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Louis Vuitton bags, Gucci shoes, Burberry coats—you name it, it's been the target of theft. Luxury houses are especially prone to having their items stolen and sold on the black market because luxury items have become synonymous with status. Retail theft in general costs the industry nearly $32 billion a year. But a new, undetectable radio frequency identification (RFID) tag could change things.

A U.K.-based company, Advanced E-Textiles, is making thread-sized microelectronic RFID tags. The tag—basically a washable, wound-up electronic barcode in thread form that can be read by radio waves—would be sewn into the garment by the manufacturer. When a consumer purchases the item, they would be unable to detect the tiny tag when wearing it. 

"Current RFID tags are difficult to manufacture and incorporate into textiles because they're bulky and they don't guarantee washability or durability," says Dr. Anura Rathnayake, founder and CEO of Advanced E-textiles. "They are also easily recognizable, hence making the garment more vulnerable for theft."

Rathnayake's idea is that these undetectable threads could track the lifecycle of a garment, contain information about the garment's fiber contents and age, and where it was bought. Once a consumer outwears the garment, they could return it to the brand's retail store for recycling. The old threads can be spun into new items, eventually reducing production costs and waste. Consumers who care whether their goods are stolen or counterfeit could take the garment into a brand's retail store and have it scanned to see its history. If no RFID tag is detected, the garment would be presumed fake. If the garment is shoplifted or if a cargo crate goes missing, the thief would have to disassemble the item to find the tag, making it a more expensive operation.  

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