AI Quick Summary
By 2027, EU regulation will require Digital Product Passports (DPPs) for every garment sold, generating machine-readable supply-chain data that consumers cannot read, and brands cannot credibly translate. PassThread positions itself as a B2B/B2C SaaS "trust infrastructure" layer between mandatory DPP data and the shopper, converting compliance output into verified narratives, anchored by partnerships with certification bodies (GOTS, OEKO-TEX) rather than brand self-claims. The product rests on three principles: verification before narrative, multi-dimensional personalization (labor, materials, carbon, craft), and one-tap access to evidence. Consumer-facing layers and a content studio turn provenance into shareable assets. Target customers are Swiss and EU small-to-mid fashion brands underserved by luxury-grade storytelling infrastructure. Revenue streams envisioned: SaaS subscriptions, aggregated preference intelligence sold back to brands. The project aligns with UN SDGs 8, 12, and 17.
Problem Description. By 2027, every garment sold in the EU will carry a Digital Product Passport (DPP), a structured record of materials, origin, and processing steps that brands are legally required to maintain. Switzerland, both through its export to the EU and through its own legal framework currently under evaluation, will converge under the same or similar regulatory perimeter. Within a few years, the fashion industry will operate on a substrate of mandatory, machine-readable supply chain data. This shift creates a new and unsolved problem and opportunity. The data exists, but it does not speak. It is structured for regulators, but it is illegible to consumers and disconnected from the values that drive purchase decisions. At the same time, consumer trust in brand-led sustainability claims often collapses: a decade of greenwashing has left shoppers skeptical of every "eco" label, and influencer marketing, the industry's primary translation mechanism, has lost the credibility it once had. Brands are caught in a paradox where the more they talk about sustainability, the less they are believed, even as they pour resources into being genuinely more sustainable. The root issue is not a shortage of information or of storytelling, it is the absence of a credible bridge between the two. Verified data on its own is unreadable; storytelling on its own is no longer trusted. Whoever builds the bridge, the layer that translates compliance data into narratives consumers believe, will own a structurally important position in the post-DPP fashion industry. PassThread is that layer. It is not a content app, a marketing tool, or a consumer engagement platform in the conventional sense. It aims to be first a B2B/B2C SaaS trust infrastructure: a verification-anchored translation engine that sits between mandatory DPP data and the consumer point of contact, turning raw regulatory output into personalized, institutionally credible narratives. PassThread vision is built on three design principles: Verification before narrative. Every claim PassThread surface is grounded in DPP data and reinforced by partnerships with established certification bodies and NGOs — Fair Trade, GOTS, OEKO-TEX, bluesign, and others. The platform does not generate trust; it makes existing institutional trust legible to consumers. This is what differentiates it from the dozens of DPP infrastructure providers (EON, Avery Dennison, TrusTrace) and from the conventional brand storytelling layer. Multi-dimensional personalization. Sustainability is not one thing. Some shoppers care most about labor practices, others about materials, others about carbon, others about locality. PassThread adapts the story to the viewer: the same garment surfaces a labor narrative for one user, a materials narrative for another, a craft-and-origin narrative for a third — each version equally accurate, each anchored in the same verified data. This is enabled by a GenAI engine that collapses dense supply-chain data into simple, credible language at the moment of scan. Evidence one tap away. The narrative is the surface; the audit trail is one interaction beneath it. This dual structure is what allows brands to make specific claims they would otherwise consider too risky. Specificity is the antidote to greenwashing perception, and PassThread lowers the legal and reputational cost of being specific. Around this core, three connected consumer experiences make the data tangible: the Journey (an interactive map of the garment's path from material to finished piece), the People (the designers and artisans behind it), and the Style (an AI engine that places the garment within the user's wardrobe and across participating brands). A content studio lets users generate share-ready assets in which provenance