The label your factory already sews in.
Every garment leaves the factory carrying a care label. Fibre content, washing symbols, country of origin. It is already printed, already compliant, already attached to the item for the whole of its life. It is the earliest physical thing in your chain that is unique to one unit. We are making it carry the item's identity too.
This is a beta, not a product you can buy today. It runs with a small pilot group on real production runs. The page describes what is being built and where it stands. If you want to be in the pilot, say so on the call and we will tell you honestly whether your category fits.
Why the label, and not a sticker.
The question is not how to attach an identity. It is how to attach one that survives.
It exists before the carton
A carton label is created when someone packs a carton. A care label is created when the garment is made. That difference is weeks, and it is the difference between knowing what was produced and knowing what was shipped.
It survives the whole life
Packaging is removed at the door. Hangtags are cut off in the fitting room. The care label stays sewn in through the wardrobe, the resale, the repair and the recycling bin. ESPR asks questions about that whole life, so the identity has to last that long.
The customer already looks at it
Nobody hunts for a compliance QR code. People do read a care label before they wash something expensive. Putting the passport where the customer already looks is worth more than putting it where a regulator will eventually demand it.
It costs nothing extra to attach
The label is already specified, already sourced, already sewn. The only change is what is printed on it. No new operation on the production line, no new consumable, no new supplier to onboard.
Identity born at the first stitch, not the first scan.
Everything else on this site starts the thread as early as we can reach. Care labels are how far early can go: before the carton, before the freight booking, before the item has ever met a logistics system at all.
How it is meant to work.
Four steps. Two of them are already live in the product you can buy today.
The identity is allocated against the purchase order
When the order goes to the factory, the unit identities are reserved. SGTIN item-level, the same scheme used everywhere else in the product. Live today
The label artwork carries it
The care label is produced with a GS1 Digital Link on it alongside the fibre and washing information it already carries. This is the part in beta: the artwork handoff to the label supplier, and the proofing loop with your factory. Beta
The passport resolves from the first scan
Scan it at the factory, in the warehouse, in the store or at home and it resolves to the same passport, with what the reader is entitled to see. Three access tiers: consumer, retailer, regulator. Live today
Every event afterwards appends
Freight, receipt, sale, return, repair. The passport is not a document you file, it is a record that grows as the item moves. Live today
What we are honest about.
Three things are genuinely unsolved and we would rather you hear them from us than find them in month two.
Your label supplier has to play
The artwork has to reach whoever prints your care labels, in their format, on their timeline. Where a brand owns that relationship this is straightforward. Where the factory sources the labels themselves it is a conversation, and sometimes a slow one.
Not every category has a care label
This starts with textiles and apparel because the label is already mandatory there. Footwear, leather goods and accessories are close cousins. Electronics and cosmetics need a different carrier for the identity, and that is not this page.
Print quality at small sizes is real work
A code printed on a woven or satin label at the size a care label allows is harder to scan than one printed on a box. Getting a reliable read on a worn, washed label is the engineering problem the pilot exists to solve.
Where to go next.
Questions we get asked.
Can I buy care labels today?
No. It is in beta with a small pilot group on real production runs. The identity scheme and the passport it resolves to are live in the product today. What is in beta is the label artwork handoff and the print quality work.
What is actually printed on the label?
A GS1 Digital Link alongside the fibre content, washing symbols and country of origin the label already carries. The Digital Link resolves to the item's Digital Product Passport, with three access tiers: consumer, retailer and regulator.
Does this replace my existing care label supplier?
No. The label is still made by whoever makes it now. What changes is the artwork they are given. Where the factory sources the labels rather than the brand, expect that conversation to take longer.
Which product categories does this suit?
It starts with textiles and apparel, because a care label is already mandatory there and already carries unique information. Footwear, leather goods and accessories are adjacent. Categories without a sewn-in label need a different carrier for the identity.
Why not just use a hangtag or a packaging QR code?
Because both are removed. A hangtag is cut off in the fitting room and packaging goes in the bin at the door. ESPR asks questions about an item across its whole life, including resale and recycling, so the identity has to stay attached for that long.
How do I join the pilot?
Ask on the demo call. We will tell you honestly whether your category and your label supply chain fit, because a pilot that does not fit wastes your production run as well as our time.