Sportswear brand Adidas is using Geek+ autonomous robots at its recently opened automated distribution centre in Suzhou, China.

This fully automated warehousing and distribution centre, covering an area of 139,000m², can process more than one million pieces per day, with the capacity to hold ten million pieces of apparel and footwear in its facilities.

Geek+’s logistics robots addressed various problems faced in the logistics and warehousing operations. This included customisations for item location detection, enhancing operational safety and aligning with human-machine collaboration needs. Robot handling efficiency was optimised through intelligent scheduling logic, elevating overall efficiency and improving the work experience for logistics centre employees, thereby increasing worker retention.

“With the establishment of this centre, Adidas aims to ramp up supply chain responsiveness, boost operational efficiency and elevate the consumer experience,” said Harm Ohlmeyer, chief financial officer of Adidas. “We envision these logistics advancements to provide valuable insights for Adidas’ global expansion.”

Yong Zheng, CEO of Geek+, added: ” As a pioneer in smart logistics, Geek+ is delighted to support Adidas in advancing warehouse logistics flexibility, ultimately enhancing the consumer experience. Adidas and Geek+ have a longstanding and robust collaborative foundation and this inauguration marks a significant milestone in the partnership between the two and stands as a crucial innovation within the industry.”

Adidas (www.adidas-group.com) is a sportswear brand with a heritage dating back to 1949. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, Adidas operates globally with a workforce of over 59,000 employees worldwide and 2022 revenue surpassing €22.5bn.

Chinese firm Geek+ (www.geekplus.com) develops autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for warehouses and supply chain management. Founded in 2015, Geek+ has over 1500 employees, with offices in the USA, Germany, UK, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Singapore.