To start by end of this year, adidas will use its Speedfactory technologies to produce athletic footwear at two of its suppliers in Asia. The company expects this to result in better utilisation of existing production capacity and more flexibility in product design. adidas consumers will benefit as the combination of existing technical possibilities of the suppliers, and new production methods developed in Ansbach and Atlanta will work on variations of Speedfactory footwear models in the future. This will continue particularly for short production time, allowing the company to continue to respond quickly to consumer needs. Production at the two Speedfactories in Ansbach, Germany, and Atlanta, USA, however, will be discontinued by April 2020 at the latest. In the future, adidas will concentrate its resources and capacities even more on modernizing its other suppliers and using 4D technology in footwear production.
“adidas initiative Speedfactories has been instrumental in furthering our manufacturing innovation and capabilities. Through shortened development and production lead times, we’ve provided select customers with the hyper-relevant product for moments that matter. This was our goal from the start. We are now able to couple these learning with other advancements made with our suppliers, leveraging the totality of these technologies to be more flexible and economic while simultaneously expanding the range of products available," says Martin Shankland, Member of the Executive Board of adidas AG, responsible for Global Operations.
Moving forward, not only running shoes, but also a bunch of other product categories will be able to produce in a short period of time by using the production processes tested in the Speedfactories.
However, adidas will continue to develop, improve and test manufacturing processes in Germany. Process innovations will be bundled and driven forward at the adidas production site in Scheinfeld, the so-called adiLab.
adidas will continue its collaboration with Oechsler, the operator of both Speedfactories, in other manufacturing areas such as the production of soles for shoes using Boost technology, soles for football shoes and 4D-printed soles.
