Hacker News Reader

Comment by deepdriver | Hacker News Reader

Wait until you hear about the World Economic Forum’s plan to put digital ID chips in clothes. From the team behind “you will own nothing and you will be happy,” here comes “you won’t even own the shirt on your back.” Ralph Lauren will participate in the leasing or sale of “your” polo shirt at every stage of its product life. Framed as good for the environment, of course:

https://www.weforum.org/videos/how-digital-id-codes-on-secon...

View on HN

T-Shirt: $0.05 per wear. Dress Shirt: $1.00 per wear. Party Dress: $15.00 per wear. Wedding Dress: $1,500.00 per wear.

At Ralph Lauren, we care about the environment...

I would have liked to learn more about this, but it’s a video…

It's a QR Code in the label that links to a "digital identity" that "lives in the cloud", once you scan it you add data to the "garment's global journey". Main selling point is that the QR code shows the consumer that the product is not faked and the manufacturer what kinds of products are resold, as curious buyers would scan the QR code.

Why it would be impossible to just go through a real store with a phone and make copies of a few QR codes that you then print on your fakes en masse, I don't know.

Because they will use ML on the blockchain to prove single source origin of the cloud. And shareholders will eat it up.

Less facetiously, however, shoe culture is a thing with a huge resale market. Clothing and shoe piracy is a thing. I could see them using this as a pitch to overcome some of those issues to try and establish a clothing culture to rival shoe culture.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com