is embedded, so the narrative cannot drift from the underlying truth. Stakeholder value. Concerning the company sizes, PassThread targets Small and Medium fashion companies in the Swiss and European market. Their brands gain a way to make specific, verifiable sustainability claims at lower legal risk and lower content production cost. This category is genuinely new, distinct from both compliance software and marketing software. They also gain aggregated consumer preference data: every personalization choice tells PassThread what each consumer values, and that aggregated signal is sellable back to brands as primary research. Consumers, especially millennials and younger generations, gain credible, comparable information across brands and a way to see, scan after scan, the values their wardrobe expresses. Small and medium European and Swiss fashion companies in particular gain narrative infrastructure they could not otherwise afford, levelling the field against big fashion houses. Moreover, the industry acquires a market mechanism in which verified sustainability is rewarded with attention, making greenwashing economically uncompetitive rather than only ethically suspect. The strategic ambition is to become the default verification-and-translation layer of the post-DPP fashion market — the standard for what credible sustainability storytelling looks like, in the same way certification marks became the standard for product claims in earlier decades. Alignment With Sustainable Development Goals. The vision of PassThread matches directly the following UN SDGs: SDG12. Responsible Consumption & Production: The Journey layer surfaces full supply chain traceability — fiber origin, processing steps, certifications — directly to consumers. This transforms a compliance instrument into a demand-side transparency tool, enabling informed purchasing decisions and creating accountability pressure along the value chain. PassThread matches the following targets: 12.6 - Encourage companies… to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle. 12.8 - By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature SDG8. Decent Work and Economic Growth: PassThread supports this goal by strengthening innovation, entrepreneurship, and market visibility for designers, artisans, and smaller fashion brands. This particular target matches the vision of SDG: 8.3 - Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and the growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. SDG17. Partnerships for the Goals: PassThread supports SDG 17 by creating a collaborative ecosystem that connects brands, creators, and consumers around transparent product data. In particular, PassThread vision matches the following targets: 17.16. Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships. 17.17. Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships. Workplan and Milestones (Innovation Booster Context). In the context of the 28k CHF funding to test the desirability, viability, and feasibility of the innovation hypothesis for PassThread we plan to test the core technical and commercial wedge, that is, that it can turn DPP data into a credible, personalized consumer experience that brands will pay for to reduce greenwashing risk and construct or strengthen their identity related to sustainability. The two members of the innovation team will contribute at 5% FTE during the project duration at no cost for the project. We plan the following small Work Packages for a timeline of 6 Months: WP1. Problem & brand validation (Month 1-2). We plan to perform 8 to 12 structured interviews with sustainability and marketing leads at EU/Swiss fashion brands (luxury, mid-market, independent). Goal: confirm that DPP is perceived as a legal/PR risk problem, not just a compliance problem. Parallel: 3–5 conversations with certification bodies on data interoperability and third-party approved claims.Deliverable on Milestone: validated problem statement + buyer-persona map + a yes/no on the risk-reduction framing.Resources: Total ~20% of budget (5’600 CHF), Senior R&D Engineer (53.59 CHF/h), ~ 100 hours. WP2. DPP data & technical feasibility (Month 1-2). Map the emerging ESPR/DPP data schemas (textile delegated act and EU DPP data model). Assess what is available now vs. target by 2027 and define a minimum data contract the platform needs.Deliverable on Milestone: technical feasibility memo + data-model spec.Resources: Total 20% of budget (5’600 CHF); Personnel: Senior R&D Engineer (53.59 CHF/h), ~ 50 hours (2’800 CHF) + around 2’800 CHF for possible external simple standard/legal advisory. WP3. Prototype design and construction (Month 3-4-5). This WP will include UX flows for the three layers, QR scan-to-experience without app install, and crucially the personalization