An increasing number of start-ups are hoping to serve the fashion industry’s growing interest in ‘next-generation’ materials.

The pendulum has started to swing on “next-generation” and lower-impact materials, as companies begin to seriously analyse their raw material selections and consider how to shift the manufacturing juggernaut in a more sustainable direction, according to the organisers of the Future Fabrics Expo (FFE). They say they are witnessing “huge changes” in how many  brands and companies are taking sustainable sourcing more seriously, as well as a growing number of start-ups in the arena, commercialising new materials at a quicker pace. 

‘Next-gen’ materials make up less than 1% of the global fibre basket currently, but this could increase by up to 13% by 2030, according to sustainability hub Fashion for Good. Consultancy Quantis suggests there are 35 incoming regulations that will affect the fashion sector in the next five years and new material sources are imperative if retailers are to comply with these rules. It went so far as to say brands’ profits could be affected by up to 8% if they fail to switch materials – in terms of products not reaching the market (for instance, held up at customs), as well as fines.

“We are in a critical moment in history as regards our raw material dependencies and how they impact on environment, societies and climate change,” Amanda Johnston, curator of FFE, tells WSA. The incoming EU legislation around fashion, circularity and traceability have created a strong impetus for brands to learn more about materials and their supply chains, she adds. “It's all starting to create a situation where people are now, with urgency, wanting to change.”

Nutrient recovery

An overarching theme for many materials start-ups is repurposing waste, or looking at it from a new perspective, in terms of “recovering nutrients”. “It’s not just industrial and post-consumer product waste, it’s also thinking about unique waste areas, such as start-up Arda Biomaterials, which is taking a slurry of beer waste and making a beautiful material, as well as Canopy, which is working with agricultural waste,” explains Ms Johnston. “We’ve seen lots of really interesting materials using waste streams that did not have any value attached to them.”

One such company is US start-up Simplifyber, which has patented both a new material stream and a new way of manufacturing and, at the end of September, teased a shoe range from Ganni. The feedstock is a cellulose-based slurry made from waste from the wood industry, but can include everything from recycled paper to waste wool or materials such as hemp. Co-founder Maria Intscher-Owrang worked as a high-end fashion designer for more than 20 years, but wasn’t happy with the level of impact she was having and wanted to pursue a novel approach. “We use the materials when they’re at the beginning of the supply chain,” she tells us. “That makes our unit economics work better than plastic when you hit the thousands of products. Even taking into account the cost of moulds and tooling, it becomes cheaper. I really think that’s the only way we’re going to change the industry.” 

Simplifyber works with footwear factories and sole suppliers near its base in North Carolina to offer a full shoe. The uppers can be coated with various finishes to make them durable and waterproof. Its long-term aim is to provide its slurry and machinery to manufacturers globally, so local supply chains can be set up and use waste from different industries to create the upper.

Stepping stones

Environmental organisation Parley for the Oceans is expanding its remit to support next-gen materials and help companies transition from virgin plastics as part of its AIR – avoid, intercept and redesign – strategy. From its launch in 2008, it focused on seminars, moving into facilitating the collection of ocean-bound plastics, then working with textiles makers such as FENC in Taiwan to provide recycled polyester to brands. One of the most well-known of these collaborations is the Adidas Parley knitted shoe ranges. “For the 'avoid' part of the strategy, we look at a company’s whole operations, from products, to events, to their office, to help them to avoid virgin plastic,” Federico Tarditi, head of global partnerships at Parley, tells us. “We intercept plastic from the water and upcycle it into clothing, footwear and accessories.”

An example of ‘redesign’ is a new collaboration with US company Sky High Farm Universe, resulting in a jacket made with mushrooms and chitosan (from crustacean shells) by Tomtex and an insulation material made with seeds from the wetlands by Ponda Biobuff. “Increasingly, we’re looking to implement these next-gen materials into the supply chains of our partners," said Mr Tarditi. "The plastic is a stepping stone into these new materials, but the development and implementation could take five to 10 years.”

Parley also created a denim jacket containing banana fibres from Swiss company Qwstion, dyed with wood waste from Nature Coatings. Made from 100% abacá, a banana species grown as a commercial crop in the Philippines, the Bananatex fabric is made by turning fibres into paper, which is spun into yarn and then woven in Taiwan for applications such as bags and footwear. Qwiston’s Bananatex denim is made by an Italian mill.

