The label your factory already sews in.
Every garment leaves the factory with a care label that carries its fibre content, washing symbols and country of origin. The label is printed, compliant and attached to the item for its whole life, and it is the earliest physical part of your chain unique to one unit. Next Horizon puts the item's identity on it.
Coming soon Specifications and quotes on request.
The case for the label.
An identity has to survive the whole life of the garment, and the care label stays on for all of it.
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 gap between a record of production and a record of shipments.
It survives the whole life
Packaging is removed at the door and hangtags are cut off in the fitting room, while 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
People read a care label before they wash something expensive, so the passport sits where the customer already looks.
Nothing new on the production line
The label is already specified, sourced and sewn. Only the artwork printed on it changes. There is no new operation on the line.
Identity born at the first stitch.
Care labels start the thread before the carton and the freight booking, before the item meets any logistics system.
Three label types, one identity.
Garments carry three kinds of label, and each can carry the item identity. You choose the construction your product already uses; the identity, the passport link and the quality checks are the same across all three.
Woven labels
Damask or satin woven brand and care labels, the most durable construction. The identity is printed or woven onto the reverse or a dedicated panel, sized for a reliable scan.
Printed labels
Satin, nylon taffeta or polyester care labels printed at high resolution. The most common care label in apparel, and the easiest to carry a small, crisp QR alongside the fibre and washing content.
Heat-transfer labels
Tagless labels pressed directly onto the fabric, used where a sewn label would irritate or where the garment is lightweight. The identity is transferred with the artwork in the same pass.
Any of the three can carry RFID. A UHF inlay under the label gives the same identity a radio read as well as a visual one, so a carton or a rail can be counted at the dock without opening it. The QR stays for consumers, partners and regulators; the RFID read is for operations.
From order to passport.
Four steps, from the purchase order to every event after the sale.
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.
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.
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 the view the reader is entitled to. Three access tiers: consumer, partner, regulator.
Every event afterwards appends
Freight, receipt, sale, return, repair. The passport is a record that grows as the item moves.
Related pages.
Questions we get asked.
How do I get care labels?
Book a demo. Specifications and quotes are on request.
What is 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, partner and regulator.
Does this replace my existing care label supplier?
No. The label is still made by whoever makes it now. Only the artwork they are given changes.
Which product categories does this suit?
It suits 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.