Short answer: Portia is digital product passport (DPP) software for small and medium fashion and apparel brands. Instead of collecting passport data at the end of the season, you build it where you develop the product: styles, materials, tier-1 suppliers and certificates. Passports are published behind QR codes, per style, batch or item, as you choose.

What should DPP software do for a fashion brand?

Every DPP tool collects product data, structures it so it can be checked and reused, and publishes it as a passport page that people reach by scanning the product. The textile rules are not written yet, but the Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR) already sets requirements that apply to every passport once a product-specific act applies:

• A persistent identifier and a data carrier. The passport must be connected through a data carrier to “a persistent unique product identifier” (Article 10(1)(a)).
• Open data without lock-in. Passport data must be based on open standards and transferable “without vendor lock-in” (Article 10(1)(d)).
• Long-term availability. The passport must stay available even if the company that created it stops trading (Article 11(e)).
• The right level of detail. The delegated act will decide whether passports are needed per model, batch or item (Article 9(2)(d)). The JRC textile study (13 May 2026) proposes mostly model-level data, batch level where variability is material, and voluntary item-level identifiers.
• Registration. Passports must be registered in the EU DPP Registry, which went live on 20 July 2026.

For a small brand, the hard part is rarely the passport page. It is getting reliable product and supplier data into one place, keeping it current and reusing it. That is why where a tool gets its data from matters more than how the passport looks. We explain the differences in the 5 types of DPP software.

What does Portia do?

Portia is fashion PLM and Digital Product Passport software in one tool. We call this approach PLM-native: the passport is assembled from the data your team already enters while developing the product.

• Use it as your PLM, or alongside the one you have. Run product development in Portia (products, materials, suppliers, certificates, range planning and a built-in costing sheet), or import data from your existing PLM or ERP.
• A tier-1 supplier portal. Your tier-1 suppliers can log in to enter their data and upload certificates, so you don’t have to chase them by email and retype what they send.
• You choose the passport level. Your brand decides whether passports are created per style, per batch or per individual item.
• QR codes. Each passport is reached by scanning a QR code.
• A fast first passport. With your product data in a CSV and images ready, your first passport can be live in minutes.
• Shopify. A one-way integration pushes passport data from Portia to your Shopify store (see Shopify Digital Product Passports and how the Shopify connection works). Custom integrations are available on request.
• Passport languages. Passports are available in English, Swedish, German and Dutch, with more languages coming.
• Environmental data. Impact data, such as LCA results or footprints, is imported from partners or uploaded. Portia does not calculate it.

See what’s inside Portia for the full feature overview.

How does it work in practice?

1. Get your product data in. Create products in Portia, or import them from a CSV or from your existing PLM.
2. Add materials, suppliers and certificates. Invite your tier-1 suppliers to log in and add their own data and certificates.
3. Choose the passport level. Decide per style, batch or item, depending on what you can realistically support today.
4. Publish and connect. Publish the passport behind a QR code and, if you sell on Shopify, push the passport data to your store.
5. Keep it current. Update the product record as the product changes, rather than rebuilding the passport each season.

For a step-by-step view of an implementation, read how to implement DPPs for an apparel collection without a 6-month IT project.

How should a small brand prepare now?

The slow part is rarely publishing the passport. It is getting consistent material, origin and certificate data from your suppliers, and that takes longer than most brands expect. So it pays to start before the textile delegated act is adopted:

• Audit what you already have. List the product data you already collect, where it lives (spreadsheets, PLM, ERP, supplier emails) and where the gaps are.
• Start small with suppliers. Ask for non-sensitive data first, explain why you need it and which rules are coming, and widen the scope as trust builds.
• Put it in your agreements. Add data-sharing requirements to new supplier contracts, and to existing ones when they come up for renewal.
• Make it easy to answer. Give suppliers one standard template or a login instead of free-form email requests. For sensitive details, a certificate or third-party verification can stand in for the raw data.
• Pilot one range. Test passports on a limited range, learn from it, then roll out.
• Keep it current. Give the data an owner and update it as styles and suppliers change, season to season.

