What: Digital IDs are looking to provide brands the chance to track products past the point of sale, keeping them in circulation for longer.

Why it is important: The goal of digital IDs is to create an “ecosystem” that will allow brands to go beyond understanding what happens to their products after the sale and develop a network of trusted — and paying — partners in the circular economy.

Digital IDs provide real-time environmental impact reports on each product to which it adds an ID, allowing brands to calculate their overall impact more accurately (assuming they have sufficient transparency throughout their supply chains).

Brands may soon be legally required to follow the digital ID wave. At the end of March, this year, the European Union published its strategy for sustainable and circular textiles, outlining a series of proposed legislative changes to curb textile waste and bring the industry in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

However, there are challenges: to create a new ecosystem at scale, one example is Eon who has to convince brands and their third-party partners that digital IDs are necessary. And consumers need to come on board too.

Brands including Mulberry, Yoox Net-a-Porter and Gabriela Hearst are getting ahead of incoming EU legislation by implementing digital product IDs. By unlocking supply chain transparency and resale, it could mean more revenue from less products. The challenge for Eon is how to spur behaviour change and investment at scale, while overtaking its rivals. It is hoping high-profile brand partnerships and pre-competitive initiatives can help.

Digital IDs: A game-changer for fashion?