GLOBAL sports brand Decathlon has announced an exciting partnership with UK-based padel operator Soul Padel – bringing the sport to the heart of Glasgow.
In what is a major agreement for Soul Padel, it will host its first ‘summer padel festival’ as it embarks on an ambitious programme to grow padel across the country.
The collaboration will see two pop-up padel courts, installed and supplied by PADEL1969, at Decathlon’s Braehead store.
The festival will go ‘live’ from Monday 3rd June and run until Wednesday 31st August and aims to engage and introduce the sport to local communities and fitness enthusiasts.
Official opening events will offer visitors the opportunity to discover and learn more about padel, a sport that continues to experience a significant rise in popularity across Europe.
The Braehead site will be supported by Decathlon’s in-house padel brand, Kuikma, offering products catering to beginners through to professional athletes, with equipment available for purchase or rent for those who want to ‘try before they buy’.
Special events, including introductory padel clinics led by professional coaches, will be unveiled in due course. These events aim to showcase the sport and promote Soul Padel’s community values of ‘meet, play, and connect’. Additionally, Soul Padel will promote inclusivity through children’s sessions during the school holidays and “women-only” sessions.
Soul Padel founder and CEO Mark Hewlett said: “This is an incredible opportunity to bring padel to Glasgow and we are really pleased to be taking padel into the heart of the city for the first time.
“Decathlon is an internationally respected sports brand, and we are immensely proud to be partnering with them in the months ahead.
“Our aim across these three months is to create a summer festival of padel that will introduce more people to this incredibly fun sport and encourage them to become fellow padel fanatics. We also have a lot of activities in the pipeline, which we will share once they are finalised.”
As 2024 marks Decathlon’s 25th anniversary in the UK, this new partnership with Soul Padel will proudly see Decathlon continue to create a legacy by inspiring people through the wonders of sport.
Federico Fraguela, UK commercial leader – Running & Rackets Sports, said: “At Decathlon, we’re passionate about making sports accessible to all. Partnering with Soul Padel allows us to extend our reach and introduce padel to new audiences. With our shared values of community and inclusivity, we’re excited to support these events and help more people feel ready to play this summer.”
Installation of the courts will start imminently. PADEL1969 founder and CEO Atte Suominen added: “We are looking forward to this exciting new chapter for padel. We are proud to be providing our ONE COURT FOR LIFE® by PADEL1969 – a combination of quality and high performance premium padel courts. The summer padel pop-ups with Soul Padel and Decathlon align with our commitment of spreading the ‘Joy of Padel’.”
Soul Padel is expecting the festival to be extremely popular and is inviting businesses to be part of this exciting initiative.
It has a range of sponsorship opportunities, including presenting partnerships, activation partnerships, supporting sponsorships, court sponsorships and sampling. For more information on the about the opportunities, contact Aimee Lawson via email – aimee@eutopia.agency
