Italian fashion conglomerate OTB plans to enhance the transparency of its supply chain for all products marketed by its leading luxury labels. By the Fall/Winter season of 2024-25, Renzo Rosso’s group aims to equip every item from Jil Sander, Marni, and Maison Margiela with digital authenticity certificates secured by blockchain technology, totaling 1.5 million pieces annually.
OTB, which encompasses luxury brands like Viktor & Rolf, denim label Diesel, manufacturing firm Staff International, childrenswear brand Brave Kid, and holds a minority stake in US brand Amiri, will integrate near-field communication (NFC) chips into its products. These items will then be registered on the Aura blockchain platform, established in 2021 by OTB in collaboration with LVMH, Prada, and Cartier under Richemont. This technology enables customers to access digital authenticity certificates via smartphones, providing detailed information about each product’s origin.
Initially implemented as a pilot project with selected accessories from Maison Margiela, Marni, and Jil Sander, OTB has expanded this solution to encompass all products from these labels. Since the beginning of 2022, approximately 1.2 million NFC-chip-equipped items have been registered on the Aura blockchain.
“This is an important advance in the OTB innovation process, because it enables us to guarantee greater transparency, new ways of interacting with and an increasingly high-profile experience for our luxury brands’ clients,” said in a press release Stefano Rosso, a member of the Aura Blockchain Consortium’s board and the CEO of Marni. Within OTB, he is also notably in charge of BVX, the group’s entity that focuses on virtual reality projects.
