to have the same type of pole. By standardising their length and limiting the choice to 4 diameters, repair becomes accessible to all.

  • backpack buckle spare parts

    Replaceable backpack buckles

    By modifying the stitching of our bags' straps and developing a complete range of spare parts, changing the buckles on your backpack is now within everyone's reach!

  • repair patch

    Repair patches

    For a quick and durable repair of a snag, we have developed a multi-purpose patch for your down jackets, tents, backpacks, etc.
    An essential to add to your first aid kit!

Action no. 2: make repairing commonplace

Optimising the life of products is a collective responsibility where designers and trekkers have a role to play. This requires you to change your habits and adopt good reflexes to avoid wasting the raw materials that make up your equipment. But it is not always easy to know how to do this.

The mission of our communication teams is to help trekkers around the world to maintain, repair and recycle their equipment.
Our performance indicator: the repair rate, which corresponds to the share of repaired products in the total number of repairable products returned under warranty.

  • how to maintain hiking equipment

    Good maintenance to avoid the need for repairs

    Find out how to wash, dry, re-waterproof and store your equipment properly.

  • Tent repair tutorials

    Learn to repair by yourself

    Our video tutorials are there to show you how to properly use, maintain and repair your products yourself.

  • Having a tent repaired

    Having it repaired by a professional

    The technicians in our workshops offer quality repairs that will allow you to keep your product's warranty.

Action no. 3: exploring the ways of recycled and recyclable materials

When it comes to the circular economy, the question of the end of life of products is inevitable.
We are aware that the recyclability of products is an important issue and we take this into account in the development of our products, in which we use materials from recycling sectors.

That said, we want to focus our efforts where we believe the impact reduction is most significant,  based on the results of the product life cycle analysis.
This is why we have chosen to focus on the sustainability of our products before their recyclability. After all, we don't produce to throw away and it is by working again and again on sustainability that our products will have many lives before they are thrown away. To arrive at recycling would be a failure in itself: this would mean that our product would not be strong enough or repairable.

The recycling of our products is one of the most difficult steps for us: it is a question of knowing how to collect products at the end of their life, but also of finding the recycling sectors available for the treatment of sometimes complex and often multi-material technical products.
However, we are not putting this issue to one side and recycling initiatives continue to be developed within the Decathlon Group. For example, where possible, we try to design textiles using only one material, as this makes them more easily recyclable.

What’s next?

We are currently working on developing new indicators around repair so that we can more accurately assess our carbon footprint reduction and move forward with our eyes wide open.

Today we repair tents, mattresses, backpacks, poles, down jackets, sleeping bags, etc. Tomorrow we aim to make our most complex products repairable, including our clothing and footwear.

We have identified two major areas of work:
- design new solutions for easy self-repair at home and in the field
- train more professional repairers and equip our workshops with machines to offer new repair services

Juliette, Repair Leader

A word from the team

By juliette, leader of the repair project

At Decathlon, for a while, we were in the habit of (too) easily offering to exchange a damaged product for a new one. At the expense of respect for our values. Throw away, waste, pollute. All for nothing!
Today, we are changing the way we look at things. Why replace when you can repair? It was while working in the quality department of Decathlon that I realised how much product we could save.
This is why, since 2021, I have proposed to accompany mountain sports, including Forclaz, on this issue, in order to propose an offer of repairable products and repair services. Indeed, this is a key issue for extending the useful life of a product and thus creating a "short" loop in the circular economy.

Our customers are increasingly demanding repair solutions, so that they can enjoy their cherished equipment for longer.
We have a long way to go, as we need to review the way we design to make repairs easier and support repairers (technicians, partners, customers) on how to do it. We are clear that this is only the beginning of a major project. We would like it to go faster, further. The enthusiasm of our teams on this subject is already a great victory. But we will be really proud when we can offer repair solutions for all our products and no longer throw them away.

Find out about our other actions to limit our environmental impact