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.
Coming soon Running with a small pilot group on real production runs. Specifications and quotes on request.
Why the label.
An identity has to survive the whole life of the garment. The care label already does.
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.
Nothing new on the production line
The label is already specified, sourced and sewn. What changes is the artwork printed on it. No new operation on the line and no new supplier.
Identity born at the first stitch, not the first scan.
Everywhere else, the thread starts as early as we can reach. Care labels move that point before the carton, before the freight booking, before the item has met a logistics system at all.
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. Quotes come through our label partner, with Next Horizon as your single point of contact.
Woven labels
Damask or satin woven brand and care labels, the most durable construction and the one most premium brands already use. 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 the customer, the retailer and the regulator; the RFID read is for operations.
How it is meant to work.
Four steps. Three of them are live in the product today.
The identity is allocated against the purchase order Live today
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 Coming soon
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 still coming: the artwork handoff to the label supplier, and the proofing loop with your factory.
The passport resolves from the first scan Live today
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.
Every event afterwards appends Live today
Freight, receipt, sale, return, repair. The passport is not a document you file, it is a record that grows as the item moves.
What is still unsolved.
Three things are still open, and you should know them before a pilot rather than during one.
Your label supplier has to be involved
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 takes longer.
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
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?
Not yet. It is coming soon and runs 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 still being finished 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 whether your category and your label supply chain fit; a pilot that does not fit costs you a production run.