Avery Dennison named most innovative

Avery Dennison has been named among Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies of 2026, recognized for its Optica portfolio of supply chain visibility and digital identification tools for the global apparel industry.

Fast Company's annual ranking covers 58 industries and evaluates thousands of submissions based on innovation, impact, timeliness and relevance. Avery Dennison's recognition centers on Optica's ability to connect physical garments with digital intelligence, addressing supply chain opacity that the company says leads to waste, inefficiency and lost revenue.

The Optica portfolio combines RFID-enabled intelligent labels, QR code technology, the atma.io connected product cloud and use-case specific hardware to provide brands and retailers with real-time item-level visibility from raw materials through to finished goods. The platform currently serves 4,500 factory clients, including JD Sports, which uses atma.io to track more than 3.3 million items across 37,000 products spanning its 4,850 stores in 36 countries.

A recent survey cited in Avery Dennison's RFID for Circularity report found 71 percent of global respondents care about brand transparency regarding materials and manufacturing practices. The same report highlights RFID-enabled sorting systems that have demonstrated potential to reduce manual garment scanning hours by up to 99 percent in certain implementations, with identification accuracy rates of up to 99 percent, supporting circular business models and EU Digital Product Passport requirements due to come into effect from 2028-2029.

'This recognition validates our belief that every garment has a story to tell, and with our technology, we're effectively stitching digital intelligence into the fabric of fashion,' said Delia Glover, VP of product for apparel solutions at Avery Dennison. 'Connecting the physical and digital illuminates the supply chain, providing our clients with the product accuracy they need to operate with confidence.'