Most of your sneakers are made in China, Vietnam, or another Asian country by young, inexperienced employees. Soon enough, that may all chance. adidas announces that it will open its first “Speedfactory” on U.S. soil in 2017; the plant is heavily automated and expects to employ around 160 people-mostly engineers. Each Speedfactory expects to produce one million pairs of the shoes a year, which is still less than 1% of the brand’s annual production, but adidas envisions a network of these automated facilities as it will rely much less on labor and reduces time-to-market by months. More details can be found on Oregon Live.
