H&M First Major Fashion Retailer to Mass Market Product Transparency

Fast fashion retailer H&M has announced that they are launching product transparency for all garments on hm.com. What does this mean? It means that consumers will be able to make informed decisions about what they buy at H&M. This announcement is a nice compliment to H&M’s existing sustainability and recycling programs for fashion, including their Conscious Collection, which is made from recycled materials.

For each of H&M garment, the company has announced that they  will now share details such as production country, supplier names, factory names and addresses as well as the number of factory workers. In addition, customers can find out more about the materials used to make a specific garment.  H&M hasn’t yet revealed how they will accomplish this detailed product tracking, but I can’t help but wonder if they are using blockchain technology to track all the details and ensure the provenance (history) of each garment in their supply chain.  Last year,
H&M subsidiary Arket anounced that they were testing blockchain tracking with VeChain.

H&M’s new transparency layer for tracking product provenance has arrived.

“We are so proud to be the first global fashion retailer of our size and scale to launch this level of product transparency. We want to show the world that this is possible. By being open and transparent about where our products are made we hope to set the bar for our industry and encourage customers to make more sustainable choices. With transparency comes responsibility, making transparency such an important factor to help create a more sustainable fashion industry,” says Isak Roth, Head of Sustainability at H&M.

H&M’s new Conscious Collection for Spring 2019 features vintage looking prints & florals

The transparency layer will be available in H&M’s 47 online markets starting today April 23, 2019. Customers can also access this information when shopping in H&M’s  brick & mortar stores by using the H&M app to scan the price tag on a product to see its details.   As a technology lover, I am looking forward to trying this new H&M transparency app while doing my shopping.