The list of brands experimenting with more sustainable new materials keeps growing.
Adidas redesigned its classic Stan Smith sneakers with mushroom-based mycelium leather; Lululemon used the same material to make yoga mats and accessories; and Stella McCartney used it to make a bag and bustier. Newlight, a startup that turns greenhouse gas emissions into carbon-negative leather, has partnered with Nike. The North Face made a limited-edition jacket from Spiber, a version of silk that’s fermented in tanks like beer.
H&M used Flwrdwn, a new down alternative made partly from wildflowers, in a children’s puffer jacket, and Vegea, a grape-based leather made from wine by-products, in shoes and bags. More than 1,000 brands have experimented with Pinatex, a type of leather made from waste from the pineapple industry. Dozens of other partnerships exist.
In the same way that Impossible Foods and Perfect Day are reinventing meat and dairy alternatives, a fast-growing number of startups and a handful of larger companies are working on alternatives to animal-based materials. Brands that rely on leather or silk—or first-generation alternatives made from plastic—are driven by consumer demand for more sustainable and ethical products.
The first step happening now, in which textile manufacturers work closely with brands, is critical, Siu says. A company that’s developing a new material needs to understand both the specs that its customers need and how the material will fit into the entire production process, from mills and dyeing to sewing.
A company that wants to use a new material to hit sustainability targets will also need to spend time educating its teams about the materials. “Everybody in the company needs to start to understand and have that new mindset of how to work with this shift,” Siu says. Some products may be more challenging to make with new materials than others, like a high-heeled shoe, which already requires a high level of skill to make, versus a jacket.
With funding in place, some companies are beginning to ramp up production. MycoWorks, a biomaterials startup that makes leather from mycelium, recently raised $125 million to build its first mass-production facility. If the field of companies in this space can begin to replace leather and other conventional materials, it could have a real impact. Animal leather has a large environmental impact; Newlight’s emissions-based leather, on the other hand, actually has a positive impact, with a footprint of negative 87.76 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of material produced.
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