Collaborations and Advanced Inputs Drive Material Innovation
When it comes to creating better materials, the fashion industry is putting its money where its mouth is.
In the past 10 years, $3 billion has been invested into next-gen materials, the Material Innovation Initiative (MII) found, with more than $455 million of that raised in 2022 alone and sustainability deeply rooted in all advancements.
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“There have been significant strides made in the integration of sustainability concepts to materials,” said Ali Stayart, apparel and accessories director at sporting goods brand Salomon. “Whether it is bio-based membranes, regenerative fibers or circular recyclable materials, we have really seen a commercialization of radical sustainable materials and construction within the industry.”
Thinking outside the box
Creativity and collaboration are playing a vital role in pushing the material innovations needle forward. Modern Meadow, for example, is upcycling tequila production’s pulpy fibrous “bagasse” waste into material that can be used for handbags, garments, accessories and furniture. Meanwhile, chemical manufacturing companies Arkema and RadiciGroup teamed up to create a 100 percent bio-based dress crafted entirely from castor beans.
However, while material innovations are being taken to the next level, challenges lie ahead, including securing funding and affordably producing at scale.
To combat this problem, many material innovators are collaborating with major industry players, and fast-fashion retailers H&M and Zara are two companies leading the charge. “We have an urgent opportunity to support innovations that could transform the entire fashion industry,” said Karl Johan Persson, an H&M Foundation board member.
Although the concept of recycling isn’t new, H&M and Zara are partnering with recycling innovators to help reduce the environmental impacts of the textile industry.
H&M invested in numerous future-focused material innovators, including financing the Swedish textile recycling company Renewcell, who later supplied the brand with tons of virgin-quality Circulose fibers made from unusable textile waste like old jeans and T-shirts that have been discarded at an industrial scale.
Zara, on the other hand, collaborated with textile innovator Evrnu on a capsule collection made using textiles from Zara’s consumer product returns. After a successful first collection, the two decided to partner up again for additional capsule collections—set to launch next year—and the next phase of their partnership.
“The adoptions, and associated publicity and promotion that partnerships afford, has increased our brand awareness and interest, and led to new brand inquiries and adoptions which will be coming to market and further supports the validity of our fibers and innovations,” said Stacy Flynn, CEO and co-founder of Evrnu. “These adoptions have also required us to expand the range of end-use garments that can be made with our fiber—for example, denim—thus increasing the addressable market for us.”
PFAS problem
While the fashion industry is putting in the work for a more sustainable future, per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS, aka “forever chemicals”) that often end up in materials continue to pose major concerns.
“We have a legacy environmental contamination issue,” said Frank Adamsky, regulatory affairs manager at chemical manufacturing company Daikin. “The sooner we focus on the actual issue, the greater ability we have to solve it.”
Thankfully, many industry players are stepping up to the plate to help mitigate the PFAS problem. Keen, for example, became one of the first footwear companies to remove PFAS from its products, and most recently in 2022, hit the milestone of removing PFAS from its packaging as well, according to Kirsten Blackburn, director of The Keen Effect at Keen.
“Critical to this success was using the precautionary principle, which eliminated nearly 65 percent of our PFAS use by removing durable water repellency technology manufactured with PFAS from products that didn’t need water repellency at all, like sandals,” she added.
States are also taking action. In response to growing concerns about PFAS, several states— including California, Colorado, New York, Maine and Washington—have passed legislation banning or limiting the use of the chemicals in products sold within their borders. And according to the American Chemistry Council, a total of 276 bills were introduced by states on PFAS in the 2023 legislative session, although not all of them apply to textiles.
“Successful phase-out of PFAS in the entire apparel and footwear value chain will only be possible by eliminating their use from all relevant manufacturing processes,” said Debbie Chronicle, senior sales executive at textile testing company Hohenstein Institute America. “Considering the persistence of PFAS, this is a really ambitious goal, and it’s going to require international collaboration and a sufficient amount of time to achieve it.”
Download Sourcing Journal’s 2023 Material Innovations Report to learn industry leaders’ revolutionary ways to produce more sustainable materials.
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