A lot of people want to be ethical consumers who choose products and brands that reflect their values. While many of us manage to do this in some areas of our lives, it’s not easy to apply across the board. In my experience, one of the biggest roadblocks is not having the right information to know if our purchasing decisions match our principles.
For the past few years, I’ve tried to practice my own version of ethical consumerism by adopting a vegetarian diet. It’s something I wanted to do because it aligns with my values, but if I’m being honest, one of the main reasons I actually made the jump is because it was such an easy change. It’s as easy as reading the ingredients on a menu, and I’ve often wished buying clothes were just as straightforward.
When I’m out shopping, I’d like to know if the sweaters I’m browsing were made with ethical labor and sustainably sourced materials, but clothing tags don’t tell the whole story. I’ve never read a tag that’s made me think twice about whether the item goes against my values. Although the information I would want may very well be out there, I rarely find myself doing a deep dive on the internet, falling into a rabbit hole of fashion supply chains, before a trip to the mall. That said, the fashion industry is always evolving, and information that’s buried within the depths of the internet today may be available at our fingertips tomorrow.
Digital product passports (DPPs) are records that track a product’s entire journey, from how its materials are sourced to how it’s disposed of at the end of its life. People can usually access them by scanning something like a QR code on a shopping tag. While I’ve personally yet to encounter one in the wild, DPPs are about to become a lot more common in Europe. By 2030, the EU will require that every garment sold there contain a DPP. Some brands are already leading the way.
After experimenting with DPPs on a smaller scale, London-based fashion brand Nobody’s Child plans to roll them out across all products by fall 2025. In line with its commitment to sustainability and transparency, it’s going all-in on traceability. Right now Nobody’s Child tracks about 110 data points per product, working with suppliers to gather data on everything from fiber origins to energy sources. As more brands start sharing this kind of data – either because they want to or because they have to – the data dynamic between brands and consumers will flip.
We all know that brands have been collecting data on consumers for a long time. It’s become so normalized that many of us don’t even blink when asked to share our information. I, for one, have long accepted that a slew of my own data is scattered about, and I won’t be getting it back. With DPPs, however, the data flow is starting to shift, and consumers are gaining more visibility into the products they’re buying. It’s the kind of change that could cause major ripple effects throughout the fashion industry.
For consumers, this shift could lead to new crowdsourced review platforms (think Yelp for fashion sustainability) and greater product personalization in the near future. The former would make it easier to evaluate a brand’s transparency and ethics without needing to dig into individual DPPs, so we would be able to make informed decisions about our purchases. The latter would unlock a whole new level of customization, with choices linked to the supply chain. Rather than just picking a color or style, we could select which materials are used for our clothes and which regions or manufacturers our clothes come from.
In the longer term, the use of artificial intelligence and biometric data could push those possibilities even further. With access to a whole platform of DPP data, advanced AI systems could learn to predict ethical violations and redirect supply flows away from problematic suppliers. Meanwhile, combining DPPs with biometric data and genetic markers could lead to the production of truly personalized textiles. Remember that DNA test you took with 23andMe? One day it might help create a fabric that’s tailored to your specific skin chemistry, microbiome needs, or regional conditions. DPPs could become more than digital records that trace a product’s journey; they could become records of our biological relationship with our clothes.
As DPPs become more common, suppliers will need to keep up with changing expectations from brands and consumers. If people stop buying clothes made with unethical practices or unsustainable materials, then the cost of clothes could go up. Since brands wouldn’t want to price people out, suppliers might choose to invest in R&D to create affordable, eco-friendly materials that meet these new standards.
One thing that could be a problem for manufacturers is their ability to capture data. If asked today, I would guess that many manufacturers would be unable to provide 100+ data points about a sweater. That’ll have to change if they want to continue supplying products to companies in the EU. They may need to make significant investments into their data capabilities. This could mean embedding sensors on machinery to track production parameters, implementing centralized data management systems, or improving cybersecurity measures.
For fashion brands, one of the most immediate effects of DPPs will likely be a shift toward more ethical supply chains. While many brands could switch up their partnerships to tackle this today, some would rather play the long game. They’d prefer to gradually snatch up suppliers to gain more control over their supply chains, making it easier to trace the production process. Luxury brands Prada and LVMH seem to be leading the way in vertical integration to ensure high-quality materials for their products.
A lot of these ideas are fueled by the fact that DPPs were made for brands to share data with consumers, but the next evolution of DPPs could transform that dynamic yet again. In the future, consumers will likely be able to feed data back into a product’s DPP, enabling a two-way exchange. By filling the void of information that exists immediately following the point of purchase, fashion brands will gain insight into how a product is used, how a product ages, and how a product’s lifecycle is affected by different methods of care.
Down the line, this new dynamic will help fashion brands establish post-purchase revenue streams. They could provide repair services on-demand or suggest maintenance appointments for clothes, like getting an oil change on a car. They could become market leaders for their own pre-owned products, and ultimately authenticate luxury brands. They could supplement sales revenue with subscriber programs offering anything from regular maintenance to personalized clothes-lending.
As someone who tries to be an ethical consumer, I’ve often found myself limited by a lack of visibility. DPPs represent a tangible step toward making values-based shopping more accessible in fashion, and this change isn’t limited to major brands alone. Even more than that, though, it signals a broader rebalancing of power in the consumer-brand relationship. The brands that recognize this – and act on it – will be better equipped to meet rising expectations for transparency, accountability, and innovation. DPPs offer a glimpse into a more traceable, data-driven future that could reshape not just what we buy but how we engage with the products we bring into our lives.
