Algae inks colour Nike t-shirt graphics black
Sportswear brand Nike has released a t-shirt capsule featuring graphics printed with fellow US-based company Living Ink’s algae-based black ink.
The t-shirts are 100% cotton, knitted from at least 75% organic cotton fibres, according to Nike.
Made from a by-product of an algae-growing operation, Living Ink’s pigments and inks have previously been used to dye t-shirts made by UK performance brand Vollebak black and green.
Its collaboration with Nike demonstrates further progress along the path to proving its technologies as an alternative to petroleum-derived carbon black.
Living Ink is currently participating in a multi-stakeholder pilot project led by Dutch supply chain initiative Fashion for Good. The objective is to scale its pigments as a viable resource for dope dying man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCFs) and recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) yarns.
Other key players involved in the scheme include fashion groups Kering and PVH, plus MMCF producer Birla Cellulose, manufacturer Paradise Textiles and two more technology startups, Graviky Labs and Nature Coatings.
Company co-founder and chief executive, Scott Fulbright, told WSA earlier this year that his firm’s Algae Ink product is considered carbon-negative, according to a life-cycle analysis undertaken by University of Colorado researchers in Denver. Not only is the raw material considered waste, but algae also “locks” in carbon, he said.
Read our technical editor's investigation into alternative carbon blacks in WSA's features section here.
Image: Nike.
