I have clothing made under my own label — who creates the passport?

What you must do concretely

What is expected of you

Making clothing under your own label is a trusted practice in the fashion industry: a factory produces, and the label on the garment carries your brand name. Under the ESPR, that brand name is decisive in determining who must work with the product passport. Whoever places their name or trademark on the product is in most cases considered a manufacturer within the meaning of Article 27 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) — even if production is entirely outsourced. The actual production location is not the determining factor for this question; the brand on the garment is.

The obligations of Article 27 fall on the brand

Article 27 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) imposes a series of obligations on the manufacturer: ensuring the product complies with ecodesign requirements, drawing up and keeping the product passport up to date, and maintaining technical documentation. For a company with 10 to 100 employees that does not itself produce but does carry the brand, this means that in practice the responsibility for the passport lies with your own company, even if the knowledge about materials and production processes lies with the factory. This requires a working method in which data from the factory is systematically requested, checked and processed — not a one-off action at the time of first order.

Distinction between own brand and supply to another brand

A factory that produces for multiple private label clients is not a manufacturer of those products under the ESPR; it is a supplier. Article 38 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) describes the requirements for actors in the supply chain: they must provide the information needed to comply with ecodesign requirements, but compiling and managing the passport itself is not their task. For a private label company, this means that the factory is a supplier of data, not a party that arranges the passport on your behalf — unless this has been agreed otherwise by contract and that agreement can actually be fulfilled.

Clarifying who has which role before production starts

Because the division of roles does not automatically follow from who actually makes the garment, it is advisable for a private label company to clarify at the start of a production relationship who fulfills which role. This prevents anyone from being unsure who is responsible when an inspection occurs or a buyer asks. The page Who is responsible for the product passport for clothing and textiles? shows how that division of roles works in general terms; for the situation where an own brand is carried on a product made elsewhere, I sell clothing and textiles under my own brand — what obligations do I get? provides further elaboration.

If the factory is outside the EU

Many private label companies have production carried out in factories outside the European Union. This does not change the role of the brand as manufacturer, but it does add a practical point: data must be collected over a greater distance and often across a language barrier. What this concretely means for the information flow is described on My manufacturer is located outside the European Union — who will arrange the product passport then?.

Where things go wrong in practice

A number of situations recur among private label companies that start working with the product passport.

The first is the assumption that the factory will handle the passport, because the factory after all knows the materials and processes. Knowledge of the product is not the same as responsibility for the passport; that responsibility follows the brand, not the production location.

The second is a collection with multiple factories per season, where different data comes in from each factory — one provides a complete composition overview, another a brief invoice. Without a fixed format, a patchwork of documentation emerges that is difficult to trace back to a single comprehensive passport per article in an audit.

The third issue is the absence of a written agreement on who supplies the data, in what form and by what date. Verbal agreements with a factory often work well until a delivery is delayed and no one remembers who was supposed to supply which piece of information.

The fourth situation is a change of factory midway through a season, for example because a production location lacks capacity. The product passport of the original article may then no longer be accurate, while the article number and label remain unchanged — the data behind the passport must then be updated accordingly.

The fifth issue is confusing one's own role with that of a wholesaler or intermediary in the chain. A party that operates its own brand is not automatically the same as a party that only resells; the distinction between those roles is explained on I am a clothing wholesaler, what are my obligations regarding the product passport.

What you can record

• A production agreement with the factory that specifies which data are to be supplied, in what form and at what point in the production process.
• A standard delivery format for material composition, origin of raw materials and chemicals used, so that data from different factories are mutually comparable and processable.
• An internal overview per collection or article number of which factory produced which product, including any factory changes during the season.
• Contact details and a point of contact at each factory for questions about the composition of a specific article, even after the order is completed.
• An archive of the supplied documentation per article, linked to the period in which that article was sold.

These records form the basis on which a product passport can be compiled and, when requested, can be substantiated. What happens when that substantiation is lacking is described on What happens if I don't have a product passport for my clothing and textiles?