JD Sports, a leading global sportswear retailer with 4,850 stores (as at February 1, 2025), is known for its exclusive labels and brand partnerships. As its supply chain expands across regions and categories, JD is embracing digital transformation to gain control, drive efficiency, and stay agile.
With Avery Dennison, the company is connecting its products, from source to store, unlocking visibility and smarter decision-making.
Turning supply chain complexity into control
JD Sports, established in 1981, is a leading British sports fashion retailer. As of August 2024, the Group operates over 4,500 stores across 36 countries, with a strong presence in the UK, Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific.
Beyond retail, JD Sports manages eight private labels and also holds exclusive manufacturing licenses for major brands including Nike, adidas, and The North Face to be sold through JD stores. JD Sports’ complex supply chain encompasses everything from product conception and design through to the sourcing of raw materials, production processes, and global distribution.
The Challenge
Case Study JD Sports Connected Product Journey
JD Sports sought to gain full supply chain visibility of inventory across its own brand and licensed manufacturing and distribution operations, to improve efficiency and responsiveness.
“Anyone who works in apparel sourcing and manufacturing will know that getting to the heart of what’s happening in mills and dye houses is extremely challenging. Visibility can be very poor,” says Liz Larkin, Own Brand Director at JD Sports.
JD Sports is entering many new regions, shipping around the world, and pursuing a business model of being close to market. “We ship directly from suppliers to many different territories. That is incredibly hard to manage. We need to be reactive to what’s happening in each territory in terms of inventory accuracy,” explains Larkin.
In addition, JD Sports wanted to comply with incoming sustainability legislation, such as the EU’s Digital Product Passport initiative, which requires a great deal of product data.
JD Sports felt that with supply chain transparency, the company would be able to take control, drive efficiencies, and be better prepared for the future.
Creating a digital identity for a physical product is central to Avery Dennison’s Optica supply chain solutions, which JD Sports chose for its visibility project.
A combination of intelligent labels using QR codes and RFID, the atma.io connected product cloud, and in-field hardware puts actionable data in the hands of brands, their suppliers, regulators, and customers.
Visibility drives smarter production
Having invested in Optica™ portfolio of solutions and connecting its products across the supply chain, JD Sports now has clear, real-time visibility into every stage of production, from raw materials to finished goods moving from factory to store. This end-to-end insight enables the company to make smarter, more proactive, data-driven decisions that help optimize production, reduce waste, and adapt swiftly to changes in consumer demand.
As a result of visibility on-demand, JD Sports has significantly reduced the risk of overproduction in its manufacturing operations, helping the company stay on-trend, agile, and efficient.
Control of compliance data
Enabling ESG (environmental, social, and governance) compliance becomes easier with Optica. At JD Sports, QR codes on labels and a central product data platform have been used to create ‘connected products’ and ensure visibility both upstream and downstream. This enables greater visibility of compliance data. For example, when JD Sports is auditing factories to protect against modern slavery in the supply chain, compliance data can be centrally managed.
“Because we're pushing it down the supply chain, the suppliers are able to upload that certification to the platform, giving us really clear visibility,” says Larkin.
Product stories engage consumers
When products are connected, the ‘story’ of a garment can be shared with the end consumer. Larkin says: “With our connected products, we have visibility at the mill and the dye house. We’ve got visibility at the cutting room, the sewing room, through to the packing process. Then right the way through to delivering to the consumer, it’s connected. We now have the ability to allow the end customer to access the story of that whole journey.”
Streamlining communication for a better future
JD Sports plans to enhance visibility by engaging third parties beyond its direct suppliers, such as factory auditors and garment testing companies. Streamlined communication between all these stakeholders will enable the company to bring products to market faster while ensuring compliance with industry standards.
“Once you have RFID and data centralized then you can go down a million different paths,” says Larkin. “The possibilities to innovate are endless.”
JD Sports and Avery Dennison took part in a Big Idea Session at NRF 2025 entitled Seeing is Believing: Enabling a Connected Product Journey
Find out more about the discussion and watch the video here.
To find out more about Optica, contact the Avery Dennison sales team today