logic (which value-axis surfaces first). Internal red-teaming to evaluate AI hallucination risks. After this initial analysis, we plan to build a working demo on synthetic-but-realistic DPP data for 5–10 sample garments (ideally from 1 pilot brand found from WP1). The AI translation engine is the centerpiece, with provenance traceability ("evidence one tap away") implemented end-to-end.Milestone: working demo on real device, scan-to-story in under 5 seconds.Resources: Total ~ 40% of budget (11’200 CHF). Personnel: Senior R&D Engineer (53.59 CHF/h), ~ 187 hours (10’000 CHF) + around 1’200 CHF for API costs, including possible design tools. WP4. Validation & next-step plan (Month 6). End User testing (with around 10-20 possible end users, mixed value profiles) and 2–3 brand demos. Investor- and Innosuisse SIP ready application package.Milestone: validation report + go/no-go for Phase 2.Resources: Total ~20% of budget (5’600 CHF). Personnel: Senior R&D Engineer (53.59 CHF/h), ~ 100 hours. Risks. We foresee the following risks concerning the innovation hypothesis: AI hallucination in a credibility product is existential, not just a bug. The whole positioning of the hypothesis is "verification before narrative." One viral example of the platform inventing a sustainability claim and hypothesis collapses. Mitigation will be structural: retrieval-grounded generation, no claim without a data source attached, human review for the pilot phase. This will be product requirement, not a real risk to monitor. DPP regulatory moving target. The textile delegated act is still being finalized; data fields and access protocols are likely to shift through 2026–2027. Building too literally to today's draft means possible substantial rework. Mitigation: design around the abstract data contract, minimize design around specific fields. Brand commercial risk. Brands may decide a self-hosted QR landing page is good enough. PassThread needs to prove it creates value through measurable KPIs (legal exposure, content-production cost, conversion). WP1 will explicitly validate brand willingness-to-pay assumption. Partnership timeline mismatch. NGO and certification-body partnerships are core to the credibility story but take 6–18 months to formalize. The prototype will not depend on them being signed; soft endorsements or letters of intent are the realistic ask at this stage. IP and data-rights ambiguity. Brands may resist exposing supply-chain data to a third-party layer, even if it's their own DPP data. WP2 will explicitly try to verify that this is feasible. The SWOT analysis below summarizes the project's potential and risks: STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES Unique layer between DPP compliance data and consumer storytelling — a genuinely new category "Verification before narrative" differentiates from DPP tools (EON, TrusTrace) and brand marketing Personalization engine adapts verified data to each user's values (labor, materials, carbon, craft) Institutional credibility via GOTS, OEKO-TEX, Fair Trade, bluesign, not self-generated Team combines USI R&D expertise with industry knowledge and connections No prototype, no validated brand willingness-to-pay — early-stage idea AI hallucination is an existential risk for a product whose core promise is verified truth Revenue model unvalidated — pricing and demand still to be tested Credibility depends on NGO/certification partnerships taking 6–18 months to formalize Consumer QR/NFC scan behaviour uncertain — adoption not guaranteed OPPORTUNITIES THREATS EU DPP mandatory for textiles ~2027–2028 creates a structural, captive market Peak consumer skepticism toward greenwashing makes a verification-anchored layer timely Smaller Swiss/EU brands underserved — cannot afford luxury-level narrative infrastructure Multiple revenue streams: brand SaaS, consumer data intelligence Swiss market alone: 1.25–3.0M CHF addressable at 5% penetration and 10–20k CHF/brand/year DPP textile delegated act still being finalized — 2026–2027 Brands may find self-hosted QR pages sufficient, undermining willingness to pay EON, Avery Dennison, TrusTrace could add a consumer narrative layer with greater resources Upstream supplier data gaps could undermine the 'verified' promise early on IP/data-rights concerns may make brands reluctant to share supply-chain data with a third party Strategic Value of the Innovation Booste -. Fashion & Lifestyle. The main strategic value of the Innovation Booster for PassThread is the access to the LTCC and the Fashion & Lifestyle network. The booster sits inside a sector cluster that includes brands and possible suppliers that PassThread needs as design partners and pilot customers. Should the booster be approved with funding, we plan to fully leverage these network connections.
