Shawn Peddie named as new Sr. Director - Global Merchandising Technology role at Foot Locker

Shawn Peddie has taken on the role of Sr. Director - Global Merchandising Technology at Foot Locker.

He joins from Tory Burch, where he served as Vice President of Engineering. Prior to that, he spent almost 11 years at The Home Depot, holding various roles during that time, including Sr. Director Technology - Inventory Planning and Replenishment.

In a LinkedIn post, he said: "New chapter. Let’s go! Excited to share that I’ve started a new role with Foot Locker I’m grateful for the opportunity to get back to what I enjoy most - partnering closely with business and technology teams to get sh*t done (GSD)."

"Huge thanks to the Foot Locker tech and business leadership teams for their trust. I’m fired up to work with these folks and looking forward to building alongside such a strong group. I’m excited to be part of the Merch Technology team within Global Technology Services (GTS) - there’s a ton of great work ahead... Let’s get after it!"

SIMPL Automation

The Home Depot recently acquired SIMPL Automation, a two year old US-based startup focused on automation and technology systems. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SIMPL uses engineering and AI technology with the aim of helping distribution facilities operate faster and more efficiently. The Home Depot says that the technology furthers its strategy of same-day/next-day fulfillment while also improving safety and increasing speed.

The acquisition followed a pilot at The Home Depot’s Locust Grove, Ga. distribution centre, where it drove faster pick speed, faster cycle times and less product touches. It also has a patented storage and retrieval solution that helps maximise storage density, allowing the home improvement retailer to house a broader assortment of high demand products closer to the customer.

“We’re focused on providing the best interconnected experience in home improvement by having products in stock and ready to deliver to our customers whether it's to the home or jobsite,” said Amit Kalra, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at The Home Depot. “By bringing SIMPL’s industry leading automation into our operations, we’re accelerating the flow of products through our distribution network to deliver with unprecedented speed and precision.”

Andy Williams, Executive VP of Sales North American at Exotec, commented: "Home Depot just acquired a two-year-old startup to build its warehouse automation in-house. Here's the track record of that strategy from companies with vastly more resources. Amazon bought Kiva Systems in 2012 for $775 million. Thirteen years later, their robotics arm still requires thousands of engineers, billions in ongoing R&D, and a dedicated subsidiary. Amazon is a logistics company. They are still building."

"Walmart signed an $11 billion deal with Symbotic in 2022 to retrofit 42 regional distribution centres. The roll-out is years behind schedule. Walmart publicly extended the timeline in both 2023 and 2024. Walmart's core competency is supply chain. They are still struggling. Attabotics, an ASRS startup Home Depot reportedly evaluated and passed on, filed Chapter 11 in mid-2024."

"That is the landscape Home Depot is entering - not by buying a platform with a decade of field hardened deployments, the way Amazon did, but by acquiring a company founded in 2023 on the strength of a single DC pilot. The pitch for going in-house usually sounds like: "Software is a core competency, why pay someone else a margin?"But warehouse automation isn't software."

He adds: "The deeper issue is the one every Home Depot exec should be asking aloud: what is our core competency? It is being the best home improvement retailer in the world. BOPIS. Store ops. Pro relationships. Category management. That is where leadership focus drives same-store sales. Every hour an executive spends debating why a put-wall isn't hitting its rate target is an hour not spent on the thing that actually compounds. Amazon and Walmart can afford that tax because logistics is the business. Home Depot cannot."

"This isn't a bold contrarian bet. It's a common strategic error dressed in modern automation language - "in-house," "proprietary," "vertical integration" - applied to a domain where every company that tried it at scale, with more capital and more logistics DNA than Home Depot has, is still paying the price. The pilots always look great. The roll-outs are where the bodies are buried. I'll be watching the rate curves."