Corvus Robotics reports that ASICS is running Corvus One autonomous inventory drones inside its Byhalia, Memphis, USA distribution centre, where nightly flights have increased counting frequency 6x in two of the building's highest risk storage areas, which are now counted monthly.

ASICS reports recovering misplaced inventory roughly 60% faster since the system went in and has redirected about 200 hours of monthly counting labour into inventory research and exception resolution.

The facility holds close to three million units, 2.3 million pairs of footwear and 700,000 pieces of apparel and accessories, across roughly 44,000 SKUs, all managed in a Manhattan Associates warehouse management system. It fills e-commerce orders and ships to wholesale accounts, along with ASICS full price and outlet retail stores.

Corvus One covers two storage profiles in the building: the singles area, where returned and single pair product gets stored and picked, and case reserve. Both were counted twice a year under ASICS cycle count policy.

"If a unit went missing, we might not find it for six months," says Kyle Koestler, Senior Director of Distribution and Transportation at ASICS America Corporation. "That could be the last pair in the building for an order we've already taken, and then the customer gets a cancellation. With Corvus One, we”Ære cycle counting on a monthly basis so we can surface any errors sooner and ensure customer orders are delivered on time."

The 200 hours a month that came out of manual counting went into work the inventory control team is better suited to, including inventory reconciliation in their packing operation, root cause research, and special projects for the wholesale side of the business. In one three-month stretch the drones surfaced 26 misplaced cases holding more than 200 pairs of shoes, product that would otherwise have stayed unavailable to customers until the next scheduled physical count.

In both areas the drone does two jobs on the same pass, reading every UPC and counting the boxes in each location. In the singles area, returns mean the same SKU can show up several times in one location, so a UPC read on its own can get attached to the wrong box. Counting the boxes gives ASICS a physical total to check the scans against. If the drone counts ten boxes, it should come back with ten UPC reads.

ASICS schedules seven flights a night, starting around 7 p.m. The very narrow aisles (VNA) the drones fly in are less than 6 feet wide, and Corvus One flies them using onboard computer vision and spatial reasoning, with no additional infrastructure anywhere in the building. The following morning an inventory associate reviews each flight and resolves most discrepancies from a desk, working off the video and images the drones capture of every location.

ASICS publishes availability feeds to online marketplaces, and before Corvus One the team held back 12 to 15 units out of every 100 because the tail of the inventory chain carried fulfillment risk. Product at the bottom of that tail never shows up on the marketplace, which leaves liquidation at a steep discount as the alternative. ASICS now publishes the full feed and sells that product at full price.

"A footwear distribution centre carrying tens of thousands of SKUs across every channel is one of the more complex inventory environments in the industry," says Mohammed Kabir, CEO and Co-founder at Corvus Robotics. "Operators like ASICS keep those buildings accurate, and that has always taken a lot of manual counting. Corvus One takes that work on autonomously, in the areas that see the most handling and tend to produce the most discrepancies, so orders ship on time and product sells at full price.”

Taking those counts off the floor also means fewer hours of lift equipment running through the aisles, which feeds another ASICS priority. The Byhalia facility is LEED Silver certified and draws about half its power from an on-site solar array. ASICS counts the Corvus One deployment among the programmes supporting its sustainability goals.

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

Supply chain technology was a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

Check out our winners here.

The awards celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world. Our winners were revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

The event consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, awards ceremony presided over by award winning stand-up comedian, presenter, actor and broadcaster, Aurie Styla, and after party until 1am.