Digital storytelling through connected garments

Fashion brands have a neat new communications channel up their sleeves. Clothes.

Garments and footwear can now tell their own stories, thanks to Digital ID technology, and the advent of Digital Product Passports (DPPs). In store, a shopper can use their phone to scan a smart care label on a coat, for example. This will open a dedicated webpage and they'll find out exactly where the coat was made, the type and source of the textiles used, and potentially even the amount of carbon emissions to manufacture it. Any ‘green promises’ can be thoroughly substantiated, as can the garment’s brand authenticity.

At home, further information can be accessed through the Digital IDs, which acts as a digital folder of information, stored on a connected cloud platform such as Avery Dennison’s atma.io. The coat owner will be able to check on care instructions, tap into styling suggestions, watch videos on similar products, and learn how they can give it a second life, or recycle the item once it reaches the end of its life. Brand storytelling can be woven in too, prolonging engagement with that customer long after the purchase was made.

If the original retailer has a take-back scheme set up, the coat owner can find out how that works via the Digital ID, and perhaps claim a coupon for returning the coat. The item can then be processed through the retailer’s reverse logistics scheme, completing the circularity loop, and helping the brand meet and report on its ESG goals. Only with access to all the material composition data can industrial textile recyclers properly sort and recycle the garment. Resale is another option, and the Digital ID will prove authenticity and help any new owners tap into vital care and recycling information during this latter stage of the coat’s lifecycle.

All along the value chain, the Digital ID is telling and prolonging the garment’s story, making sure circularity comes to bear.

This scenario shows how Digital IDs are going to power a future where supply chain visibility, circularity, and long-term brand engagement become part of fashion’s fabric in the coming years.

Our new report explains how incoming eco-legislation will mandate high levels of transparency, forcing apparel brands to make product data available to consumers and regulators. Sustainability-focused brands are busy exploring new ways to use digital triggers and IoT (Internet of Things) models to connect with consumers through the physical garments themselves. They are beginning to creatively communicate their brand’s values and content to customers in highly effective and personal ways.

At Avery Dennison, we’re playing our part. We’re providing the digital trigger and technology. Our cloud-based solutions like atma.io are enabling a constant flow of data, and a suite of apps are bringing the whole ecosystem of circularity to life.

To support clothing circularity, Avery Dennison has worked with leading names in fashion, providing the technology that allows the compelling story of garments to be passed on to new owners of clothes, and for brands to keep track of useful data.

We helped visionary vintage retailer Transnomadica, team with fashion legend Ron Herman to bring technology into the high-end re-sale market. Our digital care labels on vintage products made it simple for shoppers to interact with a capsule range of Ron Herman vintage items, through QR codes. With a simple smartphone scan of an item’s QR code, they might discover that a jacket had been originally made in the 1960s, for example.

“Customers can scan the QR code on a digital care label and read the story of the item,” explains Maurizio Fonadi, founder of Transnomadica, in our special video. “Over time, there is the opportunity to update the information, and authenticate the story we want to tell. The re-selling proposition of second-hand and vintage is going to be central to the circular model. People and the planet will benefit from this.”

Digital storytelling through connected garments opens a world of possibilities. Today we’re on chapter one, but there are many more to come.