Lille, France

“The Mask”,
a co-creation protects
most people as much as possible

In less than a month, a protective mask against Covid-19 has been created at Decathlon. From its project its creation, collective intelligence is on its way

How to create and offer a protective mask against Covid-19 in the best time limit? How to make sure that quality is high and accessible for our customers and for sportswomen and sportsmen? “Everything started with the idea that to proceed quickly and with efficiency, we had to co-create,” said Xavier Garcia, project Leader of The Mask. “28 days have been needed to develop the mask: from getting the team ready (April 9th) to the actual deliver (May 6th)! To succeed, there is no secret: get a team that shares the same convictions, which is sustainability, knowing that you have to find an innovative idea.At Decathlon, we usually need 18 months to develop a product. Reactivity and agility have been essential to make a product in less than a month. We created our team within a day. Engineers, designers, model makers, lawyers, conformity experts, quality experts, and more! Only a few people knew each other. They have been chosen because they had complementary skills.”

What was the other challenge? “ Work well with distance. We know how to manage a project, but usually, you work with your coworkers every day in the same place. This digital collaboration is very unusual: we had to recreate a way of coworking. In the past, in our common office, we had to ask a question to get an answer right away. We had to reinvent our way of communication in order to get all information right. Information is the most important thing in such a project with a zero euro budget.” The Result: a protective mask you can wash 50 times, made with technical textiles that Decathlon is the only owner. Technical textiles used to make boardshorts or cycling shorts. The mask can filter particles very well and let the user breathe with comfort.