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Inside Outdoor | FALL 2020 35 Buyer’s Side As such, many companies are now examining their supply chains and looking for ways to be more agile and responsive when facing fast- moving market trends and disrup- tions. We’re also seeing greater de- mand for sustainable, cost-effective and local production. One high-profile example of a company that changed its approach to streamline operations is French retailer Decathlon, which is now using additive manufacturing (3D printing) to enable high-quality and sustainable product design and development. Decathlon is a leading global sporting goods retailer with a footprint that spans 57 countries. The company features roughly 100 brands and has a major focus on research and devel- opment and patent production. Decathlon’s R&D engine is now being powered by the Figure 4 Modu- lar by 3D Systems, which is a scal- able, semi-automated 3D production solution. Decathlon is also leveraging 3D’s diverse portfolio of functional materials including Figure 4 PRO-BLK 10, FLEX-BLK 20, RUBBER-BLK 10 and HI TEMP 300-AMB. We caught up with Decathlon ma- terials engineer Gregoire Mercusot to learn more about the company’s 3D printing journey and how the company is leveraging 3D Systems today. Inside Outdoor: Tell us about Decathlon’s decision to move for- ward with 3D printing. When did this journey begin? GM: ADDLAB is an internal De- cathlon service dedicated entirely to additive manufacturing. Born in May 2016, initially the idea was to bring in new solutions to change the way we prototype and design our sports prod- ucts at Decathlon. It started with a single 3D printer on the corner of a desk. Before the arrival of 3D printing at Decath- lon, prototyping requests were all outsourced. It could take weeks, require a minimum quantity or re- quire the expensive opening of an industrial mold. In addition, the intel- lectual property of our ideas could be greatly exposed. Now in 2020, we have more than six labs (in France and Taiwan) and many technologies (more than 35 ma- chines) to answer as many needs as possible for prototyping, after-sales spare parts, design validation, tooling, layout or small series production. The most used technologies are fused fila- ment fabrication (FDM), stereolithog- raphy (SLA), multi jet fusion (MJF), and multi-jet printing (MJP). Since the creation of ADDLAB, more than 200,000 prints have been produced. This service is open to