Difficult balance for brands over AI use
The senior director of advanced creation at adidas, Walter Wählt, has said he understands the resistance of some consumers towards having finished products made entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) and automation tools.
During a press event to preview the Techtextil and Texprocess events that will take place in Frankfurt in April, Mr Wählt said that, in his experience, AI worked well as a visualisation tool.
He explained that some of his design and marketing colleagues at adidas are enthusiastic users of AI. “They are able to be very creative with it,” he said, “and reach decisions on design much faster than they could before. But you cannot create a pattern with AI. AI for the whole engineering part of creating a product that you can manufacture and that a customer will be happy to wear does not yet exist.”
He said he was hopeful of seeing “the first steps in that direction” at Texprocess and Techtextil 2026.
He went on to say that he has come across “some promising, small companies” that are already working on extending the use of AI in finished product manufacturing, but he repeated that the technology is of limited use to teams like his.
“At the moment AI is just a visual tool, with which designers and marketing teams can go crazy,” he continued. “But we still have to do the engineering part without AI.”
During the event, sportstextiles.com asked Mr Wählt if he had any sympathy with consumers who are unenthusiastic about buying products designed and manufactured by AI and robots, and what he thought companies like adidas can do to strike the right balance.
In response, the adidas senior director said: “Personally, I would not like to have a garment that was completely made by AI, with humans taking none of the decisions about how it was engineered. There is no label at the moment that certifies that a garment was made by humans, but it is an interesting topic.”
