Transportation is to move the products from one place to another. There are mainly three kinds of transportation will be used in the Adidas shoes commodity chain. First transportation method is by air, which has the highest speed and cost. The second method is ocean freight, which takes the longest time but have least cost. The last one is road transportation, which has the medium speed and cost among this three methods.
(Image retrieved from https://www.nationalaircargo.com/css/images/aircargo_4.jpg)
Transportation is involve in multiple activities in the commodity chain, such as transport products to warehouses, and transport products to customers. The selection of different transportation is based on the distance between the starting point and the destination, the cost and the delivery time. When transport products from the production factories to the retail stores oversea, Adidas choose the sea freight as the main shipping method (“Climate Change”).
The primary reason is that this method required the lowest cost. If the customer demand is not very high, the sea freight is the best choice. Since the main production factories are located in Asia while the retail stores separated widely all around the world. Most of the transportation have a very long distance. Consider the cost, ship the cargos by sea will be the best choice. In addition, Adidas’ logistics team works on minimize the use of air delivery every year. Besides the high cost, the high carbon emission is another consideration of Adidas. Transport products by air will result in 14 times of carbon emission compare to transport by ocean (“Environment”). For example, a large aircraft Boeing B747- 400F consume 3.4346 gallon of fuel per kilometer, which means carbon emission is 0.8 kg per kilometer (Chao). Carbon emission is one of the main causes of global warming. Minimize the air transportation help migrating the global warming process. In addition, the exhaust gas will lower the air quality. Most of the exhaust gas contain nitrogen oxides, which is harmful for our health.
Transportation map
adidas shoes commodity chain 