Sports retailer Decathlon will open its first full-scale store in the US in the second quarter of next year, located in a former Toys R Us space.
The 47,000sqft store will be located in Emeryville, in the San Francisco Bay area, California.
In April, Decathlon opened a ‘lab store’ in Market Street, downtown San Francisco as a test platform. That store was just one-sixth the size of the new superstore and features 50 sports.
“We strategically chose to open a smaller-scale store in the city before expanding to this larger retail center in order to better understand the needs of local sports enthusiasts and develop our interconnected retail and online experience,” said Decathlon US CEO Michel d’Humieres.
“Our future store in Emeryville will feature more than 100 different sports and allow our customers to find everything they need to ‘get in the game’ in one stop, with plenty of opportunities to discover and try out new sports,” said d’Humieres. “Through this fun, interactive retail center, we are working to build a community around Decathlon in the Bay Area similar to what we’ve accomplished abroad.
“Since our launch, we’ve had an enthusiastic response to our store and have developed a thriving relationship with the community, and we’ve decided it’s time to introduce the US to our first full-service Decathlon store environment.”
In August, Decathlon launched an e-commerce platform for US customers and reportedly plans to open more full-range stores in other states.
French-headquartered Decathlon operates more than 1400 stores in 42 international markets.