Seaweed offers its properties to several new products, including a fabric range from Spanish textiles company Pyratex. US-based start-up Soarce has pooled the knowledge of former NASA and nanomaterials specialists to create textiles auxiliaries from kelp. Its flagship product, Searamic, is composed of nanoceramics with a seaweed binder, used in the dyeing process, imparting properties such as UV and fire resistance, according to the company. It has worked with Living Ink Technologies’ algae pigment to dye fabrics in black shades, bound by Searamic.

Rethinking the process

Many of these new companies are thinking not only of the raw materials but also finding new ways to make. “That is really future-thinking because you're changing both the materiality and the manufacturing process,” says Ms Johnston. 

Footwear brand Vivobarefoot wants to produce custom-made shoes close to the end consumer. It has partnered French start-up Balena, which supplies a bio-based material, and then creates a 3D printed shoe from a scan of a customer’s foot. The bio-based sources are from castor plants and polysaccharides, bound with a biodegradable polymer.

Although not a start-up, Swiss company Beyond Surface Technologies (BST) also scours nature for fossil alternatives and has unveiled two textiles finishes that are 100% biobased. The first is a durable water repellent that uses Candelilla wax from the leaves of the small candelilla shrub, native to northern Mexico and the southwestern US. The second is a wicking finish made using microalgae.

This is the future of the bio industry, because every natural oil can be produced by microalgae,” explains Urs Hasler, chief operations officer at BST. “Currently, we only have access to 10 or 20 natural oils industrially. But we could collect the microalgae, repopulate it, and theoretically get any natural oil industrially produced.” 

A bit further away from commercialisation is Modern Synthesis. The company was founded in 2019 by former adidas designer Jen Keane, and has since grown to employ 22 in its London headquarters. The company works with bacteria that naturally produce nanocellulose, with the aim of growing the top of an athletic shoe. It has backing from Ganni and has won awards including the Mills Fabrica Techstyle prize and the LVMH Green Trail award.

Future Fabrics’ Claire Weiss, who curates the innovation and technology section of the expo, comments that the fact there are 50 fresh start-ups each year demonstrates the willingness of investors to support nascent technologies. “In previous years, there has been a bigger focus on earlier-stage companies, whereas now they seem to be getting to a solid proof of concept a lot quicker,” she tells us. “The rate of innovation is speeding up and ideas are coming to market relatively quickly. These are the companies that are asking all the right questions to make sure that what they’re doing is best practice and what they’re considering, when scaled, is going to have the positive impact that they aim to have. Chemical and technological advancements have also allowed quicker implementation of certain technologies.” The ‘sustainability hub’ section of the expo has grown from supporting 130 innovators in 2017 to 650 this year.

High-level impetus

Ultimately, the changes need to come from deep within companies, starting with the CEO and board, as trying to pull the fashion sector away from petrochemicals and towards natural or lower-impact materials and processes will need both investment and action. Investors must also believe in the commercial potential of the start-ups – they will need to see viability, scalability and the potential for profitability. Many start-ups fall at funding hurdles, with investment firms too impatient to wait years for R&D and scale-up when retailers’ commitment is uncertain.

But brands have also set ambitious targets for using recycled or lower-impact materials, and therefore should be showing willingness to commit. Adidas, for instance, said in 2021 that nine out of 10 products should be ‘sustainable’ by 2025, including reducing its CO₂ footprint per product by 15%. Retail giant Inditex has said by 2030, 100% of its textile products will be made exclusively from materials with a smaller environmental footprint. Outdoor brand Vaude has stated that by 2030, 90% of all products will be made from at least 85% biobased or recycled materials. Currently, polyester makes up 54% of global fibre usage, according to The Textile Exchange, with nylon and other oil-based synthetics 11%, cotton 22%, man-made cellulosics 6%, other plant-based 5% and protein-based 1%. 

“Companies can change their supply chains but it needs to come from the CEOs, then all the designers and product development teams need to be on board,” adds Ms Johnston. “We've got the solutions there for them and we are looking towards the next generation, or those materials that are on the cusp of becoming commercially relevant. If everybody gets on board, that will tip that needle and change our raw material dependencies.”

Danish brand Ganni does not shy away from next-gen materials. Here, it teases a design made from Simplifyber’s cellulose slurry.
CREDIT: Simplifyber

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