Making the link with QR technology: Facilitating emotional durability and enhancing consumer–brand connection for circular fashion

This study sought to explore how emotionally durable design and quick-response (QR) technology can be applied in a prototype garment to create durable emotional bonds between consumer and product while addressing consumers’ demand for transparency in the apparel industry through an essential link to product information. The garment’s distinctive design, which includes a laser-cut memorial element on the back, enhances its uniqueness and visual and emotional impact, strengthening its emotional durability. The design’s overall aesthetic integrates a QR code in the form of a laser-etched leather square, which plays a dual role. First, it helps achieve emotional durability by allowing consumers to scan the code and learn about the garment makers, their stories and the processes involved in garment development, strengthening emotional involvement. Second, the QR code allows consumers to access helpful information such as product care, repair and recycling options, as well as valuable information about product sustainability and traceability and the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, which consumers increasingly seek and consider in their apparel purchase decisions. Emotional involvement and CSR awareness are shown to encourage more sustainable consumption practices and circularity in the apparel industry.