Key Takeaways

Leafclock founder Wenbin Zhu explains how visible lifecycle indicators can turn responsive-material research into scalable product applications, support responsible use, and create a post-purchase communication channel for intimate apparel brands.

How can a visual lifecycle indicator reshape the conversation between intimate apparel brands and consumers after purchase? In this edition of Industry Prism, Wenbin Zhu, General Manager of Shanghai Huanlegexin Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., explains how Leafclock® is moving responsive-material research from the laboratory into intimate apparel, maternity and baby products, home textiles, and other commercial applications. His perspective points to a broader shift in product lifecycle management: from responsible manufacturing alone to more informed and responsible use.

As China's intimate apparel market shifts from rapid expansion toward higher-quality growth, competition is no longer defined only by fabrics and manufacturing techniques. Brands are also beginning to examine what happens after a product is sold—during the period when consumers wear, care for, circulate, and eventually replace it.

Leafclock's visible lifecycle technology is designed to make that use phase easier to understand. By translating changes in a product's condition into visual information, the technology gives consumers a practical reference while creating a post-purchase communication channel for brands.

From Responsive Materials to Visible Lifecycle Technology

Q1: During your doctoral studies at Donghua University, you proposed research into fibre-tracing materials. What led you from academic research to products for textile lifecycle management, and ultimately to Leafclock?

Wenbin Zhu: My initial focus was not on a “label,” but on a more fundamental question: can a product communicate its own condition after it enters use?

Conventional textiles can deliver functions, but they rarely tell consumers how those functions or the product's condition are changing. Research showed me that the real value of environmentally responsive materials lies not simply in their ability to change colour. Their value is in turning otherwise invisible environmental and usage changes into visual information that consumers can understand directly. In other words, a material can move beyond providing a function and begin communicating a condition.

We began concentrating on visual materials R&D in 2015, and Leafclock® gradually entered industrial production in 2022. Throughout that journey, our objective has remained the same: to transform environmentally responsive materials developed in the laboratory into scalable technologies for real consumer applications.

Leafclock therefore does not simply tell consumers when a product “must” be replaced. It provides an intuitive reference for lifecycle status. We want to make the use phase—which has long lacked clear information—visible, understandable, and manageable. This can help consumers use products more appropriately, give brands new lifecycle service capabilities, and address one of the most important missing links in a complete product lifecycle.

Q2: From the original idea in 2014 and the founding of Nianfu Technology in 2016 to develop eco-sensing towels, to the establishment of Huanxin Intelligent Technology and Leafclock in 2022, how has the industry's understanding of visible textile lifecycles changed? What moves brands from curiosity to collaboration?

Wenbin Zhu: The clearest change is in the questions the industry asks. In the past, the response was often, “This is an interesting idea.” Today, more brands ask whether the technology is stable, verifiable, compatible with different care conditions, and ready to enter an existing supply chain. That shift shows that lifecycle visualisation is moving from conceptual innovation toward industrial application.

Behind it is a more sophisticated understanding of the full product lifecycle. Standards for raw materials and manufacturing are becoming increasingly mature. Yet the use phase after sale still lacks intuitive and continuous information. That is precisely when consumers determine how a product is used, maintained, circulated, and replaced.

The next direction that deserves collective attention is the move from responsible manufacturing to responsible use. Sustainability should not stop at the factory; it should extend into every real-world use of a product.

The key to turning curiosity into collaboration is making the technology verifiable, repeatable, and scalable. When a single visual medium can connect product innovation, consumer communication, usage management, and sustainability value, it is no longer merely a label. It can become part of the next generation of product experience.

Designing for Products, Use Scenarios, and Lifecycles

Q3: Leafclock is already being applied to intimate apparel, maternity and baby products, and home textiles. How do you design for categories with very different usage frequencies, lifecycles, and aesthetic requirements? What adaptations are needed for intimate apparel in particular?

Wenbin Zhu: There is no universal set of lifecycle parameters across product categories. Leafclock begins by placing product type, material structure, washing method, drying conditions, frequency of use, and target service period into the same model. What needs to be designed is not just a label, but a technical model combining the product, its use scenario, and its lifecycle.

We therefore see Leafclock as a combination of materials, lifecycle models, and application processes. A target of 15, 30, or 50 uses may require a different technical route depending on the market, care conditions, and product.

For lingerie and other next-to-skin garments, we pay particular attention to skin-contact safety and comfort, wash-care stability, and design integration. Heat transfer, sewing, and other application methods allow us to coordinate size, hand feel, colour, and placement with the product. The objective is to make the technology an unobtrusive part of the design rather than an added burden.

Ultimately, the model behind the product needs to be rigorous, the supply chain needs to be able to reproduce it, and the consumer-facing experience needs to remain simple: one look should be enough to understand the product's current status. This balance is central to practical intimate apparel innovation.

Q4: Sustainability is increasingly concerned with a product's entire lifecycle rather than materials alone. How can Leafclock help brands manage product lifecycles and encourage more informed, sustainable patterns of use?

Wenbin Zhu: Sustainability discussions have traditionally focused on materials, manufacturing, carbon reduction, and recycling. But once a product reaches the consumer, the way it is used, maintained, and circulated also determines its lifecycle value. The use phase remains a relatively under-informed part of today's sustainability system.

