Tom Fletcher
Appearances
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
My name is Tom Fletcher. I was responsible for the strategic business unit inside Flex.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
We had built complicated stuff in North America. Complicated stuff that pushed us to create process, to create automation, to solve problems differently.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
We were incredibly excited. We were excited to learn. We were excited for the challenge.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
Absolutely tough but possible. If we can survive Apple, we can figure out Nike, for sure. Candidly speaking, I had probably a little bit of arrogance going in, knowing the kind of problems we'd solved before, thinking we'll go over here, we'll take a look, we'll figure out how to automate, we'll do our thing.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
One of the first things I noticed when I went into the factories in Asia is the number of toothbrushes they use specifically to glue the shoes. Huh, like you'd put glue on the toothbrush and kind of... Yeah, and you'd swab it all around and you'd stick it together and you'd press that thing down and boom, the shoe goes down the line. All right.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
My whole mantra to the team was, we're getting rid of all the toothbrushes.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
We spent a lot of time trying to create a process where we could much more easily adhere the swoosh to the side of the shoe. What we talk about in electronic manufacturing is pick and place. Robot picks it up, robot puts it down, robot puts it in place, we move along.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
The challenge was they were about to change the way they were going to build that shoe. And the next generation of that shoe had a painted-on swoosh. It didn't have a cut-in-place swoosh. So everything we had just done didn't count for the new version.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
It was just one of those decisions where it was costing everybody too much money.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
I think robots can't make shoes, first of all. I think the challenge is that balance between manufacturability and design. If design is lead dog and there's no even intent to collaborate at all, I think that's a very challenging environment for technology to keep up with.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
Oh, it was funny because I heard it and I reached out to my counterpart on the Nike site and I just texted him. I said, wouldn't it be nice to have a near short capability right now? And he texted me. And I tell you, five seconds after I texted him, he said, I'm thinking the exact same thing.
The Journal.
Made in America? Shoe Companies Already Tried That.
— Well, I've done it twice, right? I've brought an Apple product into Austin, Texas. I tried to get Nike back into Guadalajara, Mexico. It takes a long time, and it takes deep pockets.