The digital product passport in the apparel and sporting goods industry

The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a digital system that has been introduced by the EU as part of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). Although the final design of the DPP has not yet been adopted, it will have the task of collecting information about a product from its manufacture to its use and on to its recycling or disposal. The aim of the DPP is to improve the transparency and traceability of products and thus promote the circular economy. For example, it can contain information about the required recycled content and provide recyclers with instructions on how to recycle the product. For consumers, it can provide information about the sustainability of the product and serve as a basis for more informed purchasing decisions. For brands, it can deliver information about how the product has sold in stores or how consumers interact with it. 

In any case, the DPP requires a robust digital infrastructure that aggregates all the data that needs to be accessed in the background across the entire supply chain. Maxim Group has been working on supply chain digitalization in the apparel and sporting goods industry for more than 20 years and knows the pitfalls of implementing global digital ecosystems. We spoke with Tom Wielicki, Global Vice President Innovation & Sustainability at Maxim Group, about why companies should start thinking about it now, what the hurdles are, and what benefits the DPP will bring in the future.

Unfortunately, in the beginning, many customers look at the wrong green. The cost, the delays, managing another process, more big data. Once the potential pitfalls are identified and addressed, the benefits can be described as, unprecedented transparency and accountability. This starts to drive the right green, and good for the planet too. Whether its backward traceability or trying to streamline a process, having the production details behind each product in the form of an Eco-Passport or DPP, changes the decision-making process from “yes, lets try that” to “science based”.

In short, to conduct a GAP analysis and eliminate potential disruptions. Adopting DPP as an idea is quite simple. Rolling it out is a little more challenging since the data capture process starts at very early stages of manufacturing, sometimes as early as raw materials. Getting identifiers on products and defining the capture process is the foundation of any DPP project but also the most time consuming. This is where a lot of unexpected issues get exposed and early adoption allows us to address these issues before injecting products into the supply chain. 

The adoption of DPP has already taken place for many industries, including sporting goods. Although legislature still needs clarity on the scope of information required, many retailers and brand owners have opted to start with consumer engagement and include basic item information. The sporting goods segment also presents a unique opportunity to engage customers with digital instruction manuals on how to use or care for the product. 

Upstream suppliers, EDI standardization, no existing digital presence and ERP system not at item level are some of the primary hurdles we run into. For most there are work-around solutions but we have had cases where a full ERP/WMS system replacement was necessary before any DPP adoption took place. 

The back end of DPP will be government controlled with an assigned ID. We then marry that government issued ID with all of the critical events we captured at factory level including all of the sub-component suppliers and match to corresponding purchase order. This creates a fixed chain of expected events which can be flagged if anomalies occur. 

If the data already exists in a digital format, Eco-Trac can make use of it. Size, color, composition, how much water or type of ink used, power consumption etc. are just a few of the possible data sets we rely on. Some of the information is automatically populated based on geographical location, time and date stamp or operator ID. I think it is essential to be very selective in which data capture points should be included. The more data, the larger the storage, longer query and response times. Once the European Commission publishes the mandatory fields within the DPP definition, we will be able to turn modules on and off as needed.  

The Eco-Trac system provides a central location for both retailers and manufacturers to seamlessly exchange and monitor information resulting in one version of the truth. The connection to our e-Max variable data ordering platform eliminates data entry redundancy and shares all of the product details across the complete Eco-Trac ecosystem. 

Certainly. Any scan of a DPP identifier will result in that action being registered on the other side. Big data can then be filtered to deliver statistical analysis and evaluate how many scans resulted in a purchase, for instance. Consumer behavior can now be analyzed using science-based data, significantly improving results. 

Yes, this is a very common question. The DPP requirement states that the unique ID has to be human and machine readable throughout the life of the item (EOL). This eliminates the potential use of self-adhesive stickers on packaging or apparel hangtags. We have several carriers for DPP ranging from a plain care label that withstand 100 wash cycles to heat transfer labels with embedded RFID. In some cases, the unique identifier can be printed directly onto the product and with the help of realID.eu, managed dynamically.

Our digital journey began in early 2000’s. Managing variable data for care labels, hang tags, stickers and RFID has always been our core capability and DPP is just an extension of what we have been doing for years. 

We provide RFID tracking and identification solutions to the top 100 global brands and retailers.

We predominantly operate within the apparel and sporting goods space but we do have clients ranging from automotive to garden nurseries. Eco-Trac combined with our global footprint is agnostic, which means it can be applied to any industry.

This is a very difficult question as each supply chain is different. The average time to digitize products is 30 days but very dependent on what critical events we want to capture and how much digital presence already exists. For customers that already utilize e-Max, our data management platform, that time can be cut to around 14 days. 

Our aim is to provide a platform where exchange of information for all parties is simple and transparent, eventually linking all of the purchase orders of finished goods to their initial raw material PO(source). This will soon allow us to track, authenticate and build comprehensive LCA’s from raw materials to the shop floor the Eco-Trac way.

Find out if you are ready for the DPP and take part in our survey here.