The New York Post reports that Adidas is planning to give its robot jobs in Germany and the US to Asia ones.
Adidas built its ‘Speedfactories’ in 2016 (Ansbach) and 2017 (Atlanta). The aim of the factories that featured manufacturing by robots was to counter rising wages in Asia and shipping costs.
Sneaker manufacturing had initially relied on suppliers around Asia to make the shoes and ship them internationally. By decentralizing the manufacturing process, Adidas had hoped to increase delivery speeds.
On Monday, Adidas announced it will close its robot factories in Germany and the US by April 2020, stating that using the technology in Asia instead would be “more economic and flexible.”
Adidas’s Asian suppliers will use the same techniques to make a broader range of products with shorter production times.
In a press release, Adidas global operations head Martin Shankland stated, “the Speedfactories have been instrumental in furthering our manufacturing innovation and capabilities. That was our goal from the start.”
“We very much regret that our collaboration in Ansbach and Atlanta has come to an end,” Shankland continued.
Adidas will continue to work with Oeschsler – the German company that operates factories that produce the soles for Adidas’s Boost shoes.
“Whilst we understand adidas’ reasons for discontinuing Speedfactory production at Oechsler, we regret this decision,” said the company’s CEO, Claudius Kozlik, in the press release.
