Hi-tech apparel facility highlights risk of technological unemployment 
Under Armour hopes its new facility, known as the ‘Lighthouse,’ will shake up the sportswear manufacturing industry. The facility is part of an extension to the company’s headquarters in Baltimore, which aims to incorporate innovative concepts and technologies in footwear and athletic apparel production, such as using 3D body scanners to create avatars for custom clothing design. While the campus is eventually expected to house over 10,000 employees, the robotic technologies employed also show the potential for technological unemployment; with a machine managed by one person capable of gluing 2,400 pairs of shoe in eight hours, replacing a 200-person production line. 

The process of making athletic shoes and clothing has changed very little in the last half-century. Apart from industrial-sized machines that speed up production, many factories' operations look pretty similar.

Under Armour wants to reinvent the process in its giant design and manufacturing test center, which opened June 28. Called the Lighthouse, the 140,000-square-foot space will act as an extension of UA's Baltimore headquarters.

The goal of the new lab is to re-think how sneakers and athletic apparel are made, Under Armour's Head of Innovation, Kevin Haley, tells Tech Insider.

Tech Insider got an exclusive look inside the lab, which features a massive 3D body scanner and robots that make shoes. Check it out.