Twice-a-year counts hid lost shoes for months. ASICS now counts its riskiest storage monthly with drones

ASICS America now counts two of the most handled storage areas in its Byhalia, Mississippi, distribution center every month instead of twice a year, using warehouse inventory drones from Corvus Robotics that fly each night. ASICS reports finding misplaced stock about 60% faster and moving about 200 labor hours a month off manual counting, Corvus announced on November 10, 2026.

Key points

• The Byhalia center holds close to 3 million units across roughly 44,000 SKUs and ships e-commerce, wholesale and ASICS store orders, according to the announcement.
• Corvus One drones fly seven missions a night through aisles under 6 feet wide, reading each UPC and counting the boxes in every location on the same pass.
• The singles area (returns and single pairs) and case reserve moved from two counts a year to monthly counts, a sixfold increase.
• In one three-month stretch the drones found 26 misplaced cases holding more than 200 pairs of shoes, the announcement says.
• ASICS says it now sends its full availability feed to online marketplaces, where it used to hold back 12 to 15 of every 100 units.

How long can misplaced stock stay hidden between cycle counts?

Misplaced stock can stay hidden until the next count, which under a twice-a-year policy can be half a year away. Record errors can be widespread: a study of nearly 370,000 inventory records from 37 stores of one retailer found 65% did not match what was on the shelf, and named inventory auditing practices among the factors that lowered the error rate (DeHoratius and Raman, Management Science, 2008).

At ASICS, the cost of a missing unit shows up as a canceled order, according to its senior director of distribution and transportation:

"If a unit went missing, we might not find it for six months. That could be the last pair in the building for an order we've already taken, and then the customer gets a cancellation."

— Kyle Koestler, Senior Director of Distribution and Transportation, ASICS America Corporation

How do warehouse inventory drones count stock at ASICS?

At ASICS, the drones fly the aisles overnight and leave the exceptions for a person the next morning. ASICS runs seven flights a night from around 7 p.m., and Corvus says the drones find their way with onboard computer vision, with nothing added to the building.

On each pass a drone does two things: it scans every UPC and it counts the boxes in the location. That matters in the singles area, where returns put the same SKU in one location several times and a scan alone can be matched to the wrong box. The box count gives a physical total to check the scans against, so ten boxes should mean ten reads. The next morning an inventory associate goes through each flight's video and images and settles most discrepancies without walking the floor.

What changed for ASICS's inventory team and its sales?

By ASICS's account, two things changed: where its counting hours go, and how much stock it lists for sale. The roughly 200 hours a month that manual counts used to take now go to reconciliation in the packing operation, root-cause research and projects for the wholesale business.

On sales, ASICS used to keep 12 to 15 of every 100 units off its marketplace availability feeds, because the tail of its inventory carried a risk of failed fulfillment. For stock that never reached the marketplace, the fallback was liquidation at a steep discount. ASICS says it now lists the full feed and sells that product at full price. It also counts fewer lift-truck hours in the aisles toward its sustainability goals at a building that is LEED Silver certified and gets about half its power from on-site solar.

What should operations leaders take from the ASICS deployment?

Our analysis: ASICS did not put drones on the whole building. It picked the two storage areas that see the most handling, returns and case reserve, and raised their count frequency there. It also reported the change in figures a finance team can check: hours moved to other work, how fast misplaced stock is found, and how many units are listed for sale. Time spent per task and error rates are among the baselines contributors suggest setting in 11 methods for measuring process automation impact. The marketplace point ties counting to working capital: the units ASICS used to hold back worked like a buffer against record errors, a cousin of the cash-versus-stockout trade-off in setting safety stock rules that protect cash.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the ASICS distribution center that uses Corvus drones?

In Byhalia, Mississippi. The announcement describes it as an 855,000-square-foot building.

Which warehouse management system does the facility run?

Its inventory is managed in a Manhattan Associates warehouse management system, according to the announcement.

Do Corvus One drones need markers or beacons in the warehouse?

Corvus says no. The company says Corvus One flies without stickers, beacons or markers and needs no human operator, including in freezers.

Which other companies use Corvus Robotics?

Corvus names Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, GNC, Dermalogica and MSI Surfaces as customers.

Sources

• Corvus Robotics press release on drone counts at ASICS America: press release from Corvus Robotics via GlobeNewswire, 10 November 2026.
• Inventory Record Inaccuracy: An Empirical Analysis: Nicole DeHoratius and Ananth Raman, Management Science, 2008.
• About Corvus Robotics: the company's website.