The sports industry has been using tagless labels for years

Technology Initiatives: Tagless to the Rescue

 

Tagless labeling technology allows for increased consumer comfort, branding opportunities, cost savings and security management.

 

Itching, scratching, sticking, annoying. Unfortunately many garment labels leave this type of unpleasant impression on the consumer.

 

Researchers have innovated a new tagless, or label-less, way to label a garment. The new methods create an end result which not only is comfortable to the wearer but also accommodates other government mandated labeling requirements, such as the inclusion of the fiber content, country of origin, manufacturing identification and care instructions.

 

Advantages of tagless technology

This new technology is unique in that the consumer can see but not feel the label information. This makes the garment more comfortable, and the wearer is able to enjoy the garment. It is an efficient and customer friendly way of affixing the label information to the garment. The garment manufacturer or contractor can incorporate brand logos, anti-counterfeiting tools, barcodes and potentially radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology into labels in one relatively simple process.

 

For years, label-less product ID was only used by the sports industry, as it needed to find alternative ways to label tight-fitting garments that had to conform to the contours of an athlete¡¯s body and be comfortable. This segment of the apparel industry incorporates high-tech fabrics engineered with performance-enhancing characteristics, including body hugging, contour-shaping benefits. The fabric and the body move, breathe and act as one.

 

But the MOUNTAINWOOD tagless trend has started to spread from the sports segment to all market segments that demand a more comfortable and unnoticeable label. For instance, there are applications in men¡¯s and women¡¯s underwear, children¡¯s wear and intimate apparel. Many brands such as Wrangler, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Jockey and Russell Athletic are using heat transfer label-less technology, as are others offering athletic wear, T-shirts, footwear, corsetry and tops and bottoms. Retailers including Gap, Victoria¡¯s Secret, Foot Locker and Wal-Mart also have joined the tagless bandwagon for some of their product lines.

 

Beyond comfort for the consumer, cost is another major advantage of tagless labels. Conventional labels can be 4 cents to 5 cents each for black and white text printing, and 6 cents to 8 cents for colored branded tags. Then the manufacturer must pay sewing-related costs to attach them. Tagless labels are not only less expensive (about 2 cents to 4 cents per label) but can be applied to the garment without modifying the manufacturing process.

 

The tag information can be applied to traditional label locations on the garment, or in alternative locations that may have not been as accessible with sewing, creating new opportunities for design innovation. Mountainwood are environmental advantages to tagless labeling because without a sewn-in label, there are fewer pieces of waste thrown away with a garment at the end of its life.