The Future Laboratory interview: post-purchase commerce

LS:N Global speaks to Leanne Elliott-Young and Cat Taylor, co-founders of Patina, on Digital Product Passports, the operating layer for connected products, and what comes after compliance.

Digital Product Passports are often framed as a regulatory requirement. From your perspective, what deeper shift in the fashion system do they represent?

Digital Product Passports are usually discussed as a compliance obligation, but we see a deeper shift that's both structural and cultural.

For the first time in fashion history, every physical product will carry a persistent digital identity. That means garments no longer have to disappear from a brand's ecosystem the moment they leave the store — with Patina, they become ongoing digital assets that operate throughout their lifecycle.

Regulation has been the forcing function, but it's not the point. The real transformation is that products themselves become infrastructure — capable of carrying data, unlocking services, and maintaining relationships with brands and customers long after purchase. The product becomes the platform.

Historically, the fashion system ended at the point of sale. Everything after happened on external platforms — social media, resale marketplaces, third-party services — outside the brand's control. Digital Product Passports change that. They create a direct post-purchase touchpoint embedded in the product itself: not “send an email on a customer's birthday,” but “use your garment to get access to our fashion week party.” That builds a two-way relationship that feels authentic, at a moment when trust in brand communication — and patience for social media — is at an all-time low.

Patina describes itself as powering the “operating layer” for connected products. In practical terms, what does that mean for brands implementing Digital Product Passports?

In practical terms, it means Patina provides two things: the compliance infrastructure a Digital Product Passport requires, and the rules-based operating system that governs how those products behave over time.

The first layer is baseline compliance — giving every product a persistent digital identity and the data framework that regulation requires. On top of that sits the rules and governance layer that determines how the product operates throughout its lifecycle. When a product is scanned or tapped, the system recognises it, verifies identity, and applies rules that decide what happens next — care and repair services, ownership verification, resale pathways, exclusive content, or access to events and communities.

In other words, we don't just create the passport. We create the system that lets brands operate it. The simplest way to think about it: Patina helps brands become compliant first, then gives them the operating system that turns compliant products into connected-product systems — generating direct ROI for the brand, and genuinely valuable experiences for the customer.

You've worked with a number of brands on DPP projects — Maximillian Raynor and Yaku among them. What case study best demonstrates the possibilities of DPPs, both creatively and commercially?

The collaboration that best demonstrates this was with designer Maximillian Raynor at London Fashion Week. Together we created a limited-edition connected cap, powered by Patina's Digital Product Passport infrastructure. When scanned, the cap unlocked access to Raynor's LFW afterparty — the garment itself became the invitation.

It's a small example — twenty units — but it proves the principle at the core of everything we build: a connected product can carry real-world authority, not just a link to a webpage. That's what makes the case for DPPs as more than compliance. Done right, they're the beginning of a genuinely new relationship between a brand, a product, and the person who owns it.

Patina is the operating system for a product's life after purchase.