‘Living’ Football Jerseys that Interact with Fans

Identiv, Inc, a Nasdaq-listed provider of secure identification systems within the Internet of Things (IoT), has expanded its partnership with collectID in Switzerland, to provide a product authentication and consumer interaction solution on collectible football jerseys, via the use of embeddable near-field communication (NFC), life-of-garment tags.

The jerseys in question belong to 2021 Copa Do Brasil champions Atlético Mineiro, which was able to sell 120,000 tagged jerseys across 50 countries in just 10 days. According to Indentiv, Atlético Mineiro is one of many professional teams to apply the tags.

One of the solution's main goals is to address consumers’ growing fear of fake products in the wake of a worldwide surge in counterfeits (according to the OECD, global annual sales of counterfeit goods are expected to reach $4.2 trillion in 2022).

The fear of ending up with a fake product undermines consumer confidence in brands and makes it difficult to sell them on the secondary market.

The Identiv/collectID solution is based on Identiv’s NFC technology and collectID’s patented solution for combining NFC tags and blockchain. The result is an encrypted tag embedded into the front of the collectible jersey.

The tags are based on highly secure and powerful NXP NTAG 424 DNA chips. The antenna design and tag conversion allow easy integration into jerseys, and other clothing, and can withstand rigorous wash and dry cycles.

The NFC tag provides each jersey with a unique identity that changes and grows with each interaction with the tag. Owners can check the authenticity of the jersey by scanning the tag with their smartphone and registering ownership of the jersey via the collectID app.

The unique identity is then assigned to the owner, tokenised and stored on the owner’s personal blockchain wallet, along with any other collectibles and assets.

This makes theft prevention and insurance processing costefficient and easy. Additionally, owners can safely transfer ownership of an item via the collectID app.

With this solution, owners receive not only a physical product but also a digital twin of that product, in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT), delivered to their smartphone. This digital twin can then be used by its owner to participate in virtual events.

‘With the NFC tag we wanted not only to allow fans to verify the authenticity of the jerseys and register their jerseys in their name, but also make the jersey a new communication channel with fans. So we also created a special area within the app where fans have to scan the tag in order to access and have exclusive content and discount coupons on our official products and with partners,’ said Felipe Ribbe, Head of Innovation at Atlético Mineiro.

‘More than a smart jersey, we like to call it a living jersey, because the NFC technology allows us to be always adding new features, content and coupons in the special area, so the jersey that fans started to receive in November will be a different jersey than they will have in April 2022’.