Supima to establish new benchmark on traceability with TextileGenesis

Supima, the brand for American-grown Pima cotton, has announced a strategic partnership with TextileGenesis to establish a new industry benchmark platform for authenticating cotton to improve traceability.

The Supima blockchain platform powered by TextileGenesis will digitally connect Supima’s comprehensive supply chain from the growers to the brand/retailers, while its technology partner Oritain will provide the forensic origin authentication for Supima cotton across the platform.

The move is to offer a “trusted and robust” verification solution to authentic premium fibre sourcing for the global fashion industry, with Supima looking to showcase transparency and responsible sourcing of its cotton.

TextileGenesis’ Fibercoin technology will be integrated into Supima’s licensing programme and applied to all Supima branded fibre throughout the supply chain, creating a non-fungible digital token for every kilogram of Supima cotton that can be physically and forensically verified and authenticated by Supima from the farm through to the retail shelf.

Marc Lewkowitz, president and chief executive of Supima, said in a statement: “The Supima partnership with TextileGenesis provides for the very first time, undisputable proof of origin for consumer products all the way back to the fibre’s origin. This enables Supima’s partner brands to credibly claim advantages in terms of product quality and sustainability that are independently verifiable through both digital and forensic testing.

“There is no system like this for any other fibre. Supima partners will have the most authentic and trustworthy premium cotton source for all the current and future needs of luxury apparel and home textile products.”

Amit Gautam, founder and chief executive of TextileGenesis, added: “This collaboration is setting a new benchmark for the cotton and premium fibre’s industry, and paves a new path for the entire fashion eco-system.

“We are creatively combining three major innovations - digital-tokens based article-level traceability, forensic physical verification, and Supima brand-licensing - in a single integrated platform. It creates a new platinum standard in the industry for end-to-end traceability and physical verification.”