Leafclock aims to make this phase visible. Through intuitive changes in condition, brands can translate complex information about care, maintenance, inspection, and circulation into prompts that consumers can readily understand. Consumers, in turn, gain a clearer reference for everyday use.

Our principle is not to encourage people to keep a product indefinitely. It is to help them avoid discarding it too early or using it beyond an appropriate point, and instead make informed decisions about maintenance, circulation, or replacement at the right stage.

Over the longer term, Leafclock can help extend a brand's sustainability responsibility from the supply chain into real consumer use. When products can communicate lifecycle status, consumers gain greater transparency, brands gain a new way to communicate responsibility, and the industry has an opportunity to build a more scientific system for managing the use phase.

What Global Markets Expect from Lifecycle Indicators

Q5: Leafclock attracted considerable attention from international trade visitors at Interfilière Shanghai 2025. What benefits did Chinese and overseas professionals focus on, and did you observe differences between markets?

Wenbin Zhu: Chinese brands tend to focus on consumer experience, product differentiation, communications impact, and commercial cost. Overseas customers move more quickly into testing standards, care conditions, model calibration, compliance validation, and supply-chain integration. This suggests that the market is progressing from recognising an innovation to establishing the technical rules required for adoption.

For Leafclock, that is also an important sign that we are moving from a single product toward a standardised, scenario-based technology platform.

More importantly, different countries and product categories ultimately ask the same question: once a product is in use, what condition is it in now? This is a global information gap in consumer products, which means the market for lifecycle visualisation extends far beyond one country or one apparel category.

Since the launch of our independent international website this year, we have continued to receive enquiries from more than ten countries across fields including personal protective equipment, food, cosmetics, personal care and cleaning, and workwear.

Q6: How does the relationship between brands and consumers change after Leafclock is introduced? Could the indicator influence how consumers understand products, brands, and even personal wellbeing?

Wenbin Zhu: The most intensive communication between brands and consumers has traditionally taken place before purchase. Once a product is sold, there is often no continuous or natural connection between them. Yet much of a product's value is determined during the months—or longer—when it is actually in use.

Leafclock gives the product itself an opportunity to become a new communication medium. As its condition changes, consumers can naturally pay attention to the product's stage of use and consider whether it needs care, inspection, circulation, or replacement.

For brands, this extends a one-time sales interaction into a post-purchase touchpoint. Brands can continue communicating care guidance, the principles of responsible use, and product value while the product is being used, helping to build longer-term trust.

For consumers, Leafclock offers a more transparent and intuitive reference for product condition and use progression. Ultimately, our technology is intended to support more informed, reassuring, and responsible everyday use.

From a Label Product to a Technology Platform

Q7: Interfilière Shanghai visitors include supply-chain decision-makers, designers, and product managers in lingerie and intimate fashion. What do these professionals ask most often, and what question would you like them to ask more frequently?

Wenbin Zhu: Their most common questions are highly practical: after how many uses will the indicator change? Is it stable under different care conditions? Is it safe? How can it enter an existing production process? What does it cost? Can it be produced at scale? These questions determine whether an innovation can genuinely move from the exhibition stand into industry.

Leafclock's long-term investment is not limited to colour or a particular formulation. It concerns the relationships between products, materials, environments, care methods, user behaviour, and visual changes. This modelling capability determines whether a technology can be replicated from one project across an entire industry.

We hope to turn continuously validated models into a database and selection system. When customers approach a new product or market, they should not have to begin development from scratch every time. Instead, they should be able to select, test, and validate a solution for industrial production more efficiently.

From this perspective, Leafclock is building a Visible Lifecycle Technology Platform, not a single label product. Its value lies in making lifecycle information part of product design, brand management, and, eventually, industry standards.

Q8: What new product solutions is Leafclock presenting at Interfilière Shanghai 2026? Compared with last year, how have they evolved in format, cost, or application?

Wenbin Zhu: Compared with last year, we want the industry to see that Leafclock is evolving from a visual indicator into a more complete lifecycle technology system.

First, our lifecycle models are becoming more scenario-specific. We are developing a broader range of cycle models for different markets and their washing, sunlight exposure, tumble-drying, and professional-care conditions. This allows customers to select and validate solutions against real use environments.

Second, product formats and integration methods are becoming more mature. We continue to optimise heat-transfer, sewn, silicone, and other solutions in terms of hand feel, appearance, production processes, and design integration, making the technology easier to incorporate into a brand's existing product system.

Third, we are continuing to advance industrialisation and cost optimisation. A technology has the potential to change an industry only when it can serve premium innovation while also entering everyday consumer products at greater scale.

Most importantly, we are building a database and selection system for full-scenario lifecycle models. In the future, customers will be able to provide information about the product, market, care conditions, and target service period, then match it with an appropriate model and enter validation more quickly. This can substantially reduce repetitive development and communication costs.

The most important next step for Leafclock is therefore a move from product to platform. Starting with intimate apparel and textiles, we aim to bring visible lifecycle capabilities into a wider range of professional applications and consumer products.

We are not simply trying to add another label to every product. We want to add a trustworthy layer of information to each product's use phase. Products will increasingly be able to communicate their own condition, and Leafclock aims to become the lifecycle information infrastructure connecting products, brands, and consumers.

Through its participation in Interfilière Shanghai 2026, Leafclock is placing visible lifecycle technology, product lifecycle management, and responsible use within the wider industry conversation about materials, product development, manufacturing, and commercial application.

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