Decathlon is great for getting cheap sports equipment, of all kinds!, The problem is you often get what you pay for. I love it for picking up stuff where I don’t care about how it performs (for example I play social football at work ⚽, and a pair of shin pads from there is super cheap and I really don’t care how they function).
However, I definitely care a lot about my climbing shoes. So if you’re pretty experienced / you’re climbing a lot, I wouldn’t recommend Decathlon for climbing shoes. (But that’s just me…)
Edit: for the record I believe Decathlon is a French brand, and according to wiki they’re in 60 countries! Not just Italy 😉
Haha, well I can see you’re obviously a huge fan of Decathlon. I will concede they do more stuff well than I previously mentioned. As you pointed out the clothing is well designed. I also have a pair of Decathlon climbing/hiking trousers which have served me really well too.
They do hit the middle of the price point range with much better features than the totally cheap (and rubbish) gear (like the stuff you get at Lidl supermarkets). I wil tip my cap to them for that.
Still, when it comes to high performance equipment, I personally wouldn’t rely on Decathlon. When I feel that performance is super important, I will prefer to pay a premium for additional features and/or better design.
A good example is climbing shoes. I typically buy La Sportiva shoes, and that’s because I know the rubber types (XS Edge or XS Grip) work super well, certain models fit my feet really well, & the performance I get from the shoes is just worth it (for me).
Side note: since you get it shipped to the US have you ever been inside a Decathlon store??? It’s wild how big they are! You could get lost for a whole day inside 😂😂😂