If you use several words to describe the traditional production process of shoes, you can use what word? In addition to “ &rdquo, “ slow; labor intensive ” &rdquo, “ low technology content; such words, can you think of other words to describe? Big shoes manufacturers often need to spend 18 months to produce a pair of shoes, which should go through the production of dozens of steps. However, in addition to a few manufacturers in the production process of innovation, the vast majority of shoe-making enterprises manufacturing process has not changed for decades.
In June 6th, Morgan Stanley released a survey of its investors, which examined &mdash, &mdash, Nike and Adidas, the world's two biggest shoe manufacturers. The report shows that technology and automation are subverting traditional sneakers, and Nike and Adidas are redefining the way they make and sell products. Morgan Stanley has concluded that the shoe manufacturing industry is undergoing a structural transformation that will bring win-win results to consumers and footwear brands.
The shoe making process is still in its early stages. Although there are many innovative technologies now, but if you want to apply it, it is still not enough. Only when the demand reaches a certain scale, can the application of new technology be truly popularized.
New technologies are mainly classified into two categories: — — design and production. This is also the two major steps in the manufacture of sneakers. But Morgan Stanley believes that the application of new technology will allow consumers to buy personalized custom shoes at lower prices, and the cycle of shoes will be greatly shortened. Morgan Stanley's research report shows the schematic diagram of a shortened 18 month cycle of shoe production for 4 months.
"Morgan Stanley shows us how to be reduced by 18 months of production cycle for 4 months:
The design of
The birth of a pair of sneakers begins with the design manuscript. Before a sneaker designer turns a sneaker design into a solid prototype, they need to provide the foundries with metal drawings of the soles and soles. This process alone takes several weeks. Then, the factory will produce samples, which will usually be modified several times and will produce a new sample after each modification. The final version of a pair of shoes will take about a year to confirm and then be put into mass production.
"Nike and DreamWorks
Today, the virtual prototyping technology allows brands to significantly shorten the production cycle of shoes. For example, Nike and DreamWorks Animation Company (DreamWorks) cooperation, without having to create a virtual prototype case, NOVA technology platform relying on DreamWorks, Nike can create lifelike three-dimensional prototype sneakers. The NOVA platform even supports material simulation technology, which allows Nike designers to simulate the use of different materials on shoes. As a result, Nike will be able to design more shoes in less time. It is worth mentioning that, NOVA platform has been used for the movie "dragon tamer 2" production.
3D printing technology is also very useful for fast prototyping shoes, because it eliminates the process of processing foaming sole molds. Without 3D printing, the process would take one month. But now, shoe manufacturers can print out a prototype of a shoe in a matter of hours. Adidas is planning to produce 3D print soles on a large scale, which will allow Adidas to print out the designer's shoes directly and no longer need to produce a prototype.
The production of
Morgan Stanley research report pointed out that Nike and Adidas are increasing their investment in automation, the purpose is to further accelerate the production process. Adidas built a fully robotic &ldquo in Germany, the speed factory ”. Before 2023, 1/5 of the two companies will be produced by automation equipment.
"Adidas is making robot shoes popular shoes Adidas Boost
The benefits of the new process are certainly not the only ones that can speed up production. Nike engineers, for example, can now use robots to color the bottom of their sneakers. This process used to be tape bonded to the stitching of different parts of the shoe, so as not to splash into other areas during coloring. Just as we paint new houses, we usually put strips of cloth around the walls to avoid brushing and brushing the walls next to them. The new process is not only much faster, but it can also print some beautiful patterns that are hard to do by hand on the midsole.
Both companies want to keep their production areas close to the target market. However, almost all the products of these two companies are from Asia, especially china. But they want to quickly produce small quantities of products based on consumer demand. As a result, Adidas has also built a &ldquo in Atlanta, the speed factory ”. It's not realistic to move large quantities of production back to the United States or europe. But put a small amount of the product in an area close to the marketAt the very least, it will save us a few weeks' sea time from Asia to Europe and america.
The huge benefits of
Why this is a boon for consumers? To improve the production process and the sneaker design means that consumers can not wait too long to buy their favorite products. Since the cost and difficulty of designing a pair of single shoes are greatly reduced, it is not long before consumers can easily buy shoes tailored to their own wishes.
The report says: "&ldquo, let's assume that the customer loves the overall design style of the shoes, but he just wants to change one of the designs.". No problem. It's a piece of cake. Another possibility is that the customer wants to customize a pair of shoes that fit his feet, but he is traveling now and wants to buy them next day at the Foot Locker store near the hotel. Too easy!
For shoe brands, shortening the production cycle will speed up their response to the market. That means they won't have to produce a lot of inventory in advance. Morgan Stanley estimates that the new production model will save up to 10% of costs due to the simplification of production processes. With the help of these positive factorsSportswear will soon overtake other consumer products.
