First plant-based nylon garment on sale from Lululemon
Yoga and gymwear brand Lululemon has launched a first set of products made from renewably sourced, plant-based nylon.
It worked on this project with a long-term partner, biobased materials developer Genomatica.
Lululemon became an investor in Germany-based Genomatic (Geno) a in 2021, with the aim of supporting its work to create a lower-impact, plant-based nylon. In July 2022, Genomatica and nylon manufacturer Aquafil announced that they had successfully completed the first demonstration-scale production runs for plant-based nylon 6.
Now, Lululemon has