Loose Threads

AgResearch, a New Zealand-based research institute, has announced a technological breakthrough to help combat counterfeiting in the apparel industry. This new technology, called Verifi TT, allows its user to distinguish between identical items of clothing, even when the two garments are indistinguishable in fabric, color and pattern.

Costing less than 0.1 percent of the total cost of the fabric Verifi TT can distinguish between two identical articles made of the same fabric, colour and pattern through detection of an otherwise undetectable and unique high-tech thread woven into the garment. The thread can then be read by handheld scanners. AgResearch expects Verifi TT to be on the market within the year.