There is an increasing demand from customers to understand more about the products they purchase. This includes information about material composition, preferred materials, country of origin, working conditions under which a product was made and in the future the impact a product has on various environmental aspects, measured via a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
Multiple European laws will oblige companies to report on product sustainability data. This could include aspects like preferred materials, repairability and durability.
Via the SDEX template, Brands can share product related sustainability data (Textile-, Footwear-, Hardgoods Tab) and company related (sustainability) data (General Tab, Brand Tab, Climate Tab).
Usually, product data is shared twice a year (see below), while company data is shared only once a year to minimise the effort for retailers and brands.
With regard to the product level, there are two possible moments throughout the year to exchange sustainability data, depending on whether it is viewed as part of the ordering data or the product content data.
Please speak to your retail partner about their preferred timeline.
If the data is part of the ordering data, the sustainability data should be exchanged about 8-10 months before the season. For example, for SS 2027 the data would need to be exchanged July – September 2026.
If the data is part of the product content data, the sustainability data should be exchanged about 2-4 months before the season. For example, for SS2026 the data would need to be exchanged January- March 2026.
The completed SDEX questionnaire is to be transferred directly between brands and their retail partners.
If the file is too large to add as an attachment and email directly, we recommend using an online file transfer platform, for example WeTransfer.
The data needed for SDEX should already exist within your organisation. We recommend coordinating with colleagues to collect it. In general:
Textile products: apparel, sleeping bags, tents, ropes, gaiters, belts, hammocks, plus other textile products
Footwear products: high- and mid-cut boots, approach and running shoes, and sandals
Hard goods products: rucksacks and pack/luggage accessories, gloves, helmets, climbing harness, climbing devices/equipment and non-textile components on climbing equipment, tent poles and pegs, walking poles, outdoor accessories (lighting, cooking, eating and hydration etc), skis and snowboards, ski and snowboard boots
In general, the hardgoods tab offers greater flexibility regarding product components and materials. If you are struggling to fit your product into the textile tab, try to insert the product and its information into the hardgoods tab.
Within the textile tab, the term ‘blended fabric’ is used. This refers to a textile made from two or more different fibre types that are spun, woven or knitted together (e.g. polyester/cotton).
For each component (outer, lining etc) in the textile tab, the SDEX structure permits one fabric made up of up to three fibre/material types. For example, a blended fabric made of cotton (40%) / polyester (55%) / elastane (5%).
Since there is little to no standardisation in product components, we are aware of this. We recommend brands to take a decision about how to best fit their internal components to the SDEX components and continue this throughout the season.
For textile products we recommend using the data as it is listed on the care label. This is compliant with the textile labelling regulation and should be readily available.
The number of fields the SDEX offers is a compromise. Adding fields for all raw materials a product contains, would lead to an overload of information. We are recommending the brands to make an informed decision about what they consider the main material(s)/raw materials of a fabric blend and fill this information in.
Please indicate the certification next to each raw material/fibres it applies to, meaning you must fill in the same certification multiple times.
No, unfortunately not. We are aware that the exchange of certifications is a huge challenge within the industry but had to exclude this point from the scope of SDEX project.
The certification is a certification for the chain of custody, making it difficult to list the correct certification number to each individual product at the point of ordering?
Please speak to you retail partner about the timeline for the data exchange (see “When to exchange sustainability data?”).
This is not predefined as it depends on what is needed and available. We recommend speaking to your retail partners or decide in favour of one or the other and then communicate this to your retail partners.
We are asking brands to use chemical attributes only if they want to make a specific claim about the product. For example: a rain jacket could be indicated as “PFC-free”.
Please leave the space blank or use the “n/a” option for products where such a claim would be non-sensical. For example: a cotton t-shirt would be left blank or “n/a”, since the chemical attributes do not apply to this product.
All recycled content value in SDEX must be calculated on the basis of the total product weight, not just individual components.
Please go to the SDEX page for more detail.
*Updated 29.09.2025
