The transition toward a fully circular economy is no longer a theoretical debate. Within the EU-funded Just Fashion project, the pilot case of Staff Jersey (an Italian company producing innovative B2B fabrics and the technical sportswear line Skinsonik for the B2C market) offers a crucial reality check on the upcoming Digital Product Passport regulations. Coordinated by ART-ER and Materahub and supported by Centro Qualità Tessile and Clust-ER Create, the pilot focuses on ecodesign via virtual 3D modelling and DPP data structuring.
The main lessons learned so far highlight a major bottleneck: data across the fashion value chain is still highly fragmented and incomplete. This project is proving that implementing a DPP is technically feasible for textile SMEs, but it requires a delicate balance between data complexity and usability.
However, the real challenge for the European fashion industry goes beyond tech adoption. As the regulatory framework takes shape, a hidden conflict is emerging. Will the DPP be a standardized, distributed system where suppliers control and share uniform data? Or will it become a centralized tool driven by major international brands, forcing vulnerable SMEs to comply with fragmented, proprietary data requests “upon request and free of charge”?
Without a shared standard, small and medium suppliers risk facing a fragmented system, where every brand demands data in a different format, leading to a heavy bureaucratic burden.
The Just Fashion project can play a key role in bringing these insights to European policy-makers and technical committees. Promoting a uniform, open standard for the DPP is essential to support the competitiveness of European SMEs. By ensuring a collaborative framework, the Digital Product Passport will truly serve as a shared tool for sustainability and value chain integration.
