First denim mill signs up for Oritain’s end-to-end traceability
Cone Denim has announced it will work with specialist New Zealand-based company Oritain to establish what it has called “end-to-end traceability”. It said it would be the first denim mill to achieve this.
Oritain’s method combines forensic science and statistics to detect naturally occurring elements in fibres, including cotton. Soil composition and other environmental factors give the cotton an inherent ‘fingerprint’ specific to each location. Oritain calls this the “origin fingerprint”. Once these origin fingerprints have been created, they cannot be tampered with, replicated, or destroyed, the company has said, unlike other traceability systems, and product can be tested at any point in the supply chain to verify origin claims.
To date, Oritain has mapped over 90% of the world’s cotton.
Commenting on the development, Cone Denim president, Steve Maggard, said: “Traceability and sustainability are no longer just industry buzzwords but strong-held values fast becoming the gold standard for our customers and the consumer.”
He said the partnership with Oritain would enable Cone Denim to provide “documentable transparency” that its products contain no cotton from prohibited regions and insisted this would offer “an elevated level of confidence and scientific peace of mind to our customers”.
