“Map your supply chain” is the advice that appears in every single Digital Product Passport guide. And it’s good advice. The problem is that nobody tells you what that actually means when you’re a brand with three suppliers and no sustainability department.
Supply chain mapping for digital product passport compliance is one of the most common, and most confusing, tasks facing fashion brands today. Most guides on the topic are written for companies with hundreds of factories across dozens of countries. They talk about enterprise traceability platforms, Scope 3 emissions auditing, and multi-year supplier engagement programmes.
That’s not your world. Your world is one garment manufacturer, one or two fabric suppliers, and a handful of trim vendors. This guide is written for that world. By the end of it, you’ll have a clear, structured map of your supply chain that feeds directly into your Digital Product Passport, no consultants, no enterprise software, no buzzwords.
Table of Contents
What “supply chain mapping” actually means for a DPP
Let’s define the term plainly. Supply chain mapping, in the context of DPP compliance, means documenting who is involved in making your product, what each party does, and where they’re located.
That’s it. It’s not a sustainability audit. It’s not a certification process. It’s a factual record of your production chain. If you’re still getting up to speed on what the digital product passport actually requires, our EU regulation guide covers the full picture.
For a fashion brand, this typically means identifying the parties across four “tiers”, a word that simply describes how many steps removed a supplier is from your finished garment.
- Tier 1, Garment assembly. The factory that cuts, sews, and finishes your garment. This is your most direct supplier relationship. You almost certainly know who this is.
- Tier 2, Fabric and component production. The mills that weave or knit your fabric, the dye houses that colour it, and the suppliers providing your trims (buttons, zippers, labels, elastic). You may work with them directly, or your Tier 1 factory may source them on your behalf.
- Tier 3, Yarn and fibre processing. Where raw fibres are spun into yarn, cleaned, or prepared for fabric production. Most small brands have limited visibility here.
- Tier 4, Raw material origin. The cotton farm, the sheep station, the petrochemical plant. Very few brands of any size have full Tier 4 visibility.
For DPP compliance, you don’t need to map all four tiers immediately. The first phase of requirements is expected to focus on Tier 1 and Tier 2, with key compliance deadlines approaching in 2027. Tier 3 and 4 visibility will likely become more important in later regulatory phases (around 2030 and beyond).
What the DPP actually needs from your supply chain data
The DPP doesn’t need a narrative about your supply chain journey. It needs specific, structured data fields. Here’s what you’re working toward for each product.
Mandatory (expected in first DPP phase):
Country of final garment assembly. This is a confirmed requirement under the ESPR framework. Not just “Europe”, the specific country. If your products are made in Portugal, that’s what goes in the passport.
Name and location of your Tier 1 manufacturer. The regulatory direction points toward disclosing the factory or at minimum the manufacturing country. Many brands already disclose this voluntarily.
Highly likely (expected soon after initial phase):
Manufacturing locations per production stage. Where was the fabric woven or knit? Where was it dyed? Where was the garment assembled? Each stage mapped to a country and ideally a city.
Supplier facility identifiers. Open Supply Hub IDs or GS1 GLN (Global Location Numbers) that give each facility a globally unique, verifiable identifier, similar to how GTINs identify products.
Future phases (2030+):
Raw material origins. Where was the cotton grown? Where was the wool sourced? This is the hardest data to collect and is not expected in the first DPP wave, but it’s where EU regulation is heading.
Step 1: Start with what you already know
Before you send a single email to a supplier, sit down and write out what you already know about your production chain. You’ll be surprised how much you have.
For each of your pilot products, answer these questions from memory or from your existing records.
Who assembles your garments? What’s the factory name? Where are they located (country, city)? How long have you worked with them?
Who supplies your main fabric? Do you source it directly from a mill, or does your garment factory source it on your behalf? Do you know the mill’s name and country?
Who supplies your trims, buttons, zippers, labels, care labels, packaging? Are they sourced by you or by your garment factory?
Do you know what certifications any of your suppliers hold (GOTS, OEKO-TEX, ISO 14001, SA8000)?