This applies to brands outside the EU too. ESPR covers products that are “placed on the market or put into service” in the EU, wherever they are made (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, Article 1(2)). For a ready-made list, use our DPP checklist for fashion brands.

Who is Portia for?

• Small and medium fashion and apparel brands that design their own products and work with tier-1 factories.
• Brands that run product development on spreadsheets and want a PLM and passports in the same tool.
• Brands that already have a PLM or ERP and want to import that data to publish passports.
• Brands selling on Shopify that want passport data on their product pages.
• Teams that want to start with a pilot now and grow the data before the textile rules apply.

Who is Portia not for?

We would rather you choose the right tool than the wrong one. Portia is probably not the best fit if you need:

• Multi-tier supplier mapping and due diligence. Portia’s supplier portal is for tier-1 suppliers. A traceability-led specialist goes deeper.
• In-house LCA calculation. Portia imports or stores impact data; an LCA-led tool or partner calculates it.
• NFC or RFID tags, or GS1 identifiers. Portia passports are reached through QR codes.
• A public API for your own developers. Portia offers a Shopify integration and custom integrations on request, but no public API.
• Orchestration across many enterprise systems. Large, multi-brand groups with many data platforms are usually better served by a layered platform.

How is my data handled?

• EU hosting. Your data is hosted in the EU (Ireland) on infrastructure certified to SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001. Those certifications belong to the hosting infrastructure, not to Portia itself.
• Your data stays yours. You can export your data whenever you want.
• GDPR. Portia is GDPR-aligned. See our privacy policy.

Sources and further reading

Last verified: 20 October 2026. The regulatory statements on this page were checked against these primary EU sources on that date:

• Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation), EUR-Lex
• European Commission: Textile apparel and the Digital Product Passport
• European Commission: Digital Product Passport and indicative timeline
• JRC Product Bureau: Study on DPP content for textile apparel products (13 May 2026)
• European Commission: the EU DPP Registry

More from the Portia blog:

• ESPR Textile DPP Tracker: every date and document, updated monthly
• The 5 types of DPP software (and which fits a small fashion brand)
• Shopify Digital Product Passports: how to add DPPs to your store
• What does the best DPP tech solution contain?
• The questions textile brands keep asking about DPP
• Digitalt produktpass för kläder (in Swedish)

Frequently asked questions

What is digital product passport software?

It is software that collects product data, structures it and publishes it as a Digital Product Passport behind a data carrier such as a QR code, so customers, recyclers and authorities can read it by scanning the product.

When will fashion brands need a Digital Product Passport?

There is no legal date for textiles yet. The Commission plans to adopt the textile delegated act in Q4 2027, and it can apply no earlier than 18 months after entering into force, so mid-to-late 2029 at the earliest. That is an estimate; see our ESPR Textile DPP Tracker.

Can a small brand without a PLM create DPPs?

Yes. Portia can be your PLM and your passport tool at the same time. With your product data in a CSV and images ready, your first passport can be live in minutes.

Can I use Portia alongside my existing PLM?

Yes. You can import data from your existing PLM or ERP into Portia and publish passports from it. Portia has no ready-made connectors to other PLMs, but custom integrations are available on request.

Does Portia work with Shopify?

Yes. Portia has a one-way Shopify integration that pushes passport data from Portia to your Shopify store.

Which languages can Portia passports be shown in?

Passports are available in English, Swedish, German and Dutch, with more languages coming.

Does the Digital Product Passport apply to brands outside the EU?

Yes, if they sell in the EU. ESPR applies to products placed on the EU market, wherever the brand or the factory is based (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, Article 1(2)). The textile delegated act will set out the details.

Does Portia calculate LCA or carbon footprints?

No. Environmental impact data is imported from partners or uploaded into Portia, and then shown in the passport.

See Portia with your own product data

Pricing is on request. Book a short demo and we’ll show you how a passport is built from product, material and supplier data in Portia.