Goldwin celebrates Brewed Protein scale-up with five-brand launch
Outdoor sports group Goldwin is to launch cold-weather apparel produced on a much larger scale with long-term partner Spiber, also based in Japan, across five of its brands: The North Face, Goldwin, The North Face Purple Label, Woolrich and Nanamica.
Available in time for autumn, the clothing, predominantly jackets, will be sold in the US as well as Japan, in addition to other territories in Asia, North America and Europe, depending on the brand. Spiber’s Brewed Protein fibres, achieved through a proprietary and customisable biomass fermentation process using plant-based ingredients, make up at least 60% of each jacket’s surface layer material.
The two companies have been working together on sustainability minded co-development projects since 2015. These have included a synthetic spider-silk parka for The North Face, a limited-run Brewed Protein version of which ultimately launched in December 2019, in addition to a t-shirt for the same brand, a knitted Goldwin sweater in 2020 and jeanswear, a shell jacket and fleece articles made for experimental platform Goldwin 0, all released since last autumn. Goldwin said it aims to dedicate as much of 10% of the material used in newly developed products to those based on Brewed Protein polymers, for all brands, by 2030.
It suggested that large-scale production at Spiber’s Thai facility, which began early last year, should make this a more realistic goal. Previously, only very small quantities of product containing the polymer could be produced.
The group also notably described the autumn-winter capsules in question as “regenerative”, in a nod to Spiber’s ability to break down Brewed Protein materials for reuse in newer films or filaments of the same kind.
Learn more about Goldwin’s work with AI-based Algorithmic Couture technology to make low-waste apparel for The North Face and Neutralworks, another one of its brands, in our WSA features section here. This article was first published in the latest edition of WSA magazine, issue one of 2023.
Image: This version of The North Face’s Nuptse jacket for autumn-winter contains 60% Brewed Protein fibre, 25% wool and 15% nylon in its surface layer, a waterproof polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) reverse, inner padding made up of 80% down and 20% feathers and a 100% nylon lining.
Credit: Goldwin.