Project Idea Description
Problem Description. By 2027, every garment sold in the EU will carry a Digital Product Passport (DPP), a structured record of materials, origin, and processing steps that brands are legally required to maintain. Switzerland, both through its export to the EU and through its own legal framework currently under evaluation, will converge under the same or similar regulatory perimeter. Within a few years, the fashion industry will operate on a substrate of mandatory, machine-readable supply chain data. This shift creates a new and unsolved problem and opportunity. The data exists, but it does not speak. It is structured for regulators, but it is illegible to consumers and disconnected from the values that drive purchase decisions. At the same time, consumer trust in brand-led sustainability claims often collapses: a decade of greenwashing has left shoppers skeptical of every "eco" label, and influencer marketing, the industry's primary translation mechanism, has lost the credibility it once had. Brands are caught in a paradox where the more they talk about sustainability, the less they are believed, even as they pour resources into being genuinely more sustainable.
The root issue is not a shortage of information or of storytelling, it is the absence of a credible bridge between the two. Verified data on its own is unreadable; storytelling on its own is no longer trusted. Whoever builds the bridge, the layer that translates compliance data into narratives consumers believe, will own a structurally important position in the post-DPP fashion industry.
PassThread is that layer. It is not a content app, a marketing tool, or a consumer engagement platform in the conventional sense. It aims to be first a B2B/B2C SaaS trust infrastructure: a verification-anchored translation engine that sits between mandatory DPP data and the consumer point of contact, turning raw regulatory output into personalized, institutionally credible narratives. PassThread vision is built on three design principles:
- Verification before narrative. Every claim PassThread surface is grounded in DPP data and reinforced by partnerships with established certification bodies and NGOs — Fair Trade, GOTS, OEKO-TEX, bluesign, and others. The platform does not generate trust; it makes existing institutional trust legible to consumers. This is what differentiates it from the dozens of DPP infrastructure providers (EON, Avery Dennison, TrusTrace) and from the conventional brand storytelling layer.
- Multi-dimensional personalization. Sustainability is not one thing. Some shoppers care most about labor practices, others about materials, others about carbon, others about locality. PassThread adapts the story to the viewer: the same garment surfaces a labor narrative for one user, a materials narrative for another, a craft-and-origin narrative for a third — each version equally accurate, each anchored in the same verified data. This is enabled by a GenAI engine that collapses dense supply-chain data into simple, credible language at the moment of scan.
- Evidence one tap away. The narrative is the surface; the audit trail is one interaction beneath it. This dual structure is what allows brands to make specific claims they would otherwise consider too risky. Specificity is the antidote to greenwashing perception, and PassThread lowers the legal and reputational cost of being specific.
Around this core, three connected consumer experiences make the data tangible: the Journey (an interactive map of the garment's path from material to finished piece), the People (the designers and artisans behind it), and the Style (an AI engine that places the garment within the user's wardrobe and across participating brands). A content studio lets users generate share-ready assets in which provenance is embedded, so the narrative cannot drift from the underlying truth.
Stakeholder value. Concerning the company sizes, PassThread targets Small and Medium fashion companies in the Swiss and European market. Their brands gain a way to make specific, verifiable sustainability claims at lower legal risk and lower content production cost. This category is genuinely new, distinct from both compliance software and marketing software. They also gain aggregated consumer preference data: every personalization choice tells PassThread what each consumer values, and that aggregated signal is sellable back to brands as primary research. Consumers, especially millennials and younger generations, gain credible, comparable information across brands and a way to see, scan after scan, the values their wardrobe expresses. Small and medium European and Swiss fashion companies in particular gain narrative infrastructure they could not otherwise afford, levelling the field against big fashion houses. Moreover, the industry acquires a market mechanism in which verified sustainability is rewarded with attention, making greenwashing economically uncompetitive rather than only ethically suspect.
The strategic ambition is to become the default verification-and-translation layer of the post-DPP fashion market — the standard for what credible sustainability storytelling looks like, in the same way certification marks became the standard for product claims in earlier decades.
