“Passport panic”. DPP for beginners: what your small brand actually has to do!
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
(The quick-and-wry guide—no consultancy invoice attached.)
London, United Kingdom – 4 June 2025
Image: The Fashion Guild®
1. Your DPP legal homework in one paragraph
If you put a garment on sale inside the EU from the 2027 season onwards, customs officers will expect every SKU to carry a Digital Product Passport (DPP)—a QR- or NFC-tag that reveals who made it, what it’s made from, its environmental score-card and how it can be repaired or recycled. The EU is building a free upload portal (the “central registry”) that opens on 19 July 2026; until then you must compile the data and park it somewhere web-visible (even a GitHub Page will do).
Translation: no fee to list the passport, but the homework is yours—put the kettle on.
2. The absolute bare-minimum data set
Bucket | Typical fields | Cheap way to capture it |
Identity | GTIN (barcode), style number, fibre %, supplier IDs | One tidy Excel sheet per collection |
Impact | Carbon & water footprint, durability test results | Ask mills for LCA summaries; log lab tests alongside tech-packs |
Circularity | Care & repair instructions, recyclability class, take-back address | Paste your own washing-label text; grab postcode for any returns hub |
More reading? You may want to read this one later down the track. https://pimberly.com/blog/digital-product-passport-how-to-prepare-for-new-regulations/
3. Five-step DIY passport — cost: £0 and the price of a cuppa
Fill one tidy spreadsheet. Put one style per row. Add columns for barcode or style code, fibre %, maker, basic footprint numbers, and a sentence on repair/recycling. That sheet is your master record.
Save it as CSV, then turn it into a “machine-readable” file. CSV is just a plain text version of your spreadsheet. Drop that CSV into any free CSV → JSON-LD converter you find online (search the phrase and pick one you like). The output, JSON-LD, is nothing mystical—just another text file with curly brackets that computers understand.
Park the file where the internet can see it. Free options include GitHub Pages, Netlify, or even a public Google Drive link. All that matters is the file sits behind an https:// web address.
Create a GS1 Digital Link QR code that points to that web address. The generator on gs1.org is free: paste in your URL, press “download”, and you’ve got a QR image ready for print.
Print the QR on your hang-tag and scan-test it. If it opens on your phone—showing the curly-bracket text—you’re good. When the EU’s free upload portal goes live on 19 July 2026, you’ll simply drag-and-drop the same file.
Optional—but sensible: buy GS1 UK’s entry-level single-prefix (about £50 a year) for genuine GTIN barcodes. It keeps your codes unique and still costs less than a month of most SaaS passport platforms.
4. Key dates to pin above the cutting table
When | What | Your move |
Now (2025) | ESPR working plan live. | Start chasing mills for fibre provenance |
Q4 2025 | Final DPP rules for apparel. | Add new fields to tech-packs & PLM. |
19 Jul 2026 | EU registry opens (free upload portal). | Batch-upload your JSON files |
2027 season | Border checks start. | Make sure every production run bears the same QR you tested. |
Image: The Fashion Guild®
5. “Tidy now, chill later” – why the slog is worth it
Faster sampling: a single spreadsheet feeds your 3-D design software, lab orders and the passport—no duplicate typing.
Investor brownie points: clean scope-3 data on hand = smoother ESG questions.
Mid-season tweaks cost less: passports are editable; if you swap zips for corozo buttons you just tweak one JSON file, not forty labels.
SaaS exit option forever: when the subscription vendors pitch in 2027 you can smile politely—your DIY stack already works.
6. What about the UK?
DEFRA is still “consulting”; there’s no British portal or enforcement date yet. But if you ship to the Continent, Brussels’ rule-book trumps Westminster dithering, so build once and you’re future-proof on both sides of the Channel.
7. Where to learn more (free & friendly)
GS1 UK 30-minute webinars—register and quiz the barcode nerds https://www.gs1uk.org/event-listing-and-webinars/QR-webinar-18-june-2024
EU consultation hub—see the draft schema and leave feedback before 1 July 2025. https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/news/commission-launches-consultation-digital-product-passport-2025-04-09_en
Image: The Fashion Guild®
Bottom line
There will be a cost-free government portal—just not until mid-2026. Spend this year corralling your BOMs, test a DIY QR, and the moment that portal opens you’ll be able to drag-and-drop your data while the big boys are still hunting for their passwords. Gin optional.
👋 About The Fashion Guild
The Fashion Guild is a global consultancy and innovation hub committed to advancing creativity, efficiency, and sustainability in the fashion industry. Co-founded by industry veterans Peter Gallagher-Witham RCA MDes and Jon Smith, we help brands remain competitive by integrating the best of AI and 3D technology.
📢 Hashtags
#DigitalProductPassport #DPP #ESPR #SustainableFashion #CircularFashion #EcoDesign #FashionCompliance #UKFashion #IndieBrand #TextileRegulation #LowImpactDesign
