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Adidas may bring new manufacturing to Detroit, but hold off on popping champagne for a couple of years.
And even if a possibility mentioned this week becomes real, there's this: "It’s all going automated," an executive board member says of sneaker production.
Eric Liedtke: "If we get [a German pilot plant] right, we can put it in Detroit."
Still, even without a jobs windfall, being chosen for a global footwear maker's first American assembly line would give Detroit added comeback cred.
The name-drop came this week in New York, where ranking executive Eric Liedtke said Adidas "has major plans to begin making sneakers in the U.S.," writes Daniel So, an associated editor of Complex magazine. The Manhattan-based pop culture publication quotes Liedtke as adding:
"If we get [a German pilot plant] right, we can put it in Detroit. We can bring manufacturing back to Detroit and that's where we want to be in 2017."
The fully automated German site is planned to open early next year, the U.S.-educated executive reportedly said at a promotional event.
Adidas Group, based in Germany, is Europe's largest sportswear manufacturer and the second-biggest in the world after Nike. It includes the Reebok and Rockport brands. Currently, it makes sneakers only in Asia.
Its automated production line, Complex quotes Liedtke as saying, "will be incredibly nimble, almost portable. It’s going to be small. . . . It fits within a cargo container."
"We’re going to take some risks," Liedtke asserted.
"If we're going to fail, we're going to fail fast and we're going to get up and try something new. But we’re not fucking around."
Ryan Felton posts a short report of this news earlier Thursday afternoon at Metro Times.
