How should Adidas pursue this technology going forward? Should they burn the boats and go all in? This would be extremely risky but provide impetus for them to be the market leader and force their team to develop solutions to drive costs down. Conversely, should they incrementally transition their lines to additive manufacturing? This would be less risky but could detract from their focus and leave them vulnerable to competition. The value to the consumer will stay limited until fully customizable shoes are available at comparable costs. For now, they remain a niche product for early adopters and well-funded athletes. It remains to be seen if Adidas can bring the costs down. Adidas’s first major release of additive manufactured shoes, the non-customized Futurecraft 4D, retail at $300 per pair. There remains one giant hurdle to overcome – cost. For example, they could partner with Apple and use the FaceID sensors on iPhones to create a 3D model of a customer’s foot which could be uploaded to an app, in which shoes could be further customized and purchased in one seamless experience. Instead, they should utilize the resources already in the hands of consumers. James Carnes, Adidas’s vice president of strategy, stated, “The plan will put us as the (world’s) biggest producer of 3D printed products.” In the short term, Adidas should focus on process automation to reduce labor costs and will enable production to move from low-cost manufacturing countries to regions near the end consumer, further reducing manufacturing and delivery time.įor customization, Adidas is experimenting with scanning customers feet in stores to create data for production. However, Adidas plans to scale aggressively. To achieve these ends, Adidas is targeting to manufacture one million shoes per year with additive manufacturing by 2020 – a small number compared its traditional production of over one million shoes per day. Pathways to Just Digital Future Watch this tech inequality series featuring scholars, practitioners, & activists Additionally, Adidas states that customers looking for a unique look will be able to “create their own completely custom, one-of-kind Adidas shoes designed to their own specifications online.” Not only do consumers benefit from the technology, but opportunities for Adidas to improve operations are vast. Consumers who are in between sizes or whose feet do not follow the traditional mold will be able to own shoes that fit perfectly. 3-D printing technology enables shoes to be made for a particular person his/her specific sport and his/her age, weight and size. The benefits that bespoke shoes provide to consumers necessitate that brands like Adidas explore their development. Cait Oppermann for the Wall Street Journal Additionally, the technology enables higher performance and composition than traditionally manufactured midsoles. CLIP production has paved the way for printing manufacturing grade parts that was previously unachievable with legacy additive manufacturing technology. to use continuous interface liquid production technology (CLIP) to create a midsole constructed from a single piece of elastomer, fine-tuned to expand and condense, and to vary in density and pliability. Will these advantages outweigh the costs of implementation and how quickly should Adidas transition production from traditional to additive manufacturing?Īdidas has recently partnered with Carbon Inc. According to the Harvard Business Review, “A new era in additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, is at hand,” and “ has made it possible affordably produce a much broader range of things – from the soles of running shoes to turbine blades – often in much higher volumes.” With potential to offer customized sizes and styles in parallel with increased factory automation and flexible production, Adidas is aggressively pursuing additive manufacturing technology for shoes.
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