Swedish sportswear brand adds NFC zippers to enhance customer engagement

NFC zipper on Houdini parka
CONNECTED: Wearers tap the NFC zipper pull with their phone to access care guides and other features

Swedish sportswear brand Houdini has added an NFC-enabled zipper pull to its latest One Parka waterproof coat that lets consumers who purchase the garment connect with the brand and access use and care guides, support services and other digital features with a tap of their NFC smartphone.

The zipper pull also enables the company to track the lifecycle of each individual garment via a cloud-based digital profile so that it can be “connected, managed and stewarded across lifecycles” in relation to “use, care, reuse and next life”.

The One Parka is the first product to feature a TouchLink NFC zipper pull developed by fastening manufacturer YKK that connects with technology provider EON’s Product Cloud platform.

“Without a way to connect to products across their lifecycle, brands have historically lost control of their products and connectivity with their customers after initial sale,” the partner companies say.

“The partnership between EON and YKK solves these challenges across hardware and software: EON is the first end-to-end platform ecosystem in fashion retail, and YKK introduces one of the first commercially viable solutions for durable and washable embedded physical solutions for digital enablement of connected apparel with the TouchLink zipper pull.”

Swedish sportswear brand adds NFC zippers to enhance customer engagement was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.