RFID and Counterfeiting: An Analysis of Current Trends in The Fashion Industry

The paper is aimed at providing an overview on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, focusing more specifically on RFID tags within the fashion industry. Starting with a comprehensive scenario on environmental concerns in the sector, the paper then moves on to focus on the uses of RFID in fashion, from the manufacturing processes up to commercialisation and post-consumption stages. The goal of this paper is to understand how RFID tags can contribute to contrast counterfeiting among other available technologies. In this context, to better understand the counterfeiting phenomenon, at the end of 2020 we submitted a survey questionnaire to a group of Millennials and Centennials. The aim was to explore and interpret consumers’ attitudes on counterfeiting issues. Results show that both Millennials and Centennials are not keen on purchasing fake fashion items. In the last section, the paper provides an overview on future technological perspectives in the fashion and apparel field and summarise the findings of the study.