Decathlon

We visited decathlon this morning to pick up some cycling accessories for my husband. This store is huge, although very well laid out with each department well labeled. There were plenty of staff about to answer any questions and there are fitting rooms available to try before you buy. I picked up a few great bargains, particularly in the kids sections. The only downside is that the sizes in clothing are quite confusing, although as I mentioned, there are plenty of fitting rooms. Worth a visit for any sporting goods.

Located within Holywood Exchange retail park, Decathlon is the cheapest sports shop (warehouse) around. No matter what you’re looking for Decathlon will have it. They have everything from Canoes to Dart Boards.
Often with cheaper sports shops you sacrifice quality for price but this is not the case at Decathlon. They sell their own brand items called Kipsta and I must say that these aren’t great quality but likewise they sell big name brands like Nike and Adidas at a lower price than other High Street stores.
This Decathlon is huge — you could spend a full afternoon here wandering through the isles. I would make a list of what you want before visiting or else you’ll come out with a new home gym and nowhere to put it.
Great parking is also available — really handy if you are buying a bigger item and need to cart to the car.

Absolutely gigantic sports shop selling just about everything you could think of, I have several pairs of their own brand shoes and they are great, they also supply BTwin bikes which are pound for pound the best value on the market, however the I have bought three bikes and two of them have needed tweaking before riding, maybe the young folk need a bit more experience with the tools, but it’s not a problem in general.

Wowsers! This is one humongous shop. More of a warehouse really and I am a fan. Think of a sport or sporting hobby and you’ll get the equipment here. Horse riding, kayaking, mountaineering anyone? How about fencing, volleyball or fishing? Oh yes, it’s all covered. That’s why I love it. The husband likes running, the kids do rugby, football, fencing and we all do body boarding and we can go to Decathalon and equip ourselves for any of this. Fab. The kids can also bounce the newest footballs and try out the huge range of pop up tents — what a marvellous invention.
There are often special offers like wet suits for under £20 and life jackets for under £15. Now neither of those are going to equip you for a trip across the Atlantic but for faffing about at the beach they are outstanding value for money. Of course you can also buy the more expensive versions if you’re a more serious sportsperson.
There is plenty of parking right outside and even when it’s busy I have never had to queue very long to pay. Refreshingly, many of the staff have been recruited from that rare breed of young, polite and helpful people so all good there too.

Whenever I think of the word Decathlon I automatically think of a load of sports which I would never be fit enough to do. I mean seriously, who wants to be half decent at ten sports when you could just be class at one?
This store is very appropriately named as it sells sports equipment for loads of different sports ranging from swimming and running right through to ice skating and horse riding (horses not included)
This store is relatively new to Belfast so I decided I’d take a dander down to see what all the fuss was about and also to stop the postman from putting offer leaflets through my letterbox.
In my head I kind of fancy myself as the next Andy Murray (as in good at tennis, not uninterested and Scottish) so I headed straight for the tennis rackets when I arrived, what amazed me most was that they offer you a «try before you buy» so you can get the perfect racket for yourself. It is a nice touch because every other shop has signs around it saying «Don’t touch…» whereas this store actually wants you to touch. Brilliant!
However what kind of disappointed me about this store is that although it does offer a service of getting your name and number printed on the back of your football jersey it doesn’t sell club tops. It instead sells the generic sort which local pub teams play in. I thought this was very strange for a sports store and a huge downside to the Decathalon brand.
However if you are into a wide range of sports then definitely give this store a shout as it will tailor for you every need.