In Order To Become Faster, What Articles Do Foreign Sports Brands Do Around Technology?

In April 2018, Adidas opened the world's second fully automated robot speed factory (Speed Factory).

The factory in Atlanta, USA, occupies an area of about 74 thousand square feet (6874 square meters) and employs only about 150 employees.

Its first speed factory was built in 2015 in Bach, Germany, and the first product line was launched in October 2017.

Adidas's goal is that by 2020, the annual output of the two plants will reach 1 million pairs.

As its name is, Adidas's requirement for this factory is speed first.

"We can respond to consumer demand in a matter of days."

Gade Manz, vice president of Adidas innovation group (Gerd Manz) said.

Nike is also on the way to improving factory automation.

Over the past five years, it has invested $2 billion 500 million in the supply chain and the development of high-tech products.

Take Nike's start-up Grabit, Nike, for example. The shoe upper assembly machine developed by Grabit began to use Nike's factories in China and Mexico in 2017, and the speed of the assembly machine reached 20 times that of the workers.

Since 2015, Nike has been working with Flex, a high-tech manufacturing company for Fitbit and Lenovo, to introduce automated production equipment into footwear production.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley reports that Nike and Adidas are making an investment in the supply chain, focusing on speed and Stanley.

In terms of specific production links, 3D printing became an early favorite of sports brands.

In 2018, Nike and Adidas both made breakthroughs in this regard.

As early as 2013, Nike developed a 3D print sports shoes called steam laser claw (VaporLaserTalon).

In April 2018, Nike launched the new Zoom Vaporfly Elite sneakers, using FlyPrint shoe upper for the first time to apply 3D printing fabric technology to functional sports shoes.

Adidas's first commercial 3D printing sneaker, Futurecraft 4D, was launched in April 2017, with the first capacity of 5000 pairs, and it ran out in January 2018.

According to the plan, by the end of 2018, Adidas will launch 100 thousand pairs of 3D printing shoes.

James Kearns, vice president of Adidas brand strategy (James Carnes), said that in the next few years, Adidas will also increase its output to millions of pairs.

For sports brand, 3D printing is not only a product label, but also a reconstruction of production mode.

According to Nike's publicly available data, the overall design of Flyprint is 16 times faster than previous production methods.

James Carnes, vice president of Adidas brand strategy, said that the new 3D technology allows Adidas to "make products locally and shorten pportation time", and at the same time, substantially reduce costs, because we do not need to produce a complete set of moulds.

In recent years, such as Zara, H&M and UNIQLO, have entered the field of sports shoes and clothing. In addition to fighting for consumers, its fast response supply chain system has also brought pressure to the sports brand.

On the other hand, the huge factory system that the sports brand has built over the years has been faced with challenges such as rising costs, labor and environmental problems.

In this context, the speed of sports brand is not only to improve efficiency, but also to adapt to the rapidly changing consumer demand.

According to the Wall Street journal, Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2023, nearly 20% of Nike shoe and Adidas products will be pferred to factories with higher automation to ensure efficiency and speedy delivery, and are more customizable than traditional factories.

It is noteworthy that, with the acceleration of the two giants of Nike and Adidas, more brands are now joining the trend of supply chain pformation.

According to the plan, Japanese sports brand Arthur (ASICS) will introduce robots in parts of the production line of Tottori County in spring 2019.

The factory mainly produces "Onitsuka Tiger" brand products and running shoes.

As a result, the Arthur workers in Tottori county will reduce the number of workers on the upper part of the upper and sole soles by half, and the 1/3 of the whole shoe production process can be automated.

According to "Japan economic news" reported that in the future Arthur will also make use of the experience of automatic production accumulated in Japan's domestic factories, and strive to achieve the same production in Europe and the United States.

Another concern is Amazon.

In August 2018, Amazon's Amazon Fashion Europe officially launched its own sports brand Aurique, which combines high cost performance with fashion and functionality.

Prior to April 2017, Amazon has applied for customized patents to create customized automated garment factories on demand.

Its patent system contains textile 3D printing machines, cutting machines, assembly lines and cameras. As long as consumers place orders for Amazon, robots will start weaving, reconfirming, packing and shipping.

Amazon's entry into the sport market has already squeezed more than 2000 brands of sportswear market more chaotic.

In the face of Amazon's competitors with technological backgrounds, Nike and Adidas will also have to accelerate their entry into the next competition.

The future will be customization + speed.