This Italian Sneaker Brand Tapped Renoon for Green Cred

Italian sustainable shoe brand Womsh (Word of Mouth Shoes) has teamed with Renoon to turn its green claims into verifiable credentials.

The Amsterdam-based software company has embedded Digital Product Passports—a blockchain based end-to-end traceability tool—into the sneakers via a QR code attached to the shoe’s tongue. The DPPs are also accessible on e-commerce product pages.

“This partnership is not just a step forward for Womsh, but a leap in the right direction for the entire industry,” Gianni Della Mora, CEO of Womsh, said. “Together with Renoon, we are redefining fashion standards, even anticipating European laws with an innovative initiative: the digital product passport.”

And DPPS, which are essentially digital twins of physical products, are more than a nice-to-have sustainability tool. Impending legislation, like the EU’s Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles or the U.S. Digital Care Label, will soon make DPPs mandatory for compliance. As such, preparing for the Green Claims directive is increasingly essential to operate in the European Union, United Kingdom and United States. 

Renoon’s widget and QR codes help Womsh substantiate green claims through a structured proof-points management system, which gives the ability to communicate with precision, the Triarchy partner said.

Renoon also created a product map; Womsh’s Kato leather sneaker product passport, for example, maps the entire journey of the shoe, from where the raw materials were sourced to where the final product was packaged in Portugal. The Kato’s raw leather materials came from several tanneries, including Faeda in Italy and Chevro in Spain while a small Italian artisan company produced lace for Womsh using recycled cotton and recycled polyester from water bottles. Joseli in Portugal manufactured the Kato while Emblematic Papel packaged it.

Consumers can also click through various product values—like ethical origin or ecological packaging—to validate that mapping. Going a step further, there are actual PDFs of those claims. The Kato’s leather comes from a secure supply chain, verified by a signed and audited certificate from the Leather Working Group. The manufacturing of the sneaker was audited by a third party to ensure the application of safety standards, given a stamp of approval from Sedex.

Womsh even identifies how many times the customer can expect to wear the sneaker (728 times for the Kato) and a true cost price breakdown based on that number ($0.26 cost for each time the Kato is worn). This is calculated by considering the brand’s average age range and product category, consistent with the 2015 Norwegian Study conducted by SIFO on product durability.

“Womsh is committed to protecting the environment and ensuring respect for people throughout the production process,” Della Mora said. “For this reason, we have entered into a significant partnership with Renoon, one of the most authoritative platforms internationally for the traceability and disclosure of brand processes.”