As part of a sustainability initiative to expand apparel and product traceability, label company Trimco Group has designed a solution that leverages technology such as embedded RFID for textile soft labels. With RFID built into garments, the lifespan of each item can be traced from the factory to disposal.
Furthering this effort, the company has launched a partnership with digital ID technology company Kezzler to offer an end-to-end label and traceability solution. The partnership will enable a solution that connects data to both brands and consumers, ultimately aiming to provide the EU’s Digital Product Passport (DPP) compliance and boost sustainability. 1356 rfid
The collaboration with Kezzler comes as a way to provide brands with an end-to-end option, instead of only one part of the puzzle, said Dennis Sand Eskesen, Trimco’s head of source tagging solutions (STS) and RFID.
By combining Trimco Group’s supply chain traceability, data management, and RFID as well as QR-code solutions, with Kezzler’s digital ID solutions technology, they can improve how apparel brands manage their supply chains, in compliance with the pending EU regulations. In the long term, it enables brands to engage consumers through detailed product information and promotes circular initiatives like recycling and resale, the companies assert.
Trimco Group is a labeling provider that has been offering the digitalization of label content to create a digital trail of each tagged garment over the past few years. The group already provides labelling for more than 1,000 brands. The digitized version provides a way to identify compliant care and content information for customers as well as those in the supply chain.
The solution, known as ProductDNA, leverages RFID as one option for its circular management initiatives. The collaboration with Kezzler will provide the consumer-facing software and analytics about consumer behavior, along with Trimco’s ProductDNA and its care and price labels. The digital trail—provided via QR codes or RFID or NFC—can include information about manufacturing, the materials in the product, as well as washing instructions.
Kezzler already offers traceability and transparency software for brands across industries and markets that include apparel, retail, food and beverage, agriculture, industrial and pharmaceutical.
The two companies’ collaboration offers a more seamless end-to-end supply chain solution, officials said. While Trimco Group’s ProductDNA solution offers data about a product as well as tags, Kezzler’s platform includes consumer engagement, resale support and analytics. ProductDNA is the platform that gathers upstream data, while Kezzler provides solutions and data for options at the product’s end of life (repair, resell). The addition of embedded RFID in this equation would facilitate the recycling process.
But the textile recycling technology and industry is still at the beginning stages. Kezzler’s platform enables brands to build more engaging product experiences on top of the ProductDNA solution, for use cases like re-sale, repair and return. The platform also offers analytics capabilities for events and interactions with the products.
“With the data from Trimco, including ProductDNA,” said Kezzler’s marketing and communications head, Henrikke Sylte. “We enable customers to provide improved services post-purchase including easier repair, authenticated returns and an easier resell process integrated with resell platforms.”
Working together is the way forward, Eskesen said, to help the fashion industry become more digital. “A lot of the waste issues that textile industry is facing can be avoided by implementing and making use of technology such as RFID and a good variable data management, making better production predictions and reducing inventory loss,” he stated.
Their customers are makers of apparel and footwear, as well as some home and sporting goods. In keeping with the identification standard for RFID in these verticals, “we have designed specific inlays following [Auburn RFID Lab’s ] ARC specifications for those products,” added Eskesen.
Textile products using an RFID-based ProductDNA platform typically leverage Trimco’s soft care label. The sewn-in soft care label becomes part of the product: the integrated UHF RAIN RFID tags can sustain washing and are intended to remain with the product for a lifetime.
Kezzler (a Norwegian company) and Trimco have worked together in the Norwegian market, including for Oslo-based fashion company Holzweiler. Holzweiler opted to be an early adopter of the DPP identification process (which is not yet mandated). It does so by creating a digital record of each of its products from manufacturing to disposal or recycling.
The system uses QR codes to make the products’ stories traceable and transparent. Data captured through the QR codes is presented to consumers through Kezzler’s platform. The brand can analyze data related to how the label is engaged with and general consumer behavior related to that product.
An RFID tag attached to a product, such as a jacket or pair of trousers as the product is made, could create a unique story that is of value to the supply chain constituents.
Data such as the fibers and materials used in the product could be stored with the tag’s unique ID. Other data captured could include the date and location where the product was made, and any sustainable practices. The tag ID could also be used through the supply chain and store for inventory tracking, to know what product is where.
Going forward the partnership could assist the apparel industry with a more circular economy by identifying a used item that is brought to a business for repairs, returned from a rental, or recycled.
To make data available to consumers, the labels can include QR codes or NFC chips, so that information can be accessed with a smartphone. Typically, a consumer could scan the code or tap their phone to access the NFC data, without requiring an app, to view information about the product they are considering buying.
Beyond providing supply chain and inventory visibility, the system, with Kezzler’s technology, can also support loss prevention, returns or exchanges and product authentication.
In May, Trimco and German fashion brand Hessnatur began a pilot tracking in-garment RFID and QR-code tags on denim products to track goods through circular initiatives. Their aim is to prolong the life of clothes by using the brand’s care and repair guide and service for pre-worn items. The goal is to track garments even as they are received at recycling sites. The solution was provided by circular fashion technology company circularity.ID. Kezzler did not participate in the pilot.
By tagging the jeans at the point where they are made in North Africa, the companies can read each product’s unique ID as it ships to the store, creating a history of its movement through warehouse and into back of store, and sales floor.
While the six-month pilot is nearing the end, the companies may continue testing related to how the tags could be read at a simulated garment sorting and recycle station.
In another effort toward a more sustainable supply chain and garment, Trimco recently released its PaperMark line of RFID inlays without plastic, designed for apparel as well as homeware.
These PaperMark inlays, without plastic PET liners, include a digitally cut aluminum antenna. The process for creating the antenna is more environmentally sustainable than the traditional chemical-based etching process which leads to more waste. Trimco Group’s PaperMark inlay incorporates Impinj M700 and M800 tag chips.
About the Author: Claire Swedberg
Tagged with: Auburn University RFID Lab, circularity.ID., Dennis Sand Eskesen, Digital Product Passport, DPP, garment management, Henrikke Sylte, Kezzler, NFC, Norway, PaperMark, ProductDNA, QR-codes, Retail, textile, Trimco Group
James Hickey, Managing Editor, RFID Journal [email protected]
Claire Swedberg, Senior Editor, RFID Journal [email protected] +1 (360) 466-1562
James Hickey, Managing Editor, RFID Journal [email protected]
Claire Swedberg Senior Editor, RFID Journal [email protected] +1 (360) 466-1562
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