World Collective and Kinset have been featured in Sourcing Journal for our joint positioning paper addressing one of the most urgent questions facing the fashion industry:

Can Digital Product Passports scale without supplier data?

The short answer is no.

As global regulation accelerates — particularly across the EU — Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are moving from theory to operational requirement. But much of the current conversation still centers on brand-side reporting, overlooking a structural reality: the data required for DPP compliance originates upstream, with suppliers.

The Sourcing Journal feature highlights the core argument of our positioning paper:

DPP cannot scale as a downstream documentation exercise. It must be built as shared infrastructure.

Why This Matters Now

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and related traceability mandates will require product-level data that is:

• Verifiable

• Structured

• Interoperable

• Linked across tiers

Yet most supplier data today lives in PDFs, emails, siloed ERP systems, and audit reports that are not designed for structured digital exchange.

Without supplier-enabled workflows, brands will face rising compliance costs, data gaps, and operational bottlenecks. Smaller manufacturers risk exclusion altogether if they are not equipped with tools to participate.

This is not a reporting challenge.

It is an infrastructure challenge.

A Supplier-Centered Approach to DPP

Through our pilot with Kinset, World Collective is testing a fabric-level DPP workflow designed to:

• Help suppliers structure and upload verified data once

• Create standardized, reusable data blocks

• Enable brands to access compliance-ready information directly

• Reduce duplication, manual reporting, and audit fatigue

The goal is not to create another dashboard.

The goal is to operationalize traceability at the source.

By aligning data capture with where information is generated — in mills, dyehouses, and manufacturing facilities — DPP becomes commercially viable rather than administratively burdensome.

From Paper to Pilot

The positioning paper outlines a distributed accountability model: responsibility aligned with data ownership.

But this isn’t theoretical. The pilot is already underway, testing real workflows with suppliers and evaluating how structured data can move across systems without fragmentation.

The feature in Sourcing Journal underscores an important shift in industry dialogue:

the recognition that suppliers are not passive participants in compliance. They are central actors in building the next phase of digital supply chain infrastructure.

Preparing for What’s Next

Regulation is not slowing down. Transparency expectations are increasing. Brands are under pressure to prove impact with verifiable, transaction-level evidence.

The question is no longer whether DPP will become mandatory. The question is whether supply chains will be ready.

World Collective is building the digital ecosystem that enables suppliers, brands, and solution providers to prepare together — before compliance becomes crisis management.

If you haven’t read the full positioning paper yet, now is the time.

👉🏽 Read the full DPP Positioning Paper here. 

👉🏽 Stay ahead of the market & get DPP-Ready now - Click here to know how!

Because DPP won’t scale on promises. It will scale on infrastructure.