Traceability is a complex and important topic in the apparel and footwear industry. With so many traceability solutions on the market, it can be challenging for brands to navigate and choose the right one for their needs. At TYGR, we are knowledgeable about traceability solutions and can help you make the right decision for your brand.

Traceability is becoming increasingly important as consumers and governments demand more transparency and accountability in the fashion industry. In recent years, there have been revelations of forced labor practices in China and false certification of organic cotton in India. In response, some countries have introduced legislation to enforce traceability, putting the onus on companies to meet labor and environmental standards along their supply chain.

To help brands offer transparency and traceability, a number of solutions have emerged in recent years. These include FibreTrace, which embeds pigments onto fibers at the spinning mill to make them fully traceable, and Lyfcycle, which uses QR codes on clothing labels to allow customers to learn about the provenance of their garments.

At TYGR, we can help you understand the options and choose the right traceability solution for your brand. Contact us today to learn more.

Founded in Australia in 2018, FibreTrace is a technology that embeds luminescent pigments onto fibers at the spinning mill in order to make a textile that is fully traceable at every stage of its lifecycle. FibreTrace co-founders Danielle Statham and her husband David originally wanted to track the cotton they farmed to make sure their fibers weren’t being mixed with lower quality fibers when they sent it to the spinning mills.

The Stathams partnered with anti-counterfeiting expert Paul Stenning, now FibreTrace’s head of Research and Development, to apply his technology to their cotton. The pigments are indestructible and built into fiber so that even if the fabric is recycled, its origins can still be traced using a handheld scanner that reads the pigment. Information about the fiber is stored on a secure blockchain database in real-time at each stage of the production line. It’s not just cotton that is becoming more traceable – FibreTrace technology can be applied to responsible viscose and recycled polyester. The company is currently trialling it on wool, leather and bast fibers like hemp and flax.

The pandemic has accelerated the use of QR codes in daily life, which can only be a good thing for Lyfcycle, which applies QR codes to clothing labels so that customers can learn about the provenance of their garments. Founded in 2019 by a father-daughter duo, Lyfcycle’s focus is on encouraging customers to make more informed decisions on the shop floor before they buy a garment.

This happens through the Lyfcycle app, where customers can scan a garment’s QR code to reveal an interactive map and read up on what it’s made of, where it came from and who made it. For brands and suppliers, Lyfcycle’s Web Traceability Platform can be used to trace textile waste from production to help understand the environmental impact and inefficiencies in the supply chain. Currently, the company counts Skopes menswear and Smiley as its biggest clients.

A leading traceability tech platform is EON, founded in 2015 by Natasha Franck. Based in New York, EON is all about strengthening the circular economy, connecting brands, customers and the industry using technology that integrates with NFC (near-field communication) tags or QR codes to assign a garment with a CircularID. This ID contains information about the garment’s original price, material composition, dye processes and other key features, which would help recycling companies better understand what to do with the garment, allow brands to refurbish old clothes, and assist in the authentication of luxury products for resale.

The CircularID protocol is a standard that EON hopes will be adopted industry-wide – they’re already working with the likes of H&M, YOOX NET-A-PORTER Group, Gabriela Hearst, Nanushka and Target to create connected products. EON’s tech also allows brands to create a hub of information for consumers, too. Nanushka’s Resort 2021 collection features connected products that once scanned, offered styling options, resale instructions and sustainability credentials for customers to explore.

Based in New York, CertainT is a platform set up by Applied DNA Sciences that tags fibers using a molecular identifier called SigNature tags. These can be applied and detected at any point in a garment’s lifecycle through forensic testing, done in an Applied DNA laboratory, or on-site at any stage in the supply chain.

Molecular tags are uncopyable, customizable, resistant to extreme environmental conditions and can be applied to both natural and synthetic fibers, including cotton, leather, down and feathers, wool and recycled polyester. Once tagged, data on the fiber is tracked, recorded and uploaded to a cloud database that a brand or supplier can access online and share with their customers. U.S. cotton companies PimaCott and  HomeGrown Cotton work with CertainT to forensically verify their cotton — the company claims that over 100 million pounds have been marked so far.

TextileGenesis is a Hong Kong-based tech company that is best known for creating Fibercoins, which are essentially digital tokens – likened to fingerprints – that can be assigned to any textile asset, like fiber, yarn, fabric, or finished garment, creating a digital identity that tracks the fiber as it moves through the supply chain. Fibercoins stay intact no matter how many times the material is reused or recycled, and the information is stored using blockchain, which can’t be altered or tampered with.

According to Canopy, of the “6.5 million metric tons of viscose pulp produced annually,  approximately half comes from Ancient and Endangered Forests,” so traceability in the viscose supply chain is important for their preservation.

Last year, the company was one of the winners of the H&M Foundation Global Change Award and also launched the Viscose Traceability Project with luxury group Kering, Fashion for Good and Danish fashion giant Bestseller.

French start-up ViJi allows brands to follow the production of their garments in real-time using photo-geolocation to ensure that suppliers are following their CSR procedures. Viji also authenticates this information using blockchain, and structures it so it’s accessible to customers.

Viji’s consumer-facing services include Viji Clic, a web plug-in that gives a customer access to a brand’s available information about their social and environmental credentials, as well as the ViJi App, which scans a brand’s barcode to access their sustainability information in stores. ViJi’s clients include a host of sustainable French brands and suppliers including HABILE, Maison ALFA, Balas Textile and Laines Paysannes.

Retraced is a German startup that utilizes blockchain technology to collect data from supply chains. Information is collected on materials, environmental impacts and labor conditions.

Philip Mayer and Lukas Puender launched the company in 2018. The two owned an ethical footwear brand called CANO and were looking for a tool to help them communicate the story of their products to consumers. Finding the current offerings insufficient, they partnered with Oracle to create a tool that would accomplish this.

Their pilot went live in June of 2019. Last month, the company won the Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis, a sustainability award given to German startups.

Sourcemap is a company that creates products that help take companies to what they call “radical transparency”.

Sourcemap was launched out of MIT in 2005 and offers the first platform to manage multi-tier supply chains by tracking products from end to end. In November 2019, Sourcemap announced it was partnering with Common Objective, the sustainability centered sourcing and information network, to “help brands attain supply chain transparency” using Sourcemap’s open source technology.

CONNECTED by control union is an open platform enabling suppliers and materials to be traced along the entire supply chain, from finished products to raw material sources.

Using CONNECTED, companies can access a wide range of data, from suppliers and process details to compliance information and the flow of materials. Complete visibility allows companies to assess community and environmental risks and impacts, and the management of sustainability programs.

CONNECTED can also streamline outsourcing processes and improve communication with suppliers.

 Control Union, in partnership with H&M, has created CONNECTED to help the apparel industry meet its commitments to supply chain transparency and responsible sourcing. A unique supply chain traceability and data service, CONNECTED was designed for apparel industry supply chains that are complex, distributed over several tiers and countries.

CONNECTED provides companies with full visibility over their entire supply chains. It also collects a variety of data, helping them to assess the risks and their impact on communities and the environment. Initial trainings have already been rolled out within a select group of H&M’s viscose suppliers.

Engagement and support to suppliers along the chains is a key priority of this service. To make sure that everyone remains committed, dedicated support centres have been established in all producing regions. A local CONNECTED representative is always available to guide suppliers in using the system, to address technical issues or for general enquiries.