A partnership involving an outdoor brand, its zipper supplier and a technology platform aims to establish closer, cloud-enabled connections between consumers and the companies that provide their clothing.

Details of a collaboration between Stockholm-based Houdini Sportswear, US Internet of Things (IoT) platform Eon and the world’s largest zipper manufacturer, YKK, have emerged. Unlocking next-level garment circularity through gadget-free, embedded product connectivity was the central theme of a keynote discussion between Houdini’s head of product and design, Jesper Danielsson, Eon’s director of connected products, Elyse Tosi and sustainability lead at YKK, Brian La Plante during ISPO Munich Online in early February.

Achieving cloud-based circularity across the textiles and apparel industry may once have required blue-sky thinking. Not today, though, says YKK’s Mr La Plante, who foresees connected, circular garments taking up a large area of the apparel landscape in the not-too- distant future. Along with partners Eon and Houdini, the zipper-maker envisions playing a significant role in this bold new world, where cloud-enabled products will trigger deeper brand-buyer connections, beyond the tradition­- ally linear retail model.

The co-creators’ view is that connected garments can help enable a circular economy. Ms Tosi reveals how Eon’s initial approach was to fix YKK’s Near Field Communication (NFC) Touchlink zipper to Houdini’s One Parka jacket to establish a “digital identity” in the cloud for each unit. YKK developed the interactive zipper, which employs the same technology that powers contactless payment capabilities on smartphones, in partnership with US-based wearable technology company Lifekey. By tapping the zipper against their smartphones, users can view on their screens information about the garment, allowing brands like Houdini to set aside hangtags and activate a greater degree of interaction between brand and buyer.

Ability to speak

Ms Tosi says Eon’s intention behind taking the One Parka online is to endow the garment with the ability to speak to a variety of audiences, including Houdini itself and its customers, plus circular partners, she says. This will in turn empower operators to monitor the product’s lifecycle from inception, through its use by the wearer, then into circular systems such as resale or recycling. This will work by harnessing real-time data exchange and material-level visibility.

A pilot version of Eon’s CircularID protocol, which Ms Tosi describes as essentially the language of connected products, is in use in the Houdini project. This should help facilitate the scaling up of its technology. Embedding an identifier into garments solves the problem of a lack of proper identification of products, she says, and offers ongoing customer interaction for resale partners and recyclers. Connected products can unify stakeholders within the circular value chain because they enable communication.

Feedback loops

Houdini’s goal is to develop a relationship -driven economy, with in-built, continuous cloud-based feedback loops that help both brand and user know each other better, as in a “synergy, like in nature”, as Mr Danielsson describes it.

Herein lies a next-level user experience based on two-way communication and understanding (or co-creation), he says. If the brand can help – and inspire – its customers to better comprehend their own consumption patterns, they may be increasingly likely to lead a more sustainable lifestyle overall. “This is where the change is needed,” he says. Such connectivity will also allow Houdini to take full producer’s responsibility: “Making circular products doesn’t help if we don’t know where they are or where they will end up.” Existing products, if brought back, will be retrofitted with the same trackable Touchlink zipper, ensuring nothing goes to waste from the brand’s vantagepoint.

Circular 2022

For Mr Danielsson, this is all part of optimising a seamless brand experience for engaged buyers. In short, going beyond zero impact to contribute to the world, as opposed to taking from its resources. By 2022, all Houdini-made goods will be circular, he says, but for him the real question is: how can they eventually become a positive? He describes the brand’s supply chain as being like an ecosystem, where its “high-performance circular products” are not only made to be rented out and reused, but also intended to catalyse wider customer and industry behavioural shifts. The outerwear company wants to go further than simply motivating customers to reconnect with nature through its essay-like emails, fireside talks and hangouts, he says. 

Houdini, which has been recycling garments since 2006, wants to impact long-lasting, circular changes. The brand aspires to “evolve and repair the mistakes of overconsumption” and “get back to what’s meaningful, to the experience”, Mr Danielsson states, through activating digitally enhanced connections with customers. How this cloud-enabled version of the One Parka will perform at retail and beyond remains to be seen. What is certain, though, is that as the brand embraces new terrain, it won’t be leaving any units behind.

Houdini intends to enable a seamlessly integrated, circular offering with the digitally activated One Parka.  
ALL CREDITS: Houdini Sportswear

Share this story: