As I’ve said before, we’re living in a world where microchips are becoming ubiquitous. For a long time the joke was that even our toasters will soon have chips and be connected to the internet (which in fact happened already several years ago). What’s interesting, however, is that IoT (Internet of Things) doesn’t only apply to gadgets and home appliances – it’s coming to all things, including clothes and accessories.
Many brands have already started using chips, mainly RFID or NFC chips, in their products. Examples of such brands are Mango, Adidas, Nike, Ebay, AZ Factory and Vestiaire with Alexander McQueen. There are many good reasons for this, such as improved inventory management, tracking (in-store and during delivery), and authentication.
You can even take the use-cases one step further. Here’s how Prada Group’s Massimo Vian described the opportunities they see in using RFID/NFC:
Thanks to blockchain technology, RFIDs are increasingly relevant because each product can receive a unique digital identity, like a passport, which the company can use in the creation and distribution of products to authenticate and track items. After a purchase has been made, customers can use their smartphones to scan the chips to access information about their specific product, such as images and videos of it being made, and suggestions for coordinating items.
You might rightfully ask why blockchain technology would be required for implementing a “passport” for your Prada bag, but I suppose there might be some point in using a decentralized, distributed, and hopefully public, digital ledger. If nothing else, they’ll get some additional media coverage by dropping the term in their jargon.
At this point I can already hear all the privacy and security freaks moaning in pain. Even though RFID and NFC chips aren’t constantly connected to the internet and enable only low range communication (NFC literally stands for near-field communication), one can still imagine several potential undesirable use-cases. For example, without proper security measures, RFID tags pose a clear risk to both personal identification and location privacy as well as to corporate security.
Despite the obvious privacy and security concerns, it seems clear that the proliferation of chips will continue, and when it comes to clothes and accessories, RFID/NFC is just the starting point. As people are becoming increasingly used to the fact that everything can be located, chips will find their ways to even more products and new use-cases will emerge.
To some extent you could argue that Apple and Samsung are driving this change by introducing new tracking devices (AirTags and SmartTags), which we are supposed to place inside all the things we care for, such as wallets and handbags.
Whether or not this is a good development, only time will tell.