When the founder behind a proposed digital passport for wool attended India’s largest global textile trade called Bharat Tex, she received so many queries she was almost overwhelmed.
“My inbox is inundated with manufacturers, wool buyers, people wanting wool, raw wool, scoured wool—and it just is like ‘Wow.’ I can almost not keep up,” said Amanda Bransgrove, founder and CEO of WoolTraceNZ. “Of course, there was a lot of them that didn’t quite get what I was doing.”
“They thought that I was selling it,” the former fashion model and photographer told Sourcing Journal. On the contrary, her service is not even in the market yet. Bransgrove founded WoolTraceNZ, a New Zealand-based startup that has been developing a digital identity and evidence platform called WoolPass.
The WoolPass is designed to provide verified information about wool from the farm and shearing shed through processing, manufacturing, retail and eventual recovery or end of life. It’s currently in the middle of its minimum viable product development, the company said in a statement.
Nevertheless, the queries gave a glimpse of how huge the demand is for wool. More importantly, they showed there is an interest in the story behind the wool, which will be told through the data that will be on WoolPass.
“We don’t mind paying premium. Our customer wants the provenance, wants the story, wants to know what’s next to the skin, what chemicals are in the wool,” she recalled one manufacturer telling her. “This whole story around the fiber is what is of value.”
This story will be told in the data points that the platform in development hopes to capture, which would include the type of wool, where it was sheared, and relevant animal-welfare declarations where available. Over time, the aggregated data would also provide buyers with better visibility on the upcoming wool availability.
The system is also being designed to extend beyond the origin of the fiber. As wool becomes yarn, fabric or a finished product, its digital record can carry information about material composition, dyes, finishes and other treatments, manufacturing stages, care and repair requirements, certifications and available reuse, recycling, or end-of-life pathways, the company said.
Although WoolPass is being validated first through New Zealand wool, the company sees wider potential for evidence infrastructure across natural fibers. The company said the WoolPass is meant to complement existing certifications and assurance programs as opposed to replacing them.
