Customer stories › North Action Sports Group
A way back for lost gear. A closer connection to every rider.
North Actionsports Group wanted a reliable way to connect a lost board with its owner. With Tappr, that idea became a Digital Product Passport for North and Mystic: product information, registration, Lost & Found and membership benefits, reached from the gear itself.
North Actionsports Group, home to North and Mystic
Boards, kites, wings, harnesses, wetsuits and accessories
A unique GS1 QR code linked to each product’s identity
It started with a board on the beach.
A board washes ashore. Who owns it, and are they safe? For North Actionsports Group, connecting equipment to its owner had an immediate, practical purpose. A phone number on a sticker could help, but a sticker was unlikely to last through salt water, sun and repeated sessions.
The group worked with Tappr on a more durable connection: a unique QR code that opens the product’s Digital Product Passport. Once the owner registers their gear, a finder can use the code to make contact through Lost & Found.
That same connection solved a wider problem. Riders buy from surf shops, dealers and other riders, so the brand often has no direct relationship with the person using its equipment. Putting useful services on the product gives those riders a reason to connect, wherever they bought it.
The product becomes the place to start.
The example below is a Tappr demo passport, not North’s live product page. It shows the kind of experience a rider reaches from the board: the product and its benefits, model-specific information, and the services available to registered owners. It opens in a phone browser.
Know what you own
The board has its own product page, with an introduction to the services and membership benefits around it.
Find the right information
Product details stay connected to the model in front of the rider. The passport also provides a place to access guides and manuals.
See why registration matters
Lost & Found and member benefits give riders a practical reason to create an account and register their gear.
A Tappr demo, not North’s live passport. Scan the code, or open it on this device, to see what a rider reaches from the board.
A reason to register. A reason to come back.
The scan is the starting point. Riders can create an account, register their products and access services associated with their gear. North brings Lost & Found, product information and Club North together in that journey.
Club North adds a reason to take that step: benefits such as extended warranty and member offers. After registration, an owner can return to the same passport for product support or when something goes missing. The relationship has a useful place to continue after the sale.
The GS1 case reports that more than 100 Club North members have registered at least five products. One member has 27 in their digital locker. Alongside the registration figures, that shows how the connection can extend across a rider’s collection.
Built for salt water, sunlight and real use.
Making the code last was part of the product work. Boards, kites and harnesses have different surfaces and face different kinds of wear. For boards, North tested laser engraving and protected the code beneath several layers, including epoxy.
The marking process also shaped the digital design. Laser engraving limits how finely a QR code can be reproduced. Tappr built a dedicated GS1 Digital Link resolver for the group, shortening the link so the code needed fewer small squares and was easier to reproduce on the board.
The product identifier and serial number connect the individual item to its passport. Behind that permanent marking, North can develop the experience and add services as the programme grows.
A closer view of the products in use.
Registration gives North a connection to owners it might otherwise never meet. Lost & Found has already been used for boards found across Europe, the United States, Brazil, Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
That connection also supports the product team. Feedback linked to a product can help North investigate recurring issues. Where a problem affects a particular batch, serial numbers help the team identify and contact registered owners of the relevant products.
The same approach creates a route for product testing: riders and retailers can scan a code, share their experience and attach photos for North’s R&D team. The passport becomes useful to the people improving the equipment as well as those riding it.
The next step starts with the same product identity.
North began with services riders could use immediately. The next phase described in the GS1 case is gathering more of the product and supply-chain data behind the passport, starting with Mystic.
Suppliers, and their own suppliers, contribute information without an account.
Responses are reviewed, brought together and linked to the relevant product record.
That structured data gives the team a foundation for future product disclosures.
The practical advantage is continuity. The codes are already on the products, riders are already using the experience, and the group can build on that foundation as its data and service needs develop.
“With applications such as Lost & Found and Club North, we have succeeded in creating a coherent and compelling story for consumers that really resonates. And one that also allows us to generate additional revenue.”
About the North programme
Does scanning the code automatically register the owner?
Can riders use it if they bought through a dealer?
What happens when someone finds a board?
What is live, and what comes next?
About North Action Sports Group
North Actionsports Group brings together Mystic, North Kiteboarding, North Foils and North Windsurfing. The Netherlands-based group develops equipment for kiteboarding, windsurfing, wingfoiling, foiling, wakeboarding and surfing.
This story draws on the GS1 partner case, “North and Mystic strengthen their bond with kitesurfers through the GS1 QR code”, and North’s explanation of its Digital Product Passport. Programme results are reported by GS1; membership benefits are subject to North’s current terms.
See it on one of your own products.
Bring one product and the services you want to offer around it. In a 30-minute demo, explore what an owner would open, how your product information feeds the passport and what it would take to launch.
You’ll talk to Bas, Delia or Anna, who built the North and Mystic passport programme.
- 30 minutes
- One product and the services around it
- What an owner would open from it