What Happens at a Product Innovation Contest That Skips the Pomp?

On October 9, Decathlon handed out its innovation awards, with a focus on children, safety, adjustability and clever design. These are not revolutionary inventions in the usual sense, but small changes to familiar products can be compelling too.

Pitching a tent is a chore. Unless you know what you’re doing, it takes at least 20 minutes. Quechua, a house brand of the French sporting goods company Decathlon, cut that time to two seconds: take the folded tent out of its bag, fling it away from you, and it pitches itself. The idea won Decathlon’s innovation award in 2005. The group has held the awards every year since. As one Chinese employee who works in product development put it, the ceremony is “as grand as the Oscars.”

This October 9 marked the awards’ tenth year. The occasion did have something in common with the Oscars. Thousands of employees gathered at the Zénith concert hall in Lille, France, to watch ten nominated products from Decathlon’s house brands presented onstage, as they had in previous years. Online voters and the audience then chose the first, second and third place winners. More than 40,000 people voted last year. For a brand, first place is the year’s highest honor. It brings attention in a crowded field of sporting goods and promotion in Decathlon stores. “After they win, they’re definitely going out for a drink,” said Vincent Ventenat, director of Decathlon’s innovation center.

B’TWIN, one of the house brands nominated this year, hopes to win an award like the one the two-second tent received. Small posters are taped at various points on the concrete walls of its development workshop. They borrow the familiar image of Uncle Sam recruiting Americans to ask for votes: “Choose us,” they say. The pairing of image and words is amusing. B’TWIN’s nominee is STOPEASY, a children’s bicycle brake lever designed to be easier for small hands to use and requiring less force. Decathlon has 20 house brands covering outdoor sports, mountaineering, swimming, golf, indoor fitness and other activities. B’TWIN specializes in cycling; it won an innovation award for a folding bicycle in 2011.

Many of this year’s products focus on children and safety. Their developers want to help people get started in a sport. In the two days before the awards ceremony, the word QDaily heard most often was “cheap.” Six of the ten nominated products cost less than 20 euros.

Measured against the transformative innovation we tend to imagine, these products, chosen by vote, can look like modest reworkings of existing ideas. Most make a simple change to a detail. Ventenat draws a distinction between “invention” and “creation”: the former makes something that did not exist before; Decathlon concentrates on the latter, improving the experience of using familiar sporting goods by changing details of a life jacket, a scooter or a ballet shoe. Here are this year’s nominees:

1, STOPEASY brake lever

Brand: B’TWIN, a cycling brand

Innovation: easier braking

This children’s bicycle brake lever is already on sale for 9.95 euros each. Yes, it’s the part you squeeze to brake. For children learning to ride, few things are more frightening than finding they cannot control the brakes. When we tried STOPEASY, we found that it sits closer to the handlebar than other levers. A slight pull stops the bike, and its braking performance is 30% better than that of a standard brake. The lever will reach China in 2015 and be fitted free of charge to all children’s bikes.

During our visit to B’TWIN’s production workshop, we also saw plans for a bicycle with wheels that could be removed easily. Development has been put on hold because the materials would cost too much. For Decathlon, value for money comes first.

2, WAIRGO life jacket

Brand: TRIBORD, an open-water sports brand

Innovation: can be worn like an ordinary swimsuit

Life jackets are familiar enough, and at first glance WAIRGO looks much like any other, apart from a carbon dioxide cartridge and a mouthpiece. You can blow through the mouthpiece to fill it with air, as you would an ordinary inflatable life jacket; that takes a few seconds. The cartridge concealed inside the garment is for emergencies. Pull a tab and carbon dioxide instantly inflates the jacket, keeping the wearer afloat at sea. The cartridge can be removed and replaced with one bought separately.

Neither way of inflating it is the innovation. What sets WAIRGO apart is that, when deflated, it can be worn like normal clothing. At 600 grams, it does not even get in the way of playing in the water or diving. Inflation is a small theme among this year’s nominees: a ski suit uses it too.

3, KARO climbing carabiner

Brand: SIMOND, a mountaineering brand

Innovation: holds the rope in place

KARO took second place this year. Many people also thought it had the most subtle and accomplished design of the nominees. It neatly expresses Decathlon’s approach: a simple design, careful engineering, and a result that is easier and safer to use. It costs 9.95 euros, about 89 yuan. Its purpose is narrow: to help manage a climber’s rope. When someone climbs, the climber and the belayer below work together. The climber ascends; the belayer handles the rope. Even if you have never climbed, you may have seen a belayer in a film struggling to hold a rope as it slips through their hands. KARO’s job is simply to hold that rope steady. Its straightforward design lets the user switch between allowing the rope to slide and holding it in place. It has no mechanical parts, yet required considerable engineering: 30 people worked on its development.

