Starting at the 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 utilization of existing production capacity and more flexibility in product design.

According to the brand, the new production methods developed in Ansbach and Atlanta will allow for more variations of Speedfactory footwear models in the future. These will continue to be characterized by a particularly 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, will be discontinued by April 2020 at the latest.

"The Speedfactories have been instrumental in furthering our manufacturing innovation and capabilities. Through shortened development and production lead times, we’ve provided select customers with hyper-relevant product for moments that matter. This was our goal from the start. We are now able to couple these learnings 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", commented Martin Shankland, Member of the Executive Board of adidas AG, responsible for Global Operations.

Going forward, not only running shoes, but also models of other product categories will be able to be produced in a short period of time by using the production processes tested in the Speedfactories. 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 also 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.