Solving RFID Challenges for a Global Athleisure Retailer
How a premium brand streamlined in-store RFID tagging with SATO CT4-LX

About the Brand
As a premium athleisure retailer with a global presence, this company operates over 50 brick-and-mortar locations across more than 13 countries. Each location offers not only athletic wear but also yoga studios, gyms, and lifestyle amenities that reflect the brand’s holistic approach to wellness.

Beyond apparel, the brand has expanded into adjacent categories including skincare, ski wear, sneakers, and even formalwear, reinforcing its reputation for premium, lifestyle-focused offerings. The brand continues to grow its global footprint and elevate customer experience both in-store and online.

The Challenge
The retailer was working with a channel partner to implement an in-store RFID ticketing system. Their goal: to enable in-store tagging of merchandise and generate replacement tags as needed. This required a compact desktop printer that could reliably encode specialized UHF RFID tags for integration with their POS and loss prevention systems.

While exploring several vendors—they encountered encoding issues with the custom tags, making their rollout plans increasingly complex and delayed.

The Roadblock
None of the existing vendors could meet the technical requirements to encode the retailer’s specific RFID tags. That’s when the channel partner introduced SATO. The brand submitted samples of their RFID tags for evaluation, and SATO’s engineering team quickly stepped in to provide testing, support, and a custom firmware solution using the CT4-LX printer.

The SATO Solution
SATO proposed a solution centered around the CT4-LX RFID printer with a built-in dispenser and WLAN capabilities. After extensive pre-testing, SATO confirmed the printer’s ability to handle the brand’s 27mm x 45mm RFID tags (with an M730 inlay), pitched at 30.48mm.

To ensure compatibility with the brand’s serialization requirements, SATO developed a custom firmware configuration and provided two printers for real-world testing and approval. The installed dispenser enabled store operators to print and tag merchandise efficiently, without interrupting day-to-day operations.

The Outcome
With SATO’s support, the brand can now produce RFID tags directly in-store with greater accuracy and speed. Store teams are empowered to manage tagging independently—reducing delays and improving the consistency of labeling across locations.

The solution provided:

• On-demand RFID tag printing
• Seamless integration with in-store systems
• Reliable, accurate encoding of specialized tags
• Reduced downtime and improved operational consistency

Scaling with Confidence
To date, the retailer has installed SATO CT4-LX printers across its store network, with an additional units expected to roll out in 2025. The scalable nature of the solution not only helped resolve an immediate challenge—it also laid the foundation for long-term operational efficiency.

This success has strengthened the relationship between SATO and the channel partner, opening the door to future opportunities within the retailer’s broader operations.