erlich textil x retraced: Supply Chain Transparency

Where does your clothing really come from? With retraced, we are making our supply chain transparent, from raw material to processing and all the way to you. A step toward greater traceability.

We want to know and show where and by whom our textiles are produced. For this, it is necessary to trace the supply chain.

Together with retraced, we are doing exactly that: We are showing you where your clothing comes from, from the first raw material to your home.

What actually is retraced?

retraced is a technology company that allows us to make our production processes even more transparent. This gives you a more precise insight into the supply chain of your erlich pieces.

We input all available information: From the country our cotton comes from, to the spinning, knitting, dyeing, finishing, manufacturing, and packaging, all the way to us as a retailer. The goal: the greatest possible transparency down to the raw material.

For new suppliers: They register on www.retraced.com, undergo an assessment, and answer questions about social and environmental topics. This allows us to judge whether they meet our requirements.

Why are transparent supply chains so important?

Without a transparent supply chain, it is impossible to track who is producing what, where, and under what conditions. Only by disclosing the facilities is it possible to verify the social and environmental standards under which work is being done.

In the conventional textile industry, supply chains are often opaque. This leads to poor social standards, the exploitation of workers, and environmental problems. No one can verify what is actually happening.

Informed purchasing decisions: You can see how and where your clothing is produced and make informed decisions.
Transparent production: Transparency makes it verifiable whether our requirements for production facilities are being met.

retraced at erlich textil

The integration of retraced into our online shop is an important step for us in terms of transparency. From the procurement of raw materials to production and shipping, it is important to us to share this information as transparently as possible.

Collaborating with retraced enables us and you to trace which facilities were involved in a product. Our production facilities are registered via retraced and are assessed before being onboarded.

Pilot project: We started with 11 items. These products already show transparently via retraced which stages they have gone through. You can find the complete list on our product pages.

Important note: For data protection reasons, we do not show the exact names and addresses of our suppliers. Often, we ourselves only know the country from which our fibers come; for cotton, for example, we never have an exact plantation address. Therefore, we limit the display on our product pages to the countries.

Furthermore, it is a significant extra effort for our suppliers to provide us with this information. Therefore, it often takes a long time to obtain more data and background information about our supply chain.

QR codes for even more transparency

This is our next big step: We plan to introduce QR codes containing all the important information about our products—the same data we have entered into retraced.

The QR codes could be sewn into or printed on our products.
Not just customers, but also textile recyclers and sorters will be able to access all relevant details.
Your advantage: You scan the code with your smartphone and immediately see the complete production history.

The challenge: Textile supply chains are fundamentally very tangled and opaque. It is difficult to accurately find and provide all the information. Therefore, this topic is an ongoing priority for us.