Alignment With Sustainable Development Goals. The vision of PassThread matches directly the following UN SDGs:
- SDG12. Responsible Consumption & Production: The Journey layer surfaces full supply chain traceability — fiber origin, processing steps, certifications — directly to consumers. This transforms a compliance instrument into a demand-side transparency tool, enabling informed purchasing decisions and creating accountability pressure along the value chain. PassThread matches the following targets:
- 12.6 - Encourage companies… to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle.
- 12.8 - By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature
- SDG8. Decent Work and Economic Growth: PassThread supports this goal by strengthening innovation, entrepreneurship, and market visibility for designers, artisans, and smaller fashion brands. This particular target matches the vision of SDG:
- 8.3 - Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and the growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises.
- SDG17. Partnerships for the Goals: PassThread supports SDG 17 by creating a collaborative ecosystem that connects brands, creators, and consumers around transparent product data. In particular, PassThread vision matches the following targets:
- 17.16. Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships.
- 17.17. Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships.
Workplan and Milestones (Innovation Booster Context).
In the context of the 28k CHF funding to test the desirability, viability, and feasibility of the innovation hypothesis for PassThread we plan to test the core technical and commercial wedge, that is, that it can turn DPP data into a credible, personalized consumer experience that brands will pay for to reduce greenwashing risk and construct or strengthen their identity related to sustainability. The two members of the innovation team will contribute at 5% FTE during the project duration at no cost for the project. We plan the following small Work Packages for a timeline of 6 Months:
- WP1. Problem & brand validation (Month 1-2). We plan to perform 8 to 12 structured interviews with sustainability and marketing leads at EU/Swiss fashion brands (luxury, mid-market, independent). Goal: confirm that DPP is perceived as a legal/PR risk problem, not just a compliance problem. Parallel: 3–5 conversations with certification bodies on data interoperability and third-party approved claims.
Deliverable on Milestone: validated problem statement + buyer-persona map + a yes/no on the risk-reduction framing.
Resources: Total ~20% of budget (5’600 CHF), Senior R&D Engineer (53.59 CHF/h), ~ 100 hours.
- WP2. DPP data & technical feasibility (Month 1-2). Map the emerging ESPR/DPP data schemas (textile delegated act and EU DPP data model). Assess what is available now vs. target by 2027 and define a minimum data contract the platform needs.
Deliverable on Milestone: technical feasibility memo + data-model spec.
Resources: Total 20% of budget (5’600 CHF); Personnel: Senior R&D Engineer (53.59 CHF/h), ~ 50 hours (2’800 CHF) + around 2’800 CHF for possible external simple standard/legal advisory.
- WP3. Prototype design and construction (Month 3-4-5). This WP will include UX flows for the three layers, QR scan-to-experience without app install, and crucially the personalization logic (which value-axis surfaces first). Internal red-teaming to evaluate AI hallucination risks. After this initial analysis, we plan to build a working demo on synthetic-but-realistic DPP data for 5–10 sample garments (ideally from 1 pilot brand found from WP1). The AI translation engine is the centerpiece, with provenance traceability ("evidence one tap away") implemented end-to-end.
Milestone: working demo on real device, scan-to-story in under 5 seconds.
Resources: Total ~ 40% of budget (11’200 CHF). Personnel: Senior R&D Engineer (53.59 CHF/h), ~ 187 hours (10’000 CHF) + around 1’200 CHF for API costs, including possible design tools.
- WP4. Validation & next-step plan (Month 6). End User testing (with around 10-20 possible end users, mixed value profiles) and 2–3 brand demos. Investor- and Innosuisse SIP ready application package.
Milestone: validation report + go/no-go for Phase 2.
Resources: Total ~20% of budget (5’600 CHF). Personnel: Senior R&D Engineer (53.59 CHF/h), ~ 100 hours.
Risks. We foresee the following risks concerning the innovation hypothesis:
- AI hallucination in a credibility product is existential, not just a bug. The whole positioning of the hypothesis is "verification before narrative." One viral example of the platform inventing a sustainability claim and hypothesis collapses. Mitigation will be structural: retrieval-grounded generation, no claim without a data source attached, human review for the pilot phase. This will be product requirement, not a real risk to monitor.
- DPP regulatory moving target. The textile delegated act is still being finalized; data fields and access protocols are likely to shift through 2026–2027. Building too literally to today's draft means possible substantial rework. Mitigation: design around the abstract data contract, minimize design around specific fields.
- Brand commercial risk. Brands may decide a self-hosted QR landing page is good enough. PassThread needs to prove it creates value through measurable KPIs (legal exposure, content-production cost, conversion). WP1 will explicitly validate brand willingness-to-pay assumption.
- Partnership timeline mismatch. NGO and certification-body partnerships are core to the credibility story but take 6–18 months to formalize. The prototype will not depend on them being signed; soft endorsements or letters of intent are the realistic ask at this stage.
- IP and data-rights ambiguity. Brands may resist exposing supply-chain data to a third-party layer, even if it's their own DPP data. WP2 will explicitly try to verify that this is feasible.
The SWOT analysis below summarizes the project's potential and risks:
| STRENGTHS |
WEAKNESSES |
- Unique layer between DPP compliance data and consumer storytelling — a genuinely new category
- "Verification before narrative" differentiates from DPP tools (EON, TrusTrace) and brand marketing
- Personalization engine adapts verified data to each user's values (labor, materials, carbon, craft)
- Institutional credibility via GOTS, OEKO-TEX, Fair Trade, bluesign, not self-generated
- Team combines USI R&D expertise with industry knowledge and connections
|
- No prototype, no validated brand willingness-to-pay — early-stage idea
- AI hallucination is an existential risk for a product whose core promise is verified truth
- Revenue model unvalidated — pricing and demand still to be tested
- Credibility depends on NGO/certification partnerships taking 6–18 months to formalize
- Consumer QR/NFC scan behaviour uncertain — adoption not guaranteed
|
| OPPORTUNITIES |
THREATS |
- EU DPP mandatory for textiles ~2027–2028 creates a structural, captive market
- Peak consumer skepticism toward greenwashing makes a verification-anchored layer timely
- Smaller Swiss/EU brands underserved — cannot afford luxury-level narrative infrastructure
- Multiple revenue streams: brand SaaS, consumer data intelligence
- Swiss market alone: 1.25–3.0M CHF addressable at 5% penetration and 10–20k CHF/brand/year
|
- DPP textile delegated act still being finalized — 2026–2027
- Brands may find self-hosted QR pages sufficient, undermining willingness to pay
- EON, Avery Dennison, TrusTrace could add a consumer narrative layer with greater resources
- Upstream supplier data gaps could undermine the 'verified' promise early on
- IP/data-rights concerns may make brands reluctant to share supply-chain data with a third party
|
Strategic Value of the Innovation Booste -. Fashion & Lifestyle. The main strategic value of the Innovation Booster for PassThread is the access to the LTCC and the Fashion & Lifestyle network. The booster sits inside a sector cluster that includes brands and possible suppliers that PassThread needs as design partners and pilot customers. Should the booster be approved with funding, we plan to fully leverage these network connections.
By 2027, EU regulation will require Digital Product Passports (DPPs) for every garment sold, generating machine-readable supply-chain data that consumers cannot read, and brands cannot credibly translate. PassThread positions itself as a B2B/B2C SaaS "trust infrastructure" layer between mandatory DPP data and the shopper, converting compliance output into verified narratives, anchored by partnerships with certification bodies (GOTS, OEKO-TEX) rather than brand self-claims.
The product rests on three principles: verification before narrative, multi-dimensional personalization (labor, materials, carbon, craft), and one-tap access to evidence. Consumer-facing layers and a content studio turn provenance into shareable assets. Target customers are Swiss and EU small-to-mid fashion brands underserved by luxury-grade storytelling infrastructure. Revenue streams envisioned: SaaS subscriptions, aggregated preference intelligence sold back to brands. The project aligns with UN SDGs 8, 12, and 17.