How to Collect Supplier Data for Your Digital Product Passport

The Digital Product Passport is only as accurate as the data behind it. For most textile brands, the biggest bottleneck is not the platform — it is collecting the right information from suppliers across multiple production stages. This guide covers exactly what data to request, from whom, and how to structure it for entry into epassportify.

What the DPP Needs from Your Supply Chain

epassportify's product wizard captures supply chain data in two ways:

1. Production country fields: Confection / Assembly Country, Dyeing & Printing Country, Weaving & Knitting Country — three specific stages of the production chain, each requiring a country selection.
2. Supplier entries: For each relevant supplier, you enter the supplier name, city (optional), and country. There is no limit on the number of suppliers per product variant.

These two data layers together give auditors and buyers a complete picture: which countries the product passed through, and which specific companies were involved at each stage.

Mapping Your Supply Chain Tiers

Before contacting suppliers, map the tiers involved in producing each product:

• Tier 1: Your direct supplier — the factory or CMT facility that assembles the finished garment. This is your Confection / Assembly entry.
• Tier 2: Fabric mill, dye house, or yarn spinner. This typically covers the Weaving & Knitting and Dyeing & Printing stages.
• Tier 3: Fibre or raw material supplier (cotton gin, wool top-maker, synthetic fibre producer). For brands making origin claims or holding GOTS/RWS certifications, this tier becomes relevant.

The ESPR delegated act for textiles will confirm which tiers must be documented in the DPP. Based on the ESPR framework, Tier 1 and Tier 2 are most likely to be mandatory. Tier 3 is more relevant for brands with certified origin claims.

Data to Request from Each Supplier

From Your Tier 1 Garment Factory

• Full legal company name
• City and country of the production facility
• Any certifications held by the factory (OEKO-TEX STeP, SA8000, BSCI, WRAP, etc.) — certificate name and number
• Confirmation of which specific garment styles or order references are produced at this facility

From Your Fabric Mill / Dye House (Tier 2)

• Full legal company name
• City and country
• Exact fibre composition of the fabric supplied (percentages by component where relevant)
• Whether any recycled content is present, and if so, the percentage and certification (GRS, RCS)
• Whether any renewable content is present (organic cotton, etc.) and the certification (GOTS, BCI)
• Certifications held by the facility
• Harmful substances test report reference or OEKO-TEX certificate number covering this fabric

From Your Yarn Spinner / Fibre Supplier (Tier 3 — where applicable)

• Country of fibre origin (where the cotton was grown, where the wool was raised)
• Certification details (GOTS Transaction Certificate, RWS certificate, Fairtrade certificate, etc.)
• GRS or RCS certificate if recycled content is claimed

Organising Supplier Responses

The most practical approach for most brands is a simple structured request sent to each supplier via email. The request should specify:

• Which order reference or product style the information relates to
• The exact data points listed above
• The deadline for response (link to your DPP production timeline)
• A note that this data will appear in the product's Digital Product Passport — which is a public page accessible via QR code scan

That last point matters: some suppliers are unfamiliar with DPP requirements. Explaining that this is an EU regulatory requirement, not an internal audit, tends to improve response rates. Sharing a sample DPP public page from epassportify helps suppliers understand what the information will look like in use.

Handling Incomplete Supplier Data

In practice, not all suppliers will respond with complete information immediately. Here is how to handle the most common gaps:

• Missing certification numbers: Brands can enter the certification scheme (e.g., OEKO-TEX Standard 100) even if the exact certificate number arrives later — then update the variant when the number is confirmed. The variant system allows updates without invalidating existing QR codes.
• Unknown dyeing country: Ask your Tier 1 factory — they typically know which dye house processed their fabric, even if the brand does not have a direct relationship with that facility.
• Supplier unwilling to disclose facility name: Some suppliers treat facility identities as commercially sensitive. In these cases, the country entry is the minimum viable data point. Document the known data and flag the gap for follow-up.

Entering Collected Data into epassportify

Once you have collected supplier data, the entry into epassportify follows a straightforward sequence:

1. Step 2 — Materials: Enter fibre composition data as provided by your fabric mill. One row per component (main fabric, lining, trim). Enter recycled and renewable flags per material.
2. Step 3 — Supply Chain: Select the confection, dyeing, and weaving countries from the dropdown (80+ countries supported). Add each supplier as a separate entry with name and country.
3. Step 4 — Compliance: Enter certification scheme and number from the supplier's certificate. Complete the harmful substances declaration referencing the test report or certification.

If a product is produced across multiple factories — for example, one factory in Turkey and another in Bangladesh — create a separate variant for each factory configuration. Each variant captures its own supply chain and certification data.

Keeping Data Current

Supply chains change: factories switch, fabric mills are updated, certifications expire. The variant system in epassportify is designed for this. Rather than editing existing passport records (which would alter the historical data attached to already-printed QR codes), new production runs create new variants. Old QR codes continue to resolve accurately to the data that was true for that batch.

Build a habit of initiating a new DPP variant request to suppliers at the start of each production season — at the same time you are placing fabric and trim orders. This way, DPP data collection becomes part of the standard production preparation process rather than a compliance scramble at the end.

Conclusion

The supplier data that feeds a Digital Product Passport — factory names, production countries, certification numbers, fibre compositions — is data that most textile brands partly already hold in their sourcing records. The DPP requires this information to be structured, digitised, and attached to individual product records with QR codes. Starting the supplier data collection process now, product by product, builds the database that makes compliance straightforward when the ESPR mandate takes effect.