Product categories

Category is a modifier, not an axis.

Nine of the twelve capabilities do not care whether the product is a jean or a trainer. Three of them care a great deal — production, sourcing and governance — so category is filed where it changes something.

Why this is not in the nav

Six of twelve, on one of four axes.

These six used to sit in a nav list beside three brand tiers, two channel models and a geography, all presented as peers. Nobody caught it because a dropdown shows one item at a time and never asks you to compare them. Separating the axes is what turned six of those entries into what they actually are.

The six

What each one changes, and which standards apply.

Standards last reviewed 2026-08-20.

What makes the product data hard

The garment is simple and the WASH is not. A single style carries a recipe - stones, enzymes, laser, ozone, PP spray - that changes water draw, chemistry exposure and hand feel, and none of it lives in a normal BOM row. Two SKUs identical on paper can have entirely different footprints.

Who you are buying from

Mill and laundry are separate businesses with separate audits, and the laundry is usually the one that carries the chemical risk. Shortlisting on the mill alone misses where the exposure is.

Standards

  • ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances ListIn force · voluntary
  • French AGEC law 2020-105 - environmental information and anti-waste obligationsIn force
  • ESPR textile delegated actExpected

What makes the product data hard

Footwear breaks single-row product data outright. Upper, lining, outsole, midsole, insole, laces, eyelets and adhesive are separate materials from separate suppliers with separate compliance positions, and the pair is a size run rather than a unit. Systems built for a garment silently flatten all of it.

Who you are buying from

Component suppliers and an assembler, not a mill. Tooling lead times are set months before component POs, so a sourcing decision made late has nowhere to go.

Standards

  • EU Deforestation Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 - due-diligence statement per consignmentIn force
  • ESPR Article 25 — unsold textile destruction banIn force

What makes the product data hard

Hide is a natural material graded by defect, so yield is a range rather than a number and cutting decisions change cost per unit. Hardware carries its own plating and substance profile. The unit is often serialised, which makes per-piece records possible in a way they are not for apparel.

Who you are buying from

Tannery first, hardware second, atelier third. The tannery is where both the environmental audit and the traceability obligation land.

Standards

  • EU Deforestation Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 - due-diligence statement per consignmentIn force
  • Leather Working Group - tannery environmental auditIn force · voluntary
  • ESPR Article 25 — unsold textile destruction banIn force

What makes the product data hard

Every component is a safety question before it is a cost question - cords, drawstrings, small parts, trims, dye chemistry - and the answer changes by age band, so one style graded across ages is several compliance positions in one row.

Who you are buying from

Conventional apparel supply, with third-party testing as a gating step rather than a check. Lab capacity, not factory capacity, is what moves the date.

Standards

  • GB 31701 - China national safety technical code for infant and children textile productsIn force
  • US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act - lead, phthalates and tracking labelsIn force
  • EN 14682 - cords and drawstrings on children's clothingIn force

What makes the product data hard

The claim is the product. Wicking, stretch recovery, compression, odour control - each is a performance assertion that has to be testable, and each depends on a finish or a yarn construction that a fabric name alone does not capture.

Who you are buying from

Vertically integrated knitters and a small number of fibre houses. Substitution is slow because the performance claim has to be re-tested, not just re-costed.

Standards

  • California AB 1817 - PFAS in textile articlesIn force
  • REACH universal PFAS restriction - EU-wideExpected
  • ESPR textile delegated actExpected

What makes the product data hard

The smallest bill of materials in fashion and the densest. Elastane content, bonded seams, moulded cups, hook-and-eye hardware, dye and finish chemistry - a dozen components inside a garment weighing under a hundred grams, and almost every one of them is a chemical question rather than a cost one.

Who you are buying from

A short list of specialist elastane and warp-knit mills, most of them serving both categories, with trim houses that do nothing else. Substitution is slow because fit is a function of the exact yarn: a like-for-like fabric swap changes the grade, so the pattern is re-tested rather than re-costed.

Standards

  • California AB 1817 - PFAS in textile articlesIn force
  • REACH universal PFAS restriction - EU-wideExpected
  • ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances ListIn force · voluntary

What makes the product data hard

Membranes, laminates and durable water repellents are multi-layer constructions where the regulated substance sits in one layer and the performance claim depends on it. Repairability is now part of the product spec rather than an afterthought, which pushes component-level records into the BOM.

Who you are buying from

A handful of membrane licensors sit upstream of everyone, so a substitution decision is often not yours alone to make.

Standards

  • California AB 1817 - PFAS in textile articlesIn force
  • REACH universal PFAS restriction - EU-wideExpected
  • French AGEC law 2020-105 - environmental information and anti-waste obligationsIn force
  • ESPR Article 25 — unsold textile destruction banIn force
A white coat dress buttoned to the hem, hand at the waist

Your category is not the question.

Which of the twelve layers to build first falls out of how your operation runs, not what it makes.