Wrath will introduce Heirloom items, which are items which bind to your account (BtA) and scale with the level of the toon using them. This is flat out fantastic. What this means is that once you have one this item can be traded amongst any of your characters, which is fantastic for leveling alts.
Linkage as proof is wowinsider, some examples, and another list on MMO Champion.
What is not clear yet is where these come from. Initially it looks like these will be badge gear, but to me the items we already have should be on the list too.
If you already have the Shoulders from Herod, then these should just get turned into an Hierloom item after the patch.
What is totally strange is that the Shoulder items will increase the XP you get too. I don’t get it, but I love it.
I mentioned back in June that BtA items would be a good move, and adding the name heirloom gives them a real tang of flavour and a reason to be. Furthermore having the items scale is brilliant.
Yes, there will be many toons running around wearing the same gear as they will have Hierlooms on; but thats not a bad thing. You know those toons are Alts and can make a guess that the player may actually know more than how to Cyber in Goldshire.
TyphoonAndrew's - Eye of the Storm 
Now everyone can have a twink.
I think the reason they have implemented this (and the reason why the shoulders give extra XP) is that the level cap gets raised again with the expansion.
Blizzard knows we want alts (or the chance to change main) and they can understand that the climb is getting too steep.
Hurray for Heirlooms 😀
They’re gonna be badge items. The idea being once you’ve got everything you want with badges you can twink out your alts some.
Just because they share designs with existing drops doesn’t mean they’ll change those drops into the new items.