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Case at a Glance

As a leading omnichannel retailer of activewear and lifestyle apparel, Cutter & Buck operates three distribution centers across North America. Their products can be found everywhere from golf courses and corporate offices to stadiums and outdoor events, with apparel supporting major MLB, NFL, and NCAA sports franchises.

A major differentiator for Cutter & Buck is its ability to offer customized, or decorated, embroidery across a large portion of its product catalog. That combination of direct-to-consumer e-commerce, licensed retail partnerships, and customization services fueled significant business expansion — but it also increased the complexity of the company’s fulfillment operation.

At the Renton facility, nearly half of all picking activity supports embroidery workflows, requiring products to move quickly and accurately between storage, picking, and decoration operations. As order volumes and SKU counts continued to grow, Cutter & Buck recognized its existing fulfillment infrastructure would struggle to scale efficiently.

After evaluating several automation approaches, including mobile robotics, the company determined that a high-density automated storage and retrieval solution would provide the scalability, flexibility, and productivity improvements needed to support long-term growth.

Growth Exposed Fulfillment Bottlenecks

By the peak seasons of 2020 and 2021, Cutter & Buck’s existing manual picking operation was under significant strain. Surging e-commerce demand combined with labor shortages pushed the facility to its limits, making it increasingly difficult to maintain the fast turnaround times customers expected.

Leadership teams, including the CEO, CFO, and sales representatives, stepped directly into warehouse operations during the holidays to help fulfill customer orders and keep shipments moving.

The challenges exposed critical bottlenecks within the company’s legacy three-level pick module, where associates were walking miles each day to support fulfillment and embroidery workflows.

The company recognized that simply adding more labor was not a sustainable long-term strategy. Instead, Cutter & Buck began looking for a more automated fulfillment approach that would allow a smaller team to handle order picking while enabling additional workers to be shifted into embroidery and other value-added services. 

Why Cutter & Buck Chose AutoStore empowered By Kardex

Cutter & Buck selected an AutoStore system empowered by Kardex to transform its fulfillment operations and eliminate picking bottlenecks. The solution went live in August 2023 and was implemented with Kardex FulfillX warehouse execution system (WES) software.

More than just a storage automation project, the deployment by Kardex combined:

• - AutoStore’s high-density goods-to-person automation
• - Kardex FulfillX intelligent workflow orchestration
• - Integration with Cutter & Buck’s warehouse management system (WMS)
• - SVT Robotics orchestration software to streamline replenishment and order waving processes

The solution was designed to increase throughput, improve fulfillment responsiveness, support multiple distribution channels and future growth within one facility.

Kardex FulfillX Connects Fulfillment and Embroidery Operations

With roughly 50% of all picking activity supporting embroidery workflows, a unique solution was required to help manage order prioritization, inventory flow, and product movement between AutoStore and embroidery production.

Kardex FulfillX was the solution. It enabled different order types to be configured within the system so that products were directed to specific ports depending on whether items were shipping directly to customers or moving into embroidery operations for customization. Blank apparel orders are picked directly into shipping cartons for rapid fulfillment while products requiring customization are routed into totes and staged near embroidery operations for faster processing.

 “We needed to create a number of different order types within the Kardex system so that they could come out to specific Ports,” said Scott Sumpter. “We didn't want to have totes that would go to embroidery at the same Port that we had blank orders coming out.” 

 The software also gave Cutter & Buck the ability to prioritize urgent orders more effectively within the AutoStore system, allowing rush orders to be retrieved immediately and bypass standard order queues. 

Kardex FulfillX WES interface, featuring the 'Expedite Order' functionality

Faster Picking, Faster Shipping

Using AutoStore’s goods-to-person principle, robots retrieve inventory bins from the high-density storage grid and deliver them directly to stationary operators. By eliminating unnecessary travel throughout the warehouse, Cutter & Buck significantly improved picking speed, accuracy, and order flow.

Now, an order can come through Cutter & Buck’s website, generate a pick ticket, be picked, packed, and ready to ship in under 10 minutes. The system has also enabled the company to consistently ship blank orders same day while reducing turnaround times for embroidery operations.

Building a Flexible Workforce for Peak Demand

During peak season, 12 associates working with the AutoStore system handled volumes that previously required 30 workers.

By automating the picking process and reducing walking throughout the facility, Cutter & Buck created a more flexible fulfillment operation that can better adapt to shifting order volumes and seasonal demand spikes.

Associates can become productive on the system in approximately 10 minutes, allowing the company to cross-train employees and move labor where it is needed most throughout the operation.

Better Space Utilization

The high-density storage design enabled Cutter & Buck to maximize inventory capacity within its existing facility footprint while improving overall operational flow.

By consolidating inventory into the AutoStore system, the company was able to repurpose a former three-day work-in-progress staging area for additional storage needs and create more flexibility for future growth. 

The AutoStore system increased storage density, expanding inventory capacity from ~24,500 inventory positions to more than 34,000 bins within a smaller footprint. 

Designed for Long-Term Growth

The Renton AutoStore deployment includes:

• - 54 robots
• - 11 ports
• - 34,000 bins
•  

The system was intentionally designed to support approximately five years of projected growth without requiring major operational changes.

The additional storage density and faster fulfillment workflows also created greater flexibility for Cutter & Buck to expand its product offerings while maintaining high service levels and fast turnaround times.

Delivering Higher Service Levels Across Every Channel

For Cutter & Buck, the primary objective was not simply removing picking bottlenecks, it was creating the operational capacity needed to improve fulfillment responsiveness, support continued business growth, and consistently exceed customer expectations.

By combining AutoStore automation with Kardex software, integration expertise, and workflow orchestration capabilities, Cutter & Buck transformed its Renton fulfillment operation into a scalable, future-ready distribution environment capable of supporting both rapid fulfillment and complex embroidery workflows.

The deployment improved fulfillment speed, operational efficiency, and the company’s ability to maintain aggressive delivery timelines across all channels while positioning the business for continued long-term growth.

Are You Ready to Eliminate Fulfillment Bottlenecks?

Kardex helps organizations optimize fulfillment performance through intelligent automation, high-density storage, and software-driven workflow orchestration tailored to their operational needs. 

Schedule an Operational Assessment:

Connect with a Kardex automation specialist to evaluate your current fulfillment operation, identify bottlenecks, and uncover opportunities to improve throughput, storage density, labor efficiency, and order responsiveness.