Decathlon had already told us several weeks ago: Artengo will no longer be the benchmark brand in the padel for the French group. Kuikma will be the new brand 100% dedicated to padel for Decathlon. A strategic choice, a risky choice?

A strategic choice linked to the development of padel

Le padel has been living its best hours for some time. The whole world is talking about padel. While the sport has been around since the late 60s, the padel is becoming today an essential sport. In any case, it is the objective for the International Federation to Padel, who obviously wants the padel continues its development.
For many players in the padel, if unfortunately it was a little too early for the padel integrates the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the padel "will be part of the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024". This seems obvious to everyone, even if to this day, we are still far from that.
In view of the strong development of padel all over the world, Decathlon found it wise to offer padel a new brand dedicated to padel. Even more with the Kuikma brand which means “team fun”In Aztec. If we go further, we realize that Kuikma can also mean “team fun”, a term that was used in Aztec team games.

It is a brand whose meaning is clear and which obviously approaches the values ​​of padel. Good pick (and idea) from Decathlon.

A thoughtful strategy

On the other hand, can this change of brand from Artengo to Kuikma affect future sales?

Not easy. In any case, this is a calculated and considered bet on the part of Decathlon. Yes Artengo is a well-known brand at Decathlon, yes Artengo is a leading brand in the padel in Spain, but yes also Artengo is not a 100% brand padel. And compared to its competitors, this can be a drag at some point.

While Artengo is one of the leaders in the padel for beginners and intermediate players, Decathlon thus decides to create this new Kuikma brand. A new brand that will take off on February 6 in Lille after the press conference organized by Decathlon.

Kuikma's reflection does not seem to date from yesterday. Chance or not, we notice that Artengo had already launched a model of padel under the name of Kuikma. Balls that are still sold elsewhere at Decathlon in Spain. Was this done in a thoughtful way? In any case, this also helps prepare consumers. They will indeed be less disoriented. And as luck would have it, the Kuikma model offers balls of padel Intermediate / high-end Artengo at a price of € 7…

Another element, the padel is going international and Decathlon thus wishes to lay down clear and defined foundations as soon as possible before it may be too late. Because yes Artengo, it is certainly a popular brand, but it is also a brand that is linked to low-cost products. Gold in the padel, we see that some models exceed 200 € ... Not easy to offer a racket padel Artengo at € 200…

With Kuikma, it is to offer to Decathlon the possibility to propose in the long term more upmarket models .... But obviously, for now, we do not know more. It will be necessary to wait for 6 next February to know the future strategic line of Decathlon.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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