PARIS — French supply chain traceability platform Fairly Made is expanding into the U.S., betting that growing regulatory pressure and supply chain disruption will push American fashion brands to invest more heavily in traceability and compliance technology.
The Paris-based company has appointed circularity consultant Sydney Ellis its director of North America, and will open an office in New York.
“Brands are under pressure to secure their supply chains, manage compliance risk and make better decisions with better data. The ability to measure and understand what’s happening across the value chain is now a business imperative,” Ellis said.
The company has already signed U.S. clients including Another Tomorrow and G-III Apparel Group as it builds out its American business. G-III manages more than 30 owned and licensed brands globally, including DKNY, Karl Lagerfeld, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, BCBG, Sonia Rykiel, Vince Camuto and French Connection, among others.
Founded in 2018 by Laure Betsch and Camille Le Gall, Fairly Made has been a pioneer in the fashion traceability space as digital product passport providers. It works with luxury and premium groups including Barbour, Isabel Marant, Sandro and Maje parent company SMCP, as well as LVMH Moët Hennesy Louis Vuitton, among others.
The U.S. expansion comes as fashion companies face mounting pressure on traceability and reporting standards, particularly as customs enforcement and anti-forced labor regulations intensify.
“Brands are operating in an increasingly complex environment where supply chain visibility is no longer optional,” Betsch said in a statement. “Our platform turns data into actionable intelligence, helping teams reduce risk, move faster and make smarter sourcing decisions.”
Unlike Europe, where sustainability regulation has largely centered on environmental reporting and carbon emissions, Fairly Made sees the U.S. market as being more focused on working conditions and social compliance, particularly around forced labor risks.
“The social landscape is wider and more important,” Le Gall told WWD, pointing to concerns around worker conditions, fair wages and child labor. While European brands tend to focus more heavily on environmental metrics, she said American companies and consumers are placing more emphasis on traceability tied to sourcing integrity and labor practices.
The varying focuses reflect broader differences between the two markets. European fashion companies have spent years preparing for incoming EU sustainability legislation, including digital product passport requirements and expanded environmental disclosures which are rolling out in phases through 2030.
In the U.S., regulation remains more fragmented, including pending legislation in California and New York state, but enforcement around customs compliance at the federal level has become increasingly strict.
For many brands, the most immediate pressure point is the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, or UFLPA, which allows U.S. Customs authorities to block imports suspected of links to forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region.
“The difference from Europe is that the UFLPA is at customs,” Le Gall said. “It’s something that can be super tough for brands, with customs stopping the product at the border.”
That operational risk has created a direct business case for traceability tools. Le Gall said some European brands importing goods into the U.S. already use Fairly Made’s supply chain documentation to help clear customs faster and avoid costly delays.
“On time means money in pocket,” she said. “Otherwise, they are losing money and days of sales.”
Fairly Made cofounders Camille Le Gall and Laure Betsch
Courtesy of Fairly Made
The company’s expansion strategy mirrors the approach it previously used in Europe, where it first tested demand through organic client acquisition before building local teams. Fairly Made entered Italy three years ago through early partnerships with brands including Fendi and Moncler before growing operations on the ground.
In the U.S., Another Tomorrow has become a flagship account. The New York-based luxury label, founded by Vanessa Barboni Hallik on sustainability and traceability principles, uses Fairly Made’s platform to support product-level impact disclosures and consumer-facing QR code transparency tools.
Le Gall said brands increasingly want third-party verification to support sustainability claims as customer call outs about greenwashing intensify.
“Brands were really willing to move forward those topics, but were not capable to measure properly,” she said. “Fairly Made behaves as a third party that does bring them trustable data.”
Ellis, who previously held merchandising roles at Tory Burch, Ralph Lauren and Madewell, will oversee commercial development and client relationships in North America. The company said her experience advising brands on supply chain transformation and SaaS impact intelligence made her well-positioned to guide the company’s U.S. growth.
A look from Another Tomorrow.
Courtesy of Another Tomorrow.
Fairly Made is also betting that American brands may ultimately adopt digital product passports differently than their European counterparts. While the EU will have a bloc-wide framework, the U.S. market remains more flexible and decentralized.
Betsch said the company has designed its technology infrastructure to adapt to multiple regulatory systems, including potential state-level legislation in California and New York, as well as future Chinese digital product passport requirements, which will be implemented in 2028.
“We feel that most of the data will be the same,” she said. “But the requirements for the way it’s going to be reported will be different.”
For now, the company plans measured expansion in the U.S., prioritizing strategic partnerships over rapid client acquisition. Fairly Made said it hopes to roughly double its American client base over the next year, though Le Gall emphasized that long-term engagement matters more than scale alone.
“Our mission is to improve social and environmental impact in the fashion industry,” she said. “Sometimes it’s better to have fewer brands using it at scale.”
