Sarah Clang, vice president operations with RG Barry Brands, describes her experience of attending ProMat for the first time, and discusses what kinds of automated systems offer the best prospects for boosting efficiency in the warehouse.

RG Barry sells a brand-management platform that handles such names as Deerforms slippers, Baggalini Bags, Planet A sustainable footwear, and some private-label product.

Attending her first-ever ProMat exhibit and trade show, Clang declares the experience to be “overwhelming.” The 2025 version of the Chicago-based event played host to some 50,000 attendees, and multiple halls of booths featuring a wide variety of automation systems for warehousing and distribution centers.

RG Barry has long relied on a third-party logistics provider to handle its warehousing and distribution needs, but Clang came to ProMat this year “to see what else is out there. We don’t drive the solutions for our goods, but we do agree on how they’re going to handle it, and the KPIs [key performance indicators] that they have to get through.”

In particular, Clang pronounced herself impressed at ProMat by cycle-counting drones that automate what is traditionally a disruptive and tedious task for humans to perform. “You can shut down a warehouse for an entire week doing a physical inventory,” she says, while stressing that few facilities today can afford that luxury. So drones become the means of carrying out cycle counting while the distribution facility continues to function in an uninterrupted manner.

All the same, Clang sees continuing relevance for the presence of people in the warehouse, albeit one that involves a different set of tasks, some of which will continue to be performed side by side by robots for the foreseeable future. “There’s still a role for humans,” she says. “but I think it’s going to evolve.”