RFID Journal Staff asked 13 years ago Is such a use of radio frequency identification technology possible?
—Name withheld
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Yes, absolutely. Gerry Weber International, a finalist for Best RFID Implementation in this year's RFID Journal Awards, is doing just that.
Gerry Weber, a German manufacturer of women's fashions, is applying EPC Gen 2 RFID tags to the 25 million garments it produces annually. The tags are embedded into the garment-care labels that the firm sews into its clothing. The company claims it will be the first in Germany to sew RFID-enabled care labels into apparel, and the first to rely solely on RFID for theft reduction (see Gerry Weber Sews In RFID's Benefits).
It should be noted that there are privacy issues that might need to be addressed when embedding a tag in a garment. Some people feel that an RFID tag, even with a random serial number, could be associated with a person through a secondary source (such as an RFID-enabled credit card), and that this person could then be tracked via the tag in his or her clothing.
—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal
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