Supima, the brand for American-grown Pima cotton, announced a strategic partnership with TextileGenesis to establish a new industry benchmark platform for authenticating cotton.
The Supima blockchain platform powered by TextileGenesis will digitally connect Supima’s comprehensive supply chain from the growers to brands and retailers. Integrated with the digital platform, Supima’s technology partner Oritain will provide the forensic origin authentication for Supima cotton across the platform.
TextileGenesis’ Fibercoin technology will be integrated into Supima’s licensing program and applied to all Supima-branded fiber 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. This pioneering effort for cotton sourcing sets a new standard for responsibility in the global textile industry and consumer marketplace.
Supima said the ability to independently validate the content of products using Supima cotton at every stage of the supply chain achieves the highest level of authenticity and responsibility through the combination of forensic physical and digital authentication. It also marks the next chapter in Supima’s ongoing role in bringing the most trusted and robust verification solution to authentic premium fiber sourcing to the global fashion industry.
“The Supima partnership with TextileGenesis provides, for the very first time, undisputable proof of origin for consumer products all the way back to the fiber’s origin,” Supima president and CEO Marc Lewkowitz said. “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 fiber.”
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Lewkowtiz added that Supima partners will now have “the most authentic and trustworthy premium cotton source” for all the current and future needs of luxury apparel and home textile products.
“This collaboration is setting a new benchmark for the cotton and premium fiber’s industry and paves a new path for the entire fashion eco-system,” said Amit Gautam, TextileGenesis founder and CEO. “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.”
TextileGenesis is a traceability platform custom-built for the fashion and textile ecosystem. It has partnered with more than 40 global brands to create fiber-to-retail traceability for sustainable, premium and certified materials. By the end of 2022, TextileGenesis will create traceability for 500 million units in the global fashion industry.
The Supima brand, short for “Superior Pima,” designates an exclusive source of extra-long staple cotton responsibly grown only in the West and the Southwestern U.S. known for its strength, lasting color, softness and durability.