Near field communication
At point of sale and beyond, adidas is also looking to the textile manufacturing supply chain to provide answers to how it can keep track of consumer purchasers.
Like some retailers, adidas is said to be building near field communications (NFC) into its footwear, apparel and sporting equipment in the hope of triggering millions of consumer touch points it can use to keep talking to people long after they’ve made a purchase.
Like most brands, adidas does not know exactly who buys its products (unless purchase direct), and is trying to solve this problem by creating products such as football boots and clothing that are ‘wearable technology’.
Speaking at the South by Southwest conference in March 2015 in Texas, Jon Warner, innovation specialist at Adidas, revealed a decision to stitch NFC (near field communication) technology into its products in a bid to generate more information on where and how people are using adidas gear so that it can more accurately predict trends for its marketing and production teams.
NFC technology enables smartphones (not yet Apple) and other devices (that may be embedded in clothing) to establish radio communication with each other via the cloud.
“It’s through an ability to understand what they’re doing, the type of runner they are and how often they tap their products that we can start to learn more about how they are being used,” Warner explained, “We won’t recommend them sweaters if they’re in the south and its warm and we can actually start to be very specific about how we reach them.”
Back in Herzogenaurach adidas is exploring how NFC could be weaved into fabrics, but it will not go into specifics and does not generally talk about its projects on wearable textiles. Unlike footwear, we understand adidas is not yet ready to launch anything with development still in the conceptual stage. Although we know one such prospect is a football shirt that could serve up team information or statistics of a specific player when the logo is tapped.
Just as speed is an integral part of the adidas DNA, it’s clear that collaboration and sustainability are also a growing part of its genetic make-up when it comes to technical fabric development.
