Fashion retailer Nobody’s Child has published a digital product passport (DPP) playbook to offer guidance to the wider industry about legislation set to come into force in 2027.
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is ticking off several milestones this year, and central to its long-term success in fashion will be the DPP legislation – deployed in the form of QR codes on fashion product labels which act as gateways to information about product provenance and how to keep the item it is attached to in circulation for as long as possible.
Any retailer or brand selling into the European Union will require a DPP on its products.
Nobody’s Child says in the report DPPs will “only be as credible and trusted as the data that sits behind them”, making compliance less about the actual QR code and more about “whether a brand can maintain a robust, audit-ready product data architecture that can populate information reliably, across every style and season”.
“For fashion, this quickly becomes a data problem rather than a front-end design problem,” the retailer adds.
“While the final ESPR guidelines on the breadth and detail of data are still to be published, compliant passports for textiles are expected to be required to display information such as fibre and material composition, the origin of raw materials, any restricted substances, repairability and recyclability attributes, carbon and water-use indicators, and a range of end-of-life guidance, alongside the familiar technical and commercial attributes used to trade garments.”
These data points within businesses tend to live in silos meaning retailers and brands have a challenge of data certainty. As we’ve covered on Green Retail World in detail, Nobody’s Child’s sister company, the tech business Fabacus, has helped the retailer create a single compliant catalogue for its data.
And it is this information that powers the Nobody’s Child passports and regulatory reporting.
The Nobody’s Child DPP journey began with three pilot ‘NC x Happy Place by Fearne Cotton’ collections from September 2023 to March 2024, in partnership with Fabacus. In August 2024, the retailer launched a ‘Denim Deep Dive’ pilot with supplier partner, Chottani, which focused on refining data collection methodology ahead of scaling DPPs across all clothing.
From September 2024 to February 2025, the Fairly Made traceability software was trialled with suppliers which laid the foundation for rolling out DPPs across all AW25 clothing. Given the exact guidelines for what needs to be included have yet to be stipulated, Nobody’s Child’s efforts represent the most comprehensive UK fashion retail DPP roll-out to date.
Shailja Dubé, deputy director of Institute of Positive Fashion, says in the report: “With regulatory frameworks continuing to evolve, early adoption of DPPs present a strategic opportunity for UK fashion to demonstrate leadership in innovation.
“As critical infrastructure, DPPs can deliver transparency across complex global supply chains, support circular business models and help to drive climate action. This applies to businesses of all sizes.”
She adds: “They can also enable stronger social accountability when there is a shared responsibility for data, implementation and compliance across the value chain. Combined with creative and compelling customer-facing storytelling, DPPs can enable brands to further build trust, demonstrate impact and create long-term value.”
[image credit: Nobody’s Child]
