Quechua (brand)

Quechua (/ˈkɛtʃᵊwə/, /ˈkɛtʃuːə/ or /ˈkɛtʃwɑː/; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈketʃwa]) is the trademarked brand for the hiking and camping apparel and equipment marketed by the French company, Decathlon,[2] the largest sporting goods retailer in the world[3] with over 1647 stores in nearly 1000 cities in 57 countries and regions (Jan 2020).[4]

Quechua
IndustryMountaineering, hiking, climbing, Nordic skiing
Founded1997 (1997)
Headquarters
Domancy, Sallanches
,
France
Key people
Christian Ollier (International Manager)[1]
ProductsMountain sports products
Number of employees
150
Websitewww.quechua.com
Quechua climbing shoes

Created as a brand in 1997 in Domancy, France by a group of nine Decathlon employees, the group launched its first products in the spring of 1998 in all Decathlon stores, geared toward hikers and campers.[5] The brand's design center is in Sallanches, near Mont-Blanc. Its name derives from the indigenous Quechua people of the Andes and their language.

Timeline
  • 1997 : The Quechua company started in Sallanches. The trademark was registered officially, worldwide.[6]
  • 1999 : Opening of the International Headquarters in Domancy, near Mont Blanc.
  • 2002 : The first Technical Partnership contracts were signed.
  • 2003 : The six-year-old Quechua company joined the Top 10 largest global brands in mountain gear. Publication of the first consumer magazine, covering mountain topics, called Chullanka (snowed summit in Quechua language). The name changed to Quechua Magazine for the seventh issue.
  • 2006 : Quechua wins two IF Design Awards.[7] The 2 seconds Tent wins the Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) for the innovation of instant tent.[8]
  • 2007 : At the 10 year mark the company employs 100 persons at its premises in Domancy. Quechua wins 3 IF Design Awards for the Forclaz 900 jacket, Arpenaz 700 lady shoes and the 2seconds Air tent;[9]
  • 2008 : Quechua wins 3 IF Design Awards for the "All in One Sleeping Bag", the SSV Forclaz and the Bionassay 500 jacket.[10]

Technical partnership

Quechua has partnerships with groups such as mountain guides, national team of young mountaineers and the Ifremmont Institute of Mountain Medical Research. It works with advisers in hiking (Hélène Rochas, Grégory Vollet, Vincent Delebarre, Dachhiri Sherpa), climbing (David Caude) and adventure racing (Quechua Team).

References
  1. "Discover the brand" - Quechua official site Archived June 23, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, 2012-05-27
  2. "A Brief History of B'TWIN". DecathlonUK.
  3. "Decathlon, known as 'the Aldi of activewear', will open first Aussie store in Sydney tomorrow". news.com.au. 4 December 2017.
  4. "Decathlon in the world". Decathlon Group. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  5. "Meet Decathlon's Hiking and Camping Brand, Quechua". Decathlon.com.
  6. "1997. The adventure begins". Quechua. Archived from the original on October 10, 2014. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
  7. Site des IF Design Awards 2006
  8. Site des IDEA Awards 2006 Archived March 23, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  9. Site des IF Design Awards 2007
  10. Site des IF Design Awards 2008
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.