Europe’s textile and apparel industry has launched an ambitious digital transformation roadmap aimed at helping manufacturers, brands, and suppliers adapt to mounting regulatory requirements, rising global competition, and the growing need for supply chain transparency.
The strategy, titled The Digital Transformation of the European Textile and Apparel Industry, was unveiled by the DigitX Innovation Hub during the 20th annual conference of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (Textile ETP) in Amsterdam on May 26. Developed over six months with contributions from more than 100 industry experts, the roadmap outlines a vision for a digitally integrated European textile sector by 2035.
Industry leaders behind the initiative warn that digital transformation is no longer optional for Europe’s textile companies. Instead, they describe it as a prerequisite for remaining competitive in an increasingly data-driven global marketplace.
The roadmap identifies three major forces driving the need for urgent action. The first is growing competition from fast-moving global rivals that are leveraging digital technologies to accelerate product development, production planning, and market responsiveness.
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The second is a wave of incoming European regulations, including the Digital Product Passport (DPP), the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), and broader EU data legislation. The third is the increasing demand for product-level traceability needed to support circular business models such as resale, repair, rental, and textile recycling.
According to Textile ETP, the European textile and apparel industry comprises around 194,000 companies, employs approximately 1.2 million people, and generates more than €166 billion in annual turnover. However, the sector faces mounting pressure to modernize as sustainability regulations and digital requirements reshape global supply chains.
Textile ETP President Marina Crnoja-Cosic said the industry must successfully combine traditional textile expertise with emerging digital technologies.
“Combining the physical world of fibres and textile machines with the digital world of bits and bytes and soft factors like creativity, hands-on expertise or consumer psychology with rational and precise data-driven decision making in complex, fast-paced supply chains are not easy tasks,” she said. “But they must be undertaken.”
The roadmap envisions a future textile ecosystem built around four key enablers: artificial intelligence, digital twins, automation and robotics, and Digital Product Passports. These technologies are expected to create more transparent, responsive, and efficient value chains capable of meeting both regulatory and market demands.
To achieve this transformation, the strategy identifies four foundational pillars: data infrastructure, digital product creation, digital production, and digital supply chains. Industry stakeholders argue that investment in these areas will enable companies to move beyond fragmented systems and paper-based processes toward integrated, real-time data networks.
A central component of the roadmap is the creation of a European Textile Data Space, which would allow manufacturers, brands, technology providers, and regulators to securely share standardized information across the value chain. The initiative aims to attract more than 500 active participants by 2030 and establish common frameworks for data exchange and interoperability.
The strategy also calls for the development of a harmonized Textile Data Ontology, a common language that would allow different software platforms, traceability systems, and Digital Product Passport solutions to communicate effectively with one another. Industry experts argue that without shared standards, companies risk investing in disconnected digital systems that fail to deliver full supply-chain visibility.
Meanwhile, policymakers are being urged to align sustainability regulations with digitalization efforts and ensure publicly funded innovations are based on open standards. The roadmap’s authors argue that regulatory compliance and competitiveness should be pursued simultaneously rather than as separate objectives.
Mario Jorge Machado, president of EURATEX, said implementation would be critical to the strategy’s success.
“The priority now should be implementation: making sure that digital solutions are accessible, affordable and relevant for companies on the ground,” Machado said. “If Europe wants a competitive, circular and resilient textile and apparel ecosystem, digitalisation must become a practical enabler for industry, not an additional layer of complexity.”
The roadmap further identifies five collaborative actions requiring industry-wide participation, including creating shared digital fabric libraries, establishing end-to-end Digital Product Passport data flows, strengthening communication between recyclers and designers, and building a cross-border digital skills pipeline for future talent.
The DigitX Innovation Hub, which coordinated the project, is supported by organizations including Lectra, Smartex.ai, Politecnico di Milano, CITEVE and EURATEX. The group plans to develop detailed implementation plans during the second half of 2026.
As Digital Product Passports, AI-powered manufacturing, and circular business models become central to Europe’s textile strategy, the roadmap signals a broader transformation in which data and digital connectivity may become as important as raw materials and manufacturing capacity in determining future competitiveness.
