Baptist Savary, Kuikma France Sales Director, talks about the partnership between Decathlon and the Human Padel Open, the only tournament of the World Padel Tour in France.

A strategic partnership

Decathlon is really delighted to take part in this great celebration of padel, which is also at the heart of a pioneering region for this sport in France.

I'm not going to give you an introduction to Decathlon, I believe that we are already quite well known in France... on the other hand, what we know perhaps a little less is to what extent the padel becomes important for us, why we choose to associate ourselves with a major event like the Human Padel Open and what are our ambitions for this sport.

Decathlon will be a partner of the event, which represents great visibility for us, in particular everything related to the branding around the track with the scoreboard, the backdrop during the interviews, the posters, the referee's chair, video screens during breaks… Upstream, we also communicated a lot about the partnership with our customers to participate in the promotion of the event and the sport, in particular by offering a promo code on the ticket office.

The main thing to remember is that this is indeed a partnership between the HPO and Decathlon, not with Kuikma directly. We go there mainly with our hat as distributors of padel and with the ambition to become a major player and specialist in France.

A desire to communicate more

We had started this strategy of communicating more about Decathlon than Kuikma at Milan for the Premier Padel last year and we are duplicating that this year by scaling up with more brands and strengthening the partnership with Bullpadel, in particular through the exclusive distribution of official tournament rackets and textiles. 

The idea for us is to position Decathlon as a player specializing in padel but not only with our own brand, on which we will continue to communicate strongly but more via digital and a little less via “events” (there will still be a major event in the season for which we will communicate with Kuikma) .

A stand of 100 m²

In Toulouse, we will have a large trade stand of 100 m² to present the best Kuikma models (obviously our LS and MS Pro will be for sale) but also our main partner brands: Wilson, Nox, Head and especially Bullpadel who, for the occasion, entrusted us with the management and distribution of textiles and official tournament racquets. Will be present teams from our stores in the Toulouse area but also enthusiasts of padel other stores, or people who will come to give us a hand and take part in this great celebration.

Lucia Sainz and her Kuikma LS Pro

We will also have a 16 m² test tent where we will have the two official rackets tested. Bullpadel using two Artengo Wall, to test the maneuverability of the racquets and the touch of the balls, especially in low strikes.

Le padel, a sport that fits very well with Decathlon's DNA

Le padel at Decathlon follows the European trend in sport, namely that it is a promising sport with very rapid growth, whether in terms of sales, the number of employees who practice it, and the number of stores that choose to present it in their shelves.

Today, almost half of French stores offer padel – it was more like a third last year – and overall we have about forty stores that have really nice shops padel, rather in the regions where people play the most padel, including of course Occitania. In the area, it is the Decahtlon of Colomiers and Esqualcens which are the most extensive in terms of padel.

Le padel is really a sport that corresponds very well to Decathlon's DNA with great accessibility, a very pronounced social and playful aspect. This is also why we want to participate in its development, in particular by offering good equipment at affordable prices.

Conquer the expert player

Decathlon aims to position itself as a specialist in padel In France. This is already the case on the internet where our site decathlon.fr is one of the largest French e-commerce sites on the padel.

To associate ourselves with the unique stage of the World Padel Tour in France is one more step that brings us closer to this objective. Being the official store of such an event is part of a strategy for us to conquer expert players by giving us the opportunity to present the most beautiful products of our own Kuikma brand, but also those of the brands mentioned above.

Maxi Sanchez kuikma forehand volley
Maxi Sanchez and his Kuikma MS Pro

Locally, it is also an opportunity to set up in-store activations around the padel, we are notably launching contests in our stores in the urban area to win a lot of “starter packs”.

The program of the week in Toulouse

We will be holding the official racquet test stand and the official tournament shop all week long, where there will be the best in the padel.

During the week, players from Kuikma, but also from Bullpadel, Nox and Wilson will visit our stand with potential signing sessions.

We will set up on Saturday a test session of the official palas with players from the Team Bullpadel. We will choose the lucky ones selected via a little game on our stand. We will also animate the village by providing the public with ping-pong tables, table football, Mölkky, and Corn Holes...

And this Thursday, May 25, we will post a contest from the Instagram page of Decathlon France, to win two places for the semi-finals and finals, so get ready!

Xan is a fan of padel. But also rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel, he unearths atypical posts or deals with topical subjects. It also gives you some tips to develop your physique for the padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the field of padel !

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