Adidas

Adidas is a well-known German company specialised in sport footwear. According to official data, the company employs more than 50,000 people worldwide. Throughout the 1980’s, large portions of the company's production was offshored to China, where Adidas now employs around one million workers.  One of the company's major competitors, Nike, recently decided to produce shoes through a robotised system. Adidas is following suit and has decided to adopt a similar strategy and is therefore bringing production back from Asia. Adidas will produce its pilot batch of shoes using robots in 2016, and plans to expand production in 2017. The first robotized plant will be opened in in Ansbach in Southern Germany.  The company also plans to establish a Speedfactory in the US in 2017. Combined, the factories are expected to produce a minimum of 1million pairs of shoes every year. 160 new jobs are expected to be created at the German production site, which will require high-skilled labour  to maintain the robots. Bringing production back from China and Vietnam will help the company to offset long shipping times and the rising cost of labour in Asia. It will also help in meeting demand for rapid innovation in designs and styles.