Write this down in a simple spreadsheet with columns for supplier name, country, city, what they provide, and any certifications you’re aware of. Don’t worry about gaps yet, just capture what you know.
For many small brands, this exercise takes about 30 minutes and reveals that you already have solid Tier 1 visibility and partial Tier 2 visibility. That’s a strong starting point.
Step 2: Fill the gaps with two emails
Most of the supply chain data you’re missing can be collected with two targeted emails, one to your garment manufacturer and one to your fabric supplier.
Email to your garment manufacturer
We're preparing for EU Digital Product Passport requirements and need to document our production chain. Could you please provide the following information for the products you manufacture for us:
- Your full factory name and registered address
- The country and city of your production facility
- Whether you subcontract any production stages to other facilities (and if so, their names and locations)
- Which fabric mills you source from on our behalf (if applicable)
- Whether you hold any environmental or social certifications"Email to your fabric supplier
If you deal with your fabric supplier directly, or ask your garment manufacturer to forward this to their fabric source:
Could you provide the following information about the fabrics used in our products:
- Your company name and mill address
- The country and city of fabric production
- The exact fibre composition and percentages for each fabric
- Whether the fabric has been tested or certified under any standard (OEKO-TEX, GOTS, Bluesign)
- A REACH/SVHC compliance statement confirming no substances of concern above the 0.1% threshold"Be specific. Don’t ask suppliers to “share sustainability information”, that’s vague and will get you a generic PDF. Ask for specific data fields, and you’ll get specific answers.
Most suppliers respond to these requests within a week or two. If a supplier is unable or unwilling to provide basic information like their factory address and fabric composition, that’s important information in itself, it tells you something about the transparency of your supply chain. We cover strategies for handling this in our guide on getting data from reluctant suppliers.
Step 3: Verify with Open Supply Hub
Once you have your supplier details, verify them against Open Supply Hub, a free, open-source global database of manufacturing facilities. This does three things.
First, it confirms that the facility exists and is located where your supplier says it is. Second, it gives you an OS Hub ID, a globally unique facility identifier that’s increasingly used in DPP and traceability systems. Third, it shows you which other brands work with the same facility, which can help you assess the facility’s credibility and experience.
To use it, simply search for your supplier’s name or address. If they’re already in the database (many established factories are), you can link their OS Hub ID directly to your DPP records. If they’re not, you can contribute the facility data to the database, which strengthens the shared supply chain infrastructure for everyone.
This step takes about 10 minutes per supplier. It’s free. And it gives your supply chain data an extra layer of verification that’s valuable both for compliance and for credibility.
Step 4: Organise into a supply chain map
You now have the raw data. The next step is structuring it into a format your DPP platform can use.
A supply chain map for DPP purposes doesn’t need to be fancy. It needs to be clear and product-specific. For each product, you should be able to trace a simple chain from finished garment back through the production stages.
For example, a cotton t-shirt might look like this. Tier 1: assembled by Fábrica Silva, Porto, Portugal (OS Hub ID: PT2026-00451). Tier 2: fabric knitted and dyed by Malhas do Norte, Braga, Portugal. Trim supplier: YKK Portugal for zipper (if applicable). Tier 3: yarn spun by unknown (sourced by Malhas do Norte, data requested). Tier 4: cotton origin unknown (conventional cotton, non-certified).
Notice the honest gaps. “Unknown” is a legitimate entry in a supply chain map. The DPP doesn’t require you to fabricate data you don’t have. It requires you to document what you know, and be transparent about what you don’t.
Most DPP platforms have a supplier database feature where you enter each supplier once and link them to the relevant products. This means you don’t need to re-enter the same factory details for every product that’s made there. Enter your Tier 1 factory once, and link it to every garment they produce for you. Our step-by-step DPP creation guide walks through the full process.
Step 5: Make supplier data collection ongoing
The initial mapping is a one-time effort. But keeping your supply chain data current is an ongoing process, especially if you change suppliers, introduce new materials, or add new products.
The simplest way to make this sustainable is to build data collection into your existing workflows.
Add a supply chain data section to your purchase orders. When you place a new order with a supplier, include a line requesting updated facility details, certifications, and material composition data. This normalises the request and avoids the awkward one-off “sustainability email.”
Create a simple supplier data template. A single spreadsheet template that every supplier fills in once, then updates when something changes. Include fields for facility name, address, country, processing stages performed, certifications, and key contact person. Keep it to one page, suppliers are more likely to respond to a short, clear request than to a 15-page questionnaire.
Review your supplier data annually. Once a year, check that your supplier records are current. Have any factories moved or closed? Have certifications expired? Have you started working with new suppliers who aren’t in your map yet?
Common questions about supply chain mapping for DPP
My garment factory sources the fabric. I don’t know the mill. Is that a problem?
Not yet, but it will become one. For the first phase of DPP requirements, knowing the manufacturing country for each production stage should be sufficient. But as requirements deepen, you’ll need to identify your Tier 2 suppliers by name and location. Start by asking your garment factory to disclose their fabric sources. Frame it as a regulatory requirement, not a personal request, “we need this data for EU DPP compliance” is a much stronger prompt than “we’d like to know more about your suppliers.”
I work with a sourcing agent. How do I map that?
A sourcing agent isn’t a supply chain tier, they’re an intermediary. You still need to know the actual factories and mills doing the work. Ask your agent to provide the same facility-level details you’d request from a direct supplier: factory name, address, country, and what processing stages they perform. If your agent is unable to provide this, you have a visibility problem that the DPP will eventually make untenable.
Do I need to publish my specific factory names in the DPP?
The ESPR requires that certain data be publicly accessible through the DPP. At minimum, the manufacturing country will need to be disclosed. Whether specific facility names become mandatory will depend on the textile delegated act. Many brands already publish Tier 1 factory lists voluntarily, and customers tend to respond positively. You control the level of detail beyond the regulatory minimum.
I use multiple factories for the same product. How does that work?
Create a supplier entry for each factory and link the relevant ones to the product. If your t-shirt is sometimes made in Factory A in Portugal and sometimes in Factory B in Turkey, your DPP should reflect whichever factory produced the specific batch or production run. For product-level passports (one DPP per style rather than per unit), list all manufacturing locations used.
What about trims and packaging suppliers?
Trims (buttons, zippers, elastics, labels) and packaging are part of your product’s material composition and supply chain. For the first DPP phase, detailed trim traceability is unlikely to be a mandatory requirement, but it’s good practice to start documenting your main trim suppliers, especially if any trims contain metals, plastics, or coatings that could be relevant for SVHC declarations. At minimum, know who supplies your trims and where they’re based.
Can Open Supply Hub replace a traceability platform?
Open Supply Hub is a verification and identification tool, not a full traceability platform. It helps you confirm that facilities exist, gives them a unique ID, and connects you to publicly available data about them. For most small brands, combining Open Supply Hub with a DPP platform (which typically includes a supplier database) is more than enough for current requirements. Enterprise-level traceability platforms like TrusTrace or Retraced are designed for brands with hundreds of suppliers across complex multi-tier chains, overkill for a brand with five to ten supplier relationships.
You’re building more than compliance
Here’s something worth remembering as you work through this process. The supply chain map you’re building isn’t just a regulatory checkbox. It’s a foundation for your business.
A structured supplier database makes onboarding new factories faster. It makes answering retailer questionnaires trivial. It gives you leverage in supplier negotiations because you understand your own production chain. It makes your sustainability claims specific and verifiable rather than vague and vulnerable.
And when a customer scans your QR code and sees exactly where their garment was made, the actual factory, the actual city, the actual country, that’s not just compliance. That’s the kind of transparency that builds consumer trust and turns a first-time buyer into a long-term customer.
Click or scan the QR code below to see what supply chain data looks like in a finished DPP.
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This guide reflects expected DPP requirements as of April 2026. Supply chain data requirements will be confirmed in the textile delegated act. Stay updated.
This article has been reviewed for accuracy by the Wetrack team.
Some illustrations may be AI-generated in which case they are labeled. Report any issue.