4, AIRCOMBI insulated children’s ski suit

Brand: WED’ZE, a ski brand

Innovation: adjustable warmth

This is a suit whose warmth you can adjust. Like most Decathlon products, it uses neither electronics nor mechanical parts. It relies on air. As with the life jacket, you inflate the garment; the more air it holds, the better it keeps out the cold. It also looks enough like a spacesuit to appeal to children. At 69.95 euros, it is somewhat more expensive than the other products. It shares an idea with the adjustable fishing sinker: changing the warmth or weight of one item saves people the trouble of carrying and swapping several. AIRCOMBI will not be sold in Decathlon’s Chinese stores.

5, BALLAST Zamak fishing sinker

Brand: Caperlan, a fishing brand

Innovation: adjustable weight, with no lead

This is a fishing “lead,” though the name does not quite fit: unlike conventional sinkers, it is made from lead-free Zamak. Its four small pieces sell together for 3.95 euros. It looks like something a technically minded tinkerer might have made. A sinker helps you cast farther, and its weight depends on the current, the depth and other conditions. Normally, you bring a box of sinkers and decide which to use once you reach your fishing spot. BALLAST’s idea could hardly be simpler: the sinker becomes a set of removable weights. You can add or take away pieces at any time, adjusting its weight from 90 to 170 grams.

The product comes in four versions, each sold separately for 1.99 euros. One can hold bait, one is fluorescent, and another is shaped like a dart whose wings can open to steer it around obstacles. This product will not be sold in Decathlon’s Chinese stores either.

We also saw a similar product from last year: a running light worn over the shoulder and across the chest, illuminating an area of 20 by 5 meters. Like the sinker, it does not need a large audience. Chest lights account for only 1% of the lighting market, and Decathlon is happy to make products for such niches.

6, B1 children’s scooter

Brand: Oxelo, a wheeled-sports brand

Innovation: better balance

B1 won the top prize. Also made for small children, it improves on an ordinary scooter. Most scooters have one wheel in front and one behind; B1 has two in front and one behind. Its real innovation is a patented steering system. Children learning to ride a scooter can fall when they turn the front wheel and the scooter tips out of control. B1 allows the scooter to lean to an angle suited to the turn, reducing that risk. Safety-minded products for children were this year’s favorites, and B1 took the innovation award. It is priced at about 149 yuan in China.

7, EASYSTROKE swimming aid

Brand: Nabaiji, a swimming brand

Innovation: corrects swimming technique

French national swimming coach Fabrice Pellerin was one of the product’s technical partners. He believes many swimmers move their forearms and wrists incorrectly. EASYSTROKE consists of two boards fitted over the hands. They remind swimmers to extend their arms and keep each hand and elbow in line. It is that simple. Pellerin believes the change can make people swim faster and improve the results of professional athletes whose technique is off. Yes, even they do not always get the movement right.

8, La Pointe Relevé ballet shoes with toe padding

Brand: Domyos, a fitness brand

Innovation: eases the pain of dancing on pointe

The first stages of learning ballet can be painful. Before a dancer gets used to the thin fabric at the toe of a ballet shoe, rising onto pointe and pressing against the floor hurts. The change here is a pad at the toe. The shoes cost 49.95 euros and will not be sold in Decathlon’s Chinese stores. It may sound like a problem a wad of cloth could solve, but Domyos has carefully reworked the shoe’s materials. The added padding, made from polypropylene and elastic fibers, feels slightly soft and is intended for children beginning ballet. The one concern is whether it might alter a dancer’s technique or the standards of ballet. The brand’s representative told QDaily it would not. Professional dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet performed in the shoes that evening. Whether the product, due out in spring 2015, will find widespread use remains to be seen.

9, TIDIPOOL children’s pool

Brand: Nabaiji, a swimming brand

Innovation: a place to swim where there is no pool

A pool for 19.95 euros, or about 89 yuan: is that a bargain? TIDIPOOL folds up, a little like the two-second tent. If you cannot be bothered to go to a swimming pool, or find yourself in the mountains and suddenly want a swim, you can unfold this round pool, pour in some water and let a child splash around. It is 120 centimeters across and 23 centimeters deep, with a waterproof exterior and a thin layer of foam inside; a smaller size is available. Of course, those dimensions make it a pool for small children only. Like the tent, it opens and folds away easily. Similar pools are on the market, but many have to be inflated, which takes time. The brand’s representative took pride in having this one ready “in minutes.”

10, E-TINT ski goggles

Brand: WED’ZE, a ski brand

Innovation: adjustable lens tint

Like climbing and fishing gear, ski goggles may be unfamiliar to many of us. But in Europe, where skiing is more common, E-TINT could find a wide audience. It won third place that evening. A button on the side adjusts how much light passes through the lenses, helping protect the wearer’s eyes. Its LCD E-TINT electrochromic screen makes it costlier than the other products, at 119.95 euros, or 899 yuan. It is the only nominee here that calls for “high tech.”

Decathlon has an interesting business model. Look out for more on QDaily soon.