Washable RFID Tags and RFiD THREADS®
GCN's washable RFID tags are built into or attached to the product and survive 100–200 wash/dry cycles across a 0–200°C range — garments, footwear, accessories, homewares and toys. Built to GS1 Standards, they bulk-read hundreds or thousands of items at once, with no line of sight needed, and connect straight into the GCN App or external platforms via API.
WHY RFID VS QR CODE
GCN's washable RFIDs survive 100-200 wash cycles and enables bulk scanning (eg. scan hundreds of items in a box/pile at once), whereas a QR code is a printed/woven element that can fade, tear, or be removed, and can only ever be scanned one at a time - both QR Codes and NFCs are are single scan tools only.
QR codes, NFC tools cannot deliver efficient, traceable data capture at scale across global circular value chains for years.
RFID vs QR — why both exist
QR Code
Gives a person access to a DPP. Needs line of sight, scans one product at a time — built for consumer engagement.
RFID
Lets a business process the physical products behind that DPP at industrial scale — built for B2B.
They're not competing technologies; they solve different problems.
End-of-life
Tags can be recovered, reset and resold into products that don't need full washability — homewares, footwear, mattresses.
RFID TAGS AND RFiD THREADS®
Washable RFID tags are robust to withstand high/low temperatures, washing and drying cycles zero to 2000c / 3920F.
Washable for 100-200 washes.
Flexible, strong and invisibly integrated into textile-based products including garments, footwear, accessories, homewares, mattresses, toys etc. Stays with the product for a full lifecycle.
Tags hold a "double security" TID - a chip-level physical serial number for anti-clone security.
Clients can link their GS1 GTINs - see additional details below.
Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) readability. RFID readers bulk read hundreds/thousands of threads at once at high-speed without the need for line-of-sight scanning. RFiDs are bulk scanned by a connected UHF RFID reader to connect to the GCN App and - by request - external software via a API "digital bridges".
TAG OPTIONS
1. GCN's washable RFID tags use the Impinj M830 chip
a. Sewing — mechanically stitched into the garment, our established method for long-term industrial wear
b. Heat Press — heat-activated bonding, suited to production lines already using heat-press equipment
2. RFiD THREADS® are stand-alone RFID "tags", separated long fine metal "threads". They are not connected as one long thread as this would be unnecessary and wasteful.
RFID packages start at a minimum of 100 RFIDs.
Enquire about a DPP Package for full specifications and pricing at your required volume.
PRODUCT IDENTIFIERS: GS1 OR GCN'S OWN SYSTEM
Every product on GCN needs a unique identifier — the number the RFID tag actually carries. We support two paths, so no brand is locked out based on the standards body they belong to.
If you already hold GS1 GTINs, GCN supports GS1 Digital Link — your existing product numbers can be used directly, encoded onto your RFID tags in the standard GS1 format.
GS1 membership is not required to use GCN. Many MSMEs don't hold GS1 membership, and the cost of joining isn't always proportionate to a smaller brand's scale. For these brands, GCN assigns its own unique product identifier — every item still receives a genuine, traceable, per-unit identity, fully usable across GCN's entire platform (Authenticate, Downstream, Sorting, End-of-Life), regardless of GS1 status.
In short: use your existing GTIN if you have one, or let GCN handle identification for you if you don't. Either way, every product gets a real, working identifier — accessibility for smaller brands is included.
