Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
If someone in the apparel business says you need “G10” or “G-10” on your carton labels, they almost certainly mean GTIN. The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is an identifier for trade items, developed by the international organization GS1. Scanned from a bar code, a GTIN looks a product up in a database so that a retailer, manufacturer or any other trading partner can be sure which product in one database corresponds to which product in another — even across organizational boundaries.
You may have been listening, but possibly heard what they were saying incorrectly. Don't worry, you are not the first person that heard this term wrong.
Did it sound like they said you need G10 or G-10?
It is very possible they were talking about "GTIN".
The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is an identifier for trade items, developed by the international organization GS1. Such identifiers are used to look up product information in a database (often by entering the number through a barcode scanner pointed at an actual product) which may belong to a retailer, manufacturer, collector, researcher, or other entity. The uniqueness and universality of the identifier is useful in establishing which product in one database corresponds to which product in another database, especially across organizational boundaries.
You may have heard in your brain "G10" when they were talking about the following.
Learn about carton labeling.
Learn more about cartons for shipping clothing.
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Thank you for visiting Apparel Search to learn about carton labels with GTIN.
In apparel, GTINs show up in two places shoppers and warehouse staff both rely on: the bar code on a product's ticket or label, and the bar code on the shipping carton. The carton level is where GTIN-14 earns its keep — a case of folded shirts is itself a trade item, different from the single shirt inside it, so it carries its own identifier at the packaging level. That is why a conversation about “G10 labels” is usually a conversation about carton labeling: the warehouse needs the right number, in the right format, printed so a scanner can read it.
A GTIN is not a number a company invents for itself. The brand owner — the organization that owns the specifications of the trade item, wherever it is manufactured — is normally responsible for allocating the GTIN, and a different GTIN must be allocated to every different product. Sizes and colors count as different products: a medium black shirt and a large black shirt need different numbers, because the whole point of the system is that one number means one exact trade item at the checkout, in the stockroom and in every partner's database.
G10 is a mishearing of GTIN, the Global Trade Item Number. When someone says a carton or product needs “G10” labels, they are asking for bar codes carrying the item's GTIN.
GTIN-12 (UPC-A) is a 12-digit number used primarily in North America. GTIN-8 (EAN/UCC-8) is an 8-digit number and GTIN-13 (EAN/UCC-13) a 13-digit number, both used predominantly outside North America. GTIN-14 (EAN/UCC-14 or ITF-14) is a 14-digit number used to identify trade items at various packaging levels.
Because the identifier is unique and universal, trading partners can match products between different databases with confidence — the same garment scanned at a factory, a warehouse and a store resolves to the same trade item everywhere.