How a Secret Wire Tracked a Pair of Jeans Around the World

I am standing outside a fashion store called Nobody's Child, a light and airy clothes shop in trendy Covent Garden, London, a stone's throw from the tube station. If I listen hard, I can hear trains rumbling quietly through the walls. Ladies’ garments in vibrant spring colours adorn the rails. Some plain, others with stylish floral designs, a large image of a young model wearing the latest collection in a sunlit lush meadow hangs from the wall. My eyes are drawn to a dark navy mid length dress with tiny yellow flowers that is figure flattering and exudes femininity. I brush the soft fabric and lift it from the rail, gazing at it in different directions to check the size and the cut.

But I'm not actually here shopping.

I am playing the role of a shopper in a video we are filming about ‘the life of a pair of jeans.’

Why?

We want to illustrate how Nobody's Child and its partners are meeting a European Union (EU) initiative just over the horizon: Digital Product Passports (DPPs).

Textiles are just one of an initial 13 product sectors which will eventually grow to 30 categories by 2030 that will require DPPs under the new rules forming part of the EU’s Green Deal. Gradual mandatory implementation of DPPs will begin in 2027. Exact requirements are still being defined, with stakeholders actively deliberating at a European level. But the concept looks set to become a reality, and the clock is ticking.

Which is why we are here.

Movie making with a purpose.

Our goal is to show others how they might support these circular economy and sustainability objectives.

A Single Thread

The star of our (3-minute) movie is Andrew Xeni, CEO of Nobody's Child and Fabacus, a data company that holds the DPP data behind the scenes in its platform called Xelacore, which aligns with the regulatory framework.

Nobody's Child is both leading the charge for others and doing things innovatively in house. It has been a proving ground for its own products, including a passport it created for its clothing (ahead of the curve) which links to QR codes in wash labels.

But now it has a clever extra. Behind the 'seams' is a secretive bit of technology that silently proves authentication. A radio frequency identification (RFID) thread that links each garment to a unique passport.

You are no doubt familiar with RFID labels on make-up, for example, which activate alarms as a loss prevention measure.

This may well be your solution.

The best part is the RFID tracker sewn into jeans uses the same tech but in a thin thread of wire, just 5cm long or thereabouts. It’s hidden in the clothing but activated by an RFID reader – be that handheld, fixed, in a point of sale (POS) mat, as part of a kiosk, or inside a mobile computer.

Our video is a simple story of a pair of jeans that begins at manufacture.

To create the visuals, we visited the Xeni family's London factory/design and distribution hub. I got to see industrial sewing machines, colourful fabrics, and inspirations from catwalks pinned to the walls. A hub of creativity. And our star seamstress was none other than Andrew's mum.  Mrs. Xeni showed us how an RFID thread is sewn into the hem of a garment. It was a privilege to meet a business lady who once distributed a million items in just one week from this London address.

Business is very much part of the Xeni family DNA, and its reach is far.

The real jeans are manufactured in Morocco. Andrew tells me this was an epicentre of production for his family of entrepreneurs who, in their heyday, produced 600,000 garments a week for a huge variety of fashion brands.

What's different is this pair of jeans has a QR code that links to its passport. This will allow consumers to access info about the jeans with their mobile phone cameras.

But it also has its encoded wire – an RFID label in a long thread, not a sticky label. If you fire the right frequency of radio waves, it responds with a URL weblink or number, much like a barcode would. That number is its identifier, the master key that links it to its passport. This identifier allows systems to access key data points from the passport, needed to track its location and understand the composition of the product, so its handled accordingly when recycled.

This drives significant speed and efficiency, making circularity and recycling easier for large volumes. The RFID thread enables activities to be done fast and at high volume – great for Nobody’s Child or any busy retailer, and it alleviates issues with fraud. Copying a wash label with a QR code attached is doable. Copying a piece of hidden wire to ensure its encoded with the correct unique number is considerably more challenging.

Stamping the Passport

In our micro movie, the Nobody's Child jeans arrive at the store by a local courier and are checked in using an RFID reader. The reader, inbuilt with superhero powers, sees through walls – in this case, the walls of the cardboard box. It does a stock take of the garments inside the box while date stamping garments against their passports in the same way a stern official might stamp our documents at passport control as we traverse the world.

Once the jeans hit the shelves, our shopper spots them and uses their own phone to access the passport to see where they were made, what they were made from, and a whole lot more, including any environmental impact information such as CO² and water usage. The store also has a gigantic kiosk to let shoppers access the info in glorious technicolour detail.

In this case, it’s a straightforward return - which we film back in-store. But the interesting piece of the puzzle is the RFID inside. No receipt is required; genuineness is guaranteed.

Jump forward again to a real purchase and a couple of resales.

Our eco-buyers are avid re-users. Imagine the jeans have become threadbare around the knees after a period spent crawling about with babies as they grew into toddlers. There is a spaghetti-based stain that won't shift and another from a particularly fun muddy day. The jeans are only fit for memories, and it's time for them to be recycled into something fresh. Our shopper brings them back to the store, and Nobody’s Child manages the recycling.

The final step might be at a clothing recycler where the clever piece of hidden tech – the RFID thread – becomes important again. A quick scan and the final date stamp goes to its DPP. The garment’s content and colour are noted, and it’s retired to a skip with equivalent articles so it can be broken down and rebuilt to create something new. Circularity in motion. The data flows to the EU data centre, and the overall carbon footprint is noted and added to a billion other entries.

And whatever comes next begins its lifecycle. Check out this video to learn more.

What to Do with This Intel

At Nobody’s Child, I thank Andrew Xeni for letting me into his inner world. His journey from manufacturer to launching a highly successful sustainable fashion brand and then building a software company that provides a practical solution to the fast-approaching EU legislation (while building bonds with the right technology industry experts) was both inspirational and enlightening.

He wants others to benefit from his experiences. So, as you consider how you will deliver Digital Product Passports for your merchandise, it’s worth considering how you will connect the product to the digital world.

QR codes work for consumers as it’s one person looking at one item.

But as a manufacturer, seller or a recycler, RFID is a great hidden marker for:

-  Stocktaking

-  Weeding out fraud

-  Enabling efficient recycling

-  Running competitions

-  Generating brand experiences.

The use cases are limited only by your imagination.  

Plus, there is so much more to consider.

1.      How do you create an attractive interface that consumers connect with?

2.      What tech do you use to connect the dots?

3.      How do you ensure interoperability between stakeholders?

We've thought about it a lot, and we've started building things that work, together.

If you'd like our collective help, then now is the time to get in touch.

Why This Matters to You, Me, and Everyone Around Us

There are three impacts here:

1.      Putting sustainability data on a garment’s digital record makes it accessible to a wide raft of stakeholders. Manufacturers, transporters, retailers, shoppers, recyclers, EU auditors, and everyone in between can log and follow the data trail essential for sustainability monitoring and reporting.

2.      DPPs will change the way we shop by allowing shoppers to see exactly where their garment originated from, what it's made from, and its carbon footprint. Sustainability orientated buyers can make sure their purchases align with their values. At purchase, be that first buy or at re-use.

3.      While DPPs provide data points for ethical decision-making matter, the core purpose is to give visibility of a product's environmental footprint to the EU. This will provide the proof that it is meeting its bold Green Deal goal: to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.