Lectra’s TextileGenesis platform has launched two new cooperatives in the footwear and leather industries to improve traceability and promote more sustainable supply chains.
Due to the complex, fragmented nature of the footwear and leather supply chains, TextileGenesis founder and CEO Amit Gautam said the company saw a need for a tool that will allow businesses in those sectors to provide greater traceability and better control their sourcing.
“The number of unique components required to make a single pair of shoes could range from 10 to 50-plus parts, while leather has an extremely fragmented and opaque upstream supply chain,” Gautam said. “This exposes these industries to major social and environmental risks. At a time when governments are tightening regulations on traceability and forcing brands to be more transparent, it is imperative that the players in the footwear and leather ecosystems unite to collectively meet these challenges.”
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As sustainability and social responsibility become more important for consumers, apparel companies have made a push to operate with processes that adhere to these ideals. That has led to a demand for traceability in supply chains to ensure that claims of sustainability and social responsibility are accurate throughout the production process.
TextileGenesis launched in 2018 to provide greater transparency in the fabric supply chain, using a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform and digital token traceability technology to guarantee authenticity and provenance at every stage of the supply chain. The company recently rolled out a new eTrackit partnership with Textile Exchange and inked a memorandum of understanding with the International Cotton Association to “enable digital collaboration on ethical trading and sustainability for the betterment of the industry.”
TextileGenesis has worked with a number of textile companies an organizations in recent years, including Supima, Renewcell, and the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol. For this new push, groups such as the Forest Stewardship Council and Fashion for Good will work alongside brands to broaden the scope of TextileGenesis’ traceability efforts.
“While to date, the traceability of the leather value chain remains a complex challenge for the fashion industry, it is essential to ensure that the leather originates from sources free of deforestation,” said Katrin Ley, managing director, Fashion for Good. “Additionally, with this set to be addressed by the upcoming EUDR legislation, TextileGenesis’ initiative to unite various actors in the supply chain to tackle these complexities comes at an opportune time.”
Gautam said that while TextileGenesis will provide the technology to drive this sustainability innovation in footwear and leather, the partnerships with companies and organizations in the sectors are key to its long-term success.
“We hope that these initiatives will lead to significant advances in the footwear and leather industries,” Gautam said. “We are determined to promote greater traceability in the apparel sector and are delighted to be able to contribute, with the creation of these consortiums, to the collective work of all the players in order to move together towards more sustainable production methods.”
