Helly Hansen joins SwePass: Pushing digital traceability forward in the textile industry
How do you tag a jacket so its story follows it through the entire supply chain, lifespan, and beyond? At Helly Hansen, traceability isn’t just a compliance issue – it’s a cornerstone of innovation. As a partner in the SwePass project, the Norwegian outdoor and workwear brand brings hands-on experience and a strong voice to the challenge of creating digital product passports that work for the entire industry.
With a long history in technical clothing for outdoor use and professional workwear, Helly Hansen is well aware of the complexity in textile supply chains. In recent years, the company has started to collect and structure supply chain data through mapping and tracing of materials, supported by a dedicated software system. A QR code on today’s hangtags already allows consumers to scan and reach the product’s online page directly.
Still, this is only the beginning. One of the key ambitions with participating in SwePass is to explore new ways of tagging garments with digital identifiers that can handle variations in product use and lifespan.
– Digital readers today don’t allow for varied usage or product lifespan. We’re looking for solutions that can adapt to different product types and real-world conditions, says Åsa Andersson, Sustainable Director at Helly Hansen.
A central advantage of working across companies and organisations in a joint project like SwePass is the potential to avoid siloed solutions and instead build a common approach to digital product passports.
– Industry-wide collaboration prevents everyone from reinventing the wheel. Shared digital frameworks boost efficiency and drive innovation. The biggest challenge lies in the fragmentation of data systems. Today, relevant information is spread across several platforms, making integration a key hurdle on the way to a functional and scalable solution, says Åsa Andersson.
By joining SwePass, Helly Hansen aims to both contribute its industry insights and gain new perspectives on how digital traceability can support more transparent, efficient and circular textile flows.
