How to get a backpack sold by Decathlon in EU to the US?
I have been overly obsessing about getting a new backpack for the past week without any reasonable way to move forward. I came across this bag because I was searching for something that holds my lunch box and laptop in a tinier volume. Here is what I found from Decathlon UK which not only fits my needs but looks stylish as well! Now, although I can work around with other backpacks for my use case, I really want to get my hands on this one.
Although the same backpack is available in other countries like Ireland, Italy and other EU countries, I have been unable to obtain this on the US site. Writing to the customer care has not been helpful as they asked me to get it from a third-party forwarded from elsewhere.
While I have acquaintances in EU, I wouldn't consider them close enough to have it shipped to the US as a gift (de minimis rule is going away by 29th August, so there will be extra tariffs!). I looked into it getting from a forwarding service and eat the cost, but it is stupid expensive and overall I am looking at about 80-100€. As a student, that is not viable either.
I kinda grew too attached to the idea of using this for my everyday carry for college since I only carry a laptop, a notebook and a lunch box. And I love small backpacks. At this point, I am giving up on getting it :(
Do you have any suggestions on how to get this backpack to the States?
I’m not sure what kind of import duties you might have to pay, but if you’re comfortable with it feel free to DM me with an approximate address. We can check the shipping from my country, might be cheaper if you’re willing to wait?
Alternatively, have you checked the second-hand market?
Thanks for even offering to look it up! I sent you a DM. The new administration has now ended "de minimis" exemption for importing items, but if I declare it is a personal item (or a gift), as long as the item is valued under $100, there are no more duties to pay.
I checked eBay, but couldn't find any. I haven't checked FB marketplace (I hate logging into FB mostly to see nothing available).
If it's cheaper BE->US than UK feel free to take a look - if you find it on http://decathlon.be/ ill be happy to ship it to you from Brussels.
edit https://www.decathlon.be/fr/p/sac-a-dos-de-randonnee-20l-nh-arpenaz-500-ice-compartment/_/R-p-309210?mc=8844396&c=bleu
Btw if you're patient, I have acquaintances that regularly go to the US and may be able to just bring it on a plane and ship it from the US.
Thanks for offering to ship! I posted here in the hopes that someone will recommend me a service I am unaware of, but you folks here are too kind. I don't mind a bit of waiting. In fact, somebody else DMed me to bring in person as well. Would it be okay to DM you?
Of course!
Looks like it’s available in Decathlon Canada, if that’s an easier lift.
(edit) ah, sorry, that’s the 30l version. Not sure if that would work for your use cases.
Wow. I forgot about Canadian site. I found the 20L version as well. Can't think of someone who could ship me, but this helped, thanks!
I can ship you from Canada if you need it.
Oh wow lucky!! Sounds like your quest is nearly at an end!
I had the same problem where I super wanted a particular Herz hand made leather bag from Japan, but all the fees around using a forwarding service, while navigating a Japanese site, was just too much for my heart and I missed the limited sale.
I found this well-sourced post with the up to date status on current shipping difficulties from the EU to the USA . Anyone in the US considering having anything shipped from the EU at this time should get an update on this first.
(Note: Portugal not listed but our postal service, CTT, has also announced suspension.)
You can look up proxy purchase companies that will buy things in Europe and then ship them to you. They'll charge a small markup on top of what you'd normally pay for shipping, but it shouldn't be too much.
This might be difficult in Europe specifically due to some regulations they've introduced, but if it is available in the UK you should be fine.
Yeah, I pretty much exhausted that kind of service in Europe using forward2me, shop-and-ship etc. Almost every service would charge more than the item itself. I wasn't sure if that is how it is for packages from Europe.
I mean, the cost of putting something on a plane and flying it across the Atlantic is not going to be negligible, especially if it's heavier or just large, there's not really anything you can do about that.
I once tried to ship a slightly over 2kg package to the US from Hungary and the local postal service would have charged €60-70 to ship it. Maybe it's cheaper from the UK but anecdotally the €80-100 are realistic together with the proxy company's markup.
I'm curious if you'll find a cheaper option though!
I see, thanks for the heads up! I wonder how big companies have free shipping between continents now.
Tbh I'm not sure they do have free shipping now. Or they've got warehouses in the other country. The changes to the tariffs have postal services refusing to ship to the US right now.
Yeah, my girlfriend likes to order fabric from this company in Canada but they stopped orders to the US* (I think the company, not Canada Post, but still) once Trump ended the de minimis exception.
Yep, it could even be that their items would still be an exception for some reason (like books) but the paperwork is so much that it's not worth the sale.
At a surface glance it looks a fair bit cheaper from the UK. It's a lot cheaper under 2kg but it's roughly £30 (€34) for 3kg via the Royal Mail website. I don't know anything about the markup of proxies from here though.
edit: This is all with the caveat that there's disruption anyway mentioned above by Protected and ParcelForce the more business focused arm of Royal Mail aren't shipping to the USA.
Excuse the delayed response. Hopefully I'm not too late to the party!
Before I start, let me preface my comment by stating that I'm a huge fan of Decathlon. Their stuff tends to be exceptionally good... For the price. They're also my go-to for recommendations to anyone starting out doing anything sporty because their gear will be good enough to last until you know it's not good enough for you any longer IYSWIM.
However, I would NOT recommend spending anything like $90 to buy a Decathlon backpack in Europe and ship to the US. At that price, you could buy a much better made backpack in the US directly.
A quick search finds this from Dakine:
Alternatively, have you considered buying a separate insulated lunch box/bag and stuffing that into a different backpack? Something like the Osprey Daylite or Daylite Plus will last you a lifetime:
All three options will give you more for the price you'd have to pay to get the Decathlon backpack to you for.
PS - just checked and I can't ship parcels to the US via Royal Mail at the moment. They flat refuse to provide options.