DecathlonCopied

Decathlon, founded in France in 1976, had become the world's third-biggest sports company, with more than 1,700 stores in 70 countries and regions. Yet Creative Boom doubted anyone would have guessed it, and Wolff Olins described its cultural impact in sport as faint, with younger audiences slipping away. In 2022 the agency was briefed to help shift Decathlon from a French retailer to a global sports brand.

The strategy started from a question: what role does sport play in our lives? Research found that people's love of sport is rooted not in winning but in enjoyment and wellbeing, and that when people stop enjoying sport they stop playing. That produced a purpose, to move people through the wonders of sport, and a platform, make sport yours, set against the category's focus on greatness and perfection. CEO Barbara Martin-Coppola said the world needs sport more than ever.

Visually, the iconic blue was refreshed and the wordmark refined. The new symbol, L'Orbit, conveys movement, the ambition to reach new heights and circularity, which Decathlon tied to its sustainable business model; Wolff Olins said its strong angle comes from the wordmark and its peak from the outdoors. It now appears on products from play to pro. Around 85 brands were streamlined, with Decathlon announcing nine category specialists such as Quechua and Kipsta and four expert brands. A bespoke grotesque, Decathlon Sans, uses alternate characters for a sense of movement, joined by new voice, art direction, motion and iconography.

The rollout started internally with Decathlon's employees before the public launch in March 2024, alongside a global campaign about play by sister agency AMV BBDO, after a two-year collaboration.

It's Nice That stressed a detail that explains the whole project: Decathlon had never really had a logo. The agency wanted one that worked across products of every size and gave staff something to be proud of, a shorthand people would feel something about. L'Orbit was meant to suggest mountain and wave across many sports, and a bespoke typeface, its O echoing the symbol, aimed to be playful while signalling performance. The stated ambition was that people had grown up with Decathlon without desiring it. Making a value retailer desirable is a tall order for a symbol, but this one at least gives it a face.

The strategy is better than the symbol. Reframing sport around joy rather than glory is a smart way for a value retailer to sidestep Nike. L'Orbit is pleasant and functional on products, but it is another abstract swoosh in a category built on them, and the blue box that made the old logo instantly recognisable on any retail park is gone.