Instant, On-site Production for Retailers
This was originally produced as a podcast, you can listen below or here. But for those of you who prefer to read, I hope you enjoy the below.
If you’re in the real estate world, you may well be sick of hearing the term “the Future of Retail”. Retail is more subject to trends and sentiment-led than other industries. Retailers have a hunger to keep ahead as much as possible. They also tend to have a tight bottom line forcing them to constantly evolve and compete.
In that context, people like writing and reading pieces about “The Future of Retail” because it gives us a semblance of predictability, even if we absolutely can’t predict the ways the trends and public sentiment will take us.
So here, I’m not going to say “this is the future of retail!”, rather explore a plausible change in the retail landscape, caused, in part by new AI technology, which could have a material impact on the way we design & build retail spaces, factories and warehouses.
This idea has been prompted by a company called Vivo Barefoot and there are a number of other companies creating similar ideas.
WHO ARE VIVO BAREFOOT?
Vivo (link) are a niche shoe company BUT the product is not important here. It’s the concept that is important.
Vivo are shoe company who create barefoot shoes. Barefoot shoes aren’t always the most chic but are meant to be amazing for your feet and posture. The theory is that minimal support makes your feet really strong and helps your feet and toes move in the way nature intended.
It’s fair to say, they have more than a cult following. They sell over 1m shoes every year. It’s the kind of product that once people start wearing them, they wear them all the time. I don’t know anyone who wears Vivos who only has one pair.
I am personally a barefoot shoe fan but even if you’re not, the product is not important here. It’s the concept that is important.
WHAT IS THE CONCEPT?
In 2023 Vivo started trialling a concept called Vivo Biome, which allows customers to get customized shoes 3D printed. Currently this is done off site and will take around 30 hours. You go into the shop, get your feet scanned and a few days later, your brand new custom-printed shoes arrive.
Now this doesn’t sound like something too ground-breaking. Selfridges were doing customised body scans for jeans in 2013. You can go and get custom soles moulded for cycling shoes at any bike shop across the UK.
WHAT IS DIFFERENT WITH THIS CONCEPT?
Firstly the aspiration is to have a fully produced and fully customisable scan to finished product, finished trainer, in the shop or close to the shop.
Secondly, they have partnered with a really interesting company called Balena (link) who are creating compostable thermoplastics which can be used for materials like shoes
The fully printable product is important. It’s become easy to mould a single component of a shoe, the insole, on site, but we haven’t yet really seen whole products being assembled on site.
Well, of course we have seen whole products assembled on site. But you have to go back to the days of an artisan cobbler or a bespoke suit maker. Since we started mass producing goods in factories, our supply chains have got more complex, more spread out.
We’re so used to our world of international mass production we don’t often step back to realise it’s nonsense.
It’s nonsense that someone designs a piece of clothing or a shoe that they THINK people in 6 months or a year will like, and then that item is made in a range of broadly average body shapes and sizes and then a certain quantity is produced.
I acknowledge that a lot of research, trend analytics and consumer forecasting has gone into deciding how many should be produced. But it’s not like we as individuals are asking “ooh H&M I would love a Green Knitted Jumper Dress with long sleeves”, they are effectively guessing what people will want, make it in an expected number of sizes, send is all across the world to be sold and then if enough people don’t buy it, just cut the price until it eventually does sell.
I know there is a lot more science that goes into analysing trends, predicting the sales numbers. I know companies like Shein have some very clever techniques to respond to trends and demand. But the fact remains that a lot of fashion is a big guess, it’s guessing what a certain sector of society will want, what rough sizes they will want it in and what price they would pay for it.
And it’s all of this reason that has got me so very excited by Vivo Biome.
BUT WHAT ON EARTH DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH REAL ESTATE?
I will admit, it’s a slightly spurious connection. But what this made me realise is, if it’s going to be easier to design, create and then produce custom products in a single location, that could have quite a profound impact on our retailing space.
AI is relevant here simply because the custom design process is called “AI-enabled”. It’s not clearly how truly artificial the intelligence is behind this but without being too cynical, the technology taking the scans and converting them to designs will no doubt have some kind of machine learning algorithm which helps design the shoe within the Vivo barefoot principals but based on each individuals two feet.
The potential here is for AI technology to make custom design cheaper quicker and easier. Therefore making it more plausible to go from design to finalised product either in a single shopping trip or as quickly as you get a package from Amazon on next day delivery.
WHAT ARE THE PLAUSIBLE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE REAL ESTATE WORLD?
I can see a world where shops have fewer physical products in stock, this is obviously already happening, with retail becoming more experience-led. I can see that trend continuing and perhaps we have little mini production units at the back of retail units, the equivalent of the kitchen for a restaurant, the place where the product is made.
It would mean more demand for ultra-urban warehouses. Obviously raw materials would need to be stored somewhere.
Now to be clear there are a lot of barriers to this type of retailing becoming the norm:
3D printing traditionally works best for metals and hard plastics, so it’s not clear how clothes could be made, if clothes could be made better and cheaper than by someone sewing them in a factory somewhere. But people said have said for a long time that the construction of shoes is too complex, there were too many different components. But VIVO are managing it. And look at the success of Crocs, a Croc must be ripe for being custom 3-D printed on site.
Another criticism is “what if I don’t like it, how do I return it!” and that is a big question that would require some cultural adjustment or change in attitude. Although as I said the 3d printed Vivo’s are compostable, so maybe if it’s not right it gets composted? It’s not a perfect solution but it might be.
And a final barrier is of course ultimately the cost, I suspect we’re still a long way from 3D printing custom products being cheaper than our current system of mass production.
In conclusion, we cannot predict the future of retail, but it’s the first product I’ve seen in while which strikes me as a truly viable alternative. And yes, it’s not Nike, but this is a company which is selling 1m pairs a year. This company has been around for 20 years. It’s not a flash in the pan start up idea with big dreams and cools visuals that’s going to fizzle out. If anyone has a good chance of producing custom made shoes, on site which are biodegrable to boot, if anyone can do that within the near future and change, at the least, their own shops, will less inventory, more machines, I think Vivo have a really good chance of being able to make that happen.
Let’s watch this space!
To read more about Vivo Biome follow this link .
Please note AIRE has no relationship with Vivo Barefoot or Balena, just an enthusiasm for the approach they are demonstrating!