Key takeaways:

Alyx is bringing greater transparency to its supply chain by adding nine of its items to blockchain ledgers.

Brands can use blockchain to cultivate deeper connections between consumers and the products they buy, and combat suspicions of greenwashing.

Smaller labels can experiment with the technology by working with off-the-shelf providers.

Chicago-born Matthew Williams first made a name for himself as Lady Gaga’s creative director and a collaborator of Kanye West. In 2015, he founded 1017 Alyx 9SM, whose luxe take on streetwear, fetish and LA subcultures has earned him a regular place on the Paris Fashion Week calendar, a 2016 LVMH Prize finalist nomination, and collaborations with Moncler, Nike and Dior Men. Now, Williams is taking on supply chain transparency with a blockchain-powered pilot programme in partnership with Avery Dennison and Evrythng.

Some Alyx product hang tags will feature a scannable QR code that showcases the entire supply chain history of the piece it’s attached to. That includes when and where the raw materials were sourced, where the garment was manufactured, and its shipping record. Alyx’s suppliers enter the information, and Evrythng stores and uploads the data to the ledger while Avery Dennison makes tags with digital IDs for each garment. Nine Alyx pieces are included in the pilot, but Williams tells Vogue Business that he has the “north star goal” of putting all his products on the blockchain for the sake of transparency.

A simplified visualisation of the Alyx blockchain project.

Fashion is increasingly experimenting with the technology. Last month, LVMH revealed plans for an anti-counterfeiting app based on blockchain that would let brands verify the authenticity of their goods, starting with Louis Vuitton and Parfums Christian Dior. Farfetch is also launching a blockchain platform in collaboration with Facebook in early 2020.

Start small

One of the major obstacles preventing Alyx from putting all its products on a blockchain ledger was the time and effort required to input data at each stage of the process. Unlike consumer technology, for example, fashion poses unique challenges when it comes to traceability. A brand might produce a jacket with 10 components (buckles, panels, lining) each sourced from different raw materials and produced by a different manufacturer before being assembled. The following season, that brand could introduce an entirely new style of jacket that uses different textiles, suppliers and manufacturers.

The barrier to entry was relatively low for Alyx, which is only four years old and produces 80 per cent of its products in Italy with suppliers who take transparency seriously, Williams says. That’s important because Alyx ultimately depends on its suppliers to enter data accurately into the record.

The next step might be automating the process so it can be scaled. “The key is identifying the right nodes of the supply chain from where to pull data and then determining how to most efficiently extract that data,” says Michael Colarossi, Avery Dennison’s vice president of apparel innovation, product line management and sustainability, adding that future integration could mean extracting data directly from manufacturing systems.

Have a clear purpose in mind

Sustainable technology has been part of the Alyx story from the get-go, which makes its blockchain pilot a natural next step. “That’s what we want to continue to communicate, and that’s what brings value to our pieces,” he says. “It becomes a really great storytelling element.”

The scannable QR code is featured on the garment label and is recognised by any smartphone. © 1017 Alyx 9SM

It also brings credibility. Blockchain is a data ledger that is both decentralised and immutable, meaning it is nearly impossible for one person or company to change the data once entered. This means sourcing information can be fed into the blockchain without a brand being able to manipulate it later on. Thus, blockchain programmes like these can prove to consumers that a brand isn’t greenwashing its products. “Adding this blockchain layer means it is much harder for brands to cheat. It’s about bringing trust back,” says Dominique Guinard, founder and chief technology officer at Evrythng.

Hopefully, it will also persuade customers to hold on to items longer. “When you scan the digital identity of an item and have a good, compelling experience, you might understand more about its story,” says Guinard. “You might be a bit more attached to it and a bit less into fast fashion.”

Find the right partners

While the likes of LVMH and Farfetch have significant in-house resources, off-the-shelf providers can make blockchain tagging a reality for smaller companies. While the Alyx pilot took more than six months to execute, Avery Dennison says that standard programs can be deployed more quickly than more customised or complex projects. Evrythng has plug-and-play technology for data input, as the scan process is supported by any smartphone.

The price of such initiatives varies widely, which is why smaller brands should shop around. Some ledgers charge transaction fees at different stages of the process — costs that “could kill a project”, says Guinard — but there are alternatives like the IOTA blockchain that Alyx chose, which is free and says it has no scaling limitations.

While there are initial costs of hiring Avery Dennison and Evrythng to create a unique digital ID, the price then escalates according to the number of times a brand posts to the blockchain, the complexity of its supply chain and the amount of data uploaded, says Colarossi.

Three looks from Alyx's Autumn/Winter 2019 collection, shown during Paris Fashion Week Mens. © 1017 Alyx 9SM

Is it worth all the effort? The collapse in the value of bitcoin — which is the most public face of blockchain and only recently started recovering — hasn’t helped. But Deloitte, which has done extensive surveys on blockchain technology, says that many of its clients are “making meaningful investments in the present day, starting new businesses based on the unique value proposition offered by blockchain and tokens.”

Williams says that’s all normal for a technology in its infancy. “It doesn’t seem so much of a fad to me, it’s just whether this version is the version that works or not,” he says. “In the future, a lot of this stuff around sustainability will be mandated. If people aren’t exploring this type of thing now, they will be left behind.”

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