Avery Dennison taps IOTA’s blockchain to track items from Mathew Williams’ fashion label

Materials science company Avery Dennison and supply chain firm EVRYTHNG have launched a blockchain solution for the fashion industry in collaboration with designer Matthew Williams’ fashion label Alyx.

The objective is to bring more transparency to consumers, who are increasingly becoming concerned over sustainable and ethically sourced fashion, alongside their provenance.

The project partners will use IOTA’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) to offer consumers full transparency and visibility for Alyx apparel items they purchase. With this ‘track to the rack’ capability, consumers and brands will be able to view an item’s end-to-end journey – from creation to sale.

According to the press release, the proof of concept (POC) DLT solution essentially adds a blockchain layer to Avery Dennison’s Janela platform, which is powered by EVRYTHNG. By enabling apparel and footwear products to have a unique, serialized label, Janela digitizes the products at the point of manufacturing, making the manufacturing and selling of products more efficient and intelligent.

Consumers just need to scan a label on the garment with their smartphone to view the garment’s journey and track it back from creation to the rack and point of sale. Through IOTA’s technology, brands will have complete visibility of their product’s supply chain journey, providing them with access to real-time data and statistics across different sales channels and consumer preferences.

The partnership with Alyx marks one of the first public POC of the solution. Avery Dennison has previously undertaken multiple internal pilots to get the solution market-ready.

“Blockchain and distributed ledger technology is the future for effective brand protection,” said Williams. “By supplying product information, supply chain traceability and transparent dialogue with the consumer, the brand’s authenticity is globally secured. Collaborating with Avery Dennison to explore the potential of this software has informed our approach to communication.”

Avery Dennison will showcase items from the ALYX collection equipped with the blockchain solution at Copenhagen Fashion Summit on May 15 and 16, 2019.