TLDR, what to take away:

• Digital IDs are the new care labels - smarter, sharable, and built for circular fashion.

• Blockchain is making fashion traceable, trusted, and tradeable across resale, recycling, and repair.

• Startups like EON, Fabacus, SmartLinks, and Laybl are already powering this shift.

• Structured product data is the secret ingredient and enriched data tools help brands get it right from day one.

• Start now: audit your data, pilot a product passport, and design for life after the first sale.

----

As we embrace circularity, resale and regulation, a quiet shift is happening behind the scenes. Labels are going digital. IDs are going on-chain. And garments are beginning to carry their own data - not just for storytelling, but for proof.

Enter digital product passports, powered by blockchain. These invisible records track everything from origin and ownership to care, carbon impact and resale value. They’re reshaping how brands build trust, how products live beyond the sale.

But to work, they need more than tech. They need good data. Data that is clear, structured, and consistent. That’s the layer few are talking about, but everyone will need.

Who’s building Digital IDs?

Four businesses leading the charge:

EON - A pioneer in digital product IDs. EON creates cloud-based records for each garment, enabling resale, recycling and reuse. Used by Balanciaga, Chloé, and others to link physical products to digital twins.

Fabacus - Originally focused on licensing data, Fabacus now brings QR-powered traceability to life. Nobody’s Child and Chinti & Parker use its platform to connect products to their digital ecosystem and engage consumers post-sale.

SmartLinks - Using NFC and blockchain, SmartLinks transforms any label into a smart tag. It holds everything from authentication to care instructions, building a two-way link between brand and buyer.

Laybl - Focused on ethical and sustainable supply chains, Laybl ties verified sourcing and environmental data directly to garments. It’s traceability with values built in.

Powering the layer beneath it all

Digital IDs are only as good as the data behind them. That means clear product metadata: materials, fit, sizing, care, certifications not just SKU-level basics.

This is where infrastructure tools become essential. Without well-structured, standardised product data, even the most advanced blockchain ID is just a blank shell.

Solutions like Aistetic support this ecosystem by using AI to:

• Enrich product descriptions and attribute tagging

• Standardise sizing and fit information across collections

• Feed consistent metadata into ID systems

In short: digital IDs make garments traceable. Rich product data makes them readable. The future of connected fashion depends on both and the collaboration between platforms that create, tag, and distribute that data.

Why now?

Three forces are making this shift urgent:

1. Legislation is tightening The EU’s Digital Product Passport law is set to land by 2030. Traceability won’t be optional. It’ll be required.

2.  Resale is exploding:  Second-hand is set to reach $367 billion by 2029. Verifiable provenance is key to unlocking resale at scale.

3. Consumers expect receipts, not stories. Gen Z wants proof: of sustainability, of

ethics, of authenticity. Blockchain-powered IDs bring that proof into the product itself.

What’s next: beyond compliance

The most forward-thinking brands aren’t just using digital IDs for regulation, they’re using them to reinvent value:

• Smart ownership - Garments that unlock digital content, resale royalties or loyalty perks

• Circular triggers - Products that know when they’re worn out, and suggest repair or recycling

• Intelligent resale - Items that remember where they’ve been, what they’re worth, and who’s owned them

<<<What you can do now>>>

1. Start with the data: Audit your current product records. Are they clean, standardised, and detailed enough to power a digital ID? If not, solutiomns like Aistetic can help close the gap.

2. Run a pilot: Choose a small collection and test with a partner mentioned in this briefing. Begin with one use case: authentication, resale, or care.

3. Build for circularity:  Think beyond first sale. Design your product and data so it can move through repair, resale, and recycling and nd still carry its identity with it.

The label you can't see

The future of fashion isn’t just wearable. It’s trackable, programmable, and verifiable. Digital IDs may be invisible to the eye, but they’re becoming essential to the value chain. They won’t work without data. But for brands that get it right and stitch together design, tech and transparency, the opportunities are wide open.

Compliance may be the catalyst. But trust, loyalty and new value streams will be the reward.