In an effort to cut costs, Adidas will allow a nearly 100 percent robot staffed factory to make its first 500 pairs of shoes for 2016, according to Yahoo News. In Ansbach, Germany, the new "Speedfactory" will be mostly autonomous, with nearly all of the staff there being robots, but the company's goal is to one day reach 100 percent autonomy.
In the initial stages there will be about 10 humans there to help facilitate and get the project rolling, according to Geek.
From a business standpoint, the shoe company claims that rising shipping costs are contributing to the need to cut corners. Also, the robots will be more efficient in creating the shoes, cutting down on manufacturing time and ensuring the products reach the consumer as fast as possible. "An automated, decentralized and flexible manufacturing process ... opens doors for us to be much closer to the market and to where our consumer is," said the shoe company's CEO, Herbert Hainer.
Gerd Manz, head of technology innovation, said that the company gets a majority of its sales - about 74 percent - from products less than a year old, with the percentage steadily rising.
One future goal from the new found tech is to develop the ability to duplicate famous footwear debuted by celebrities, creating styled copies overnight, according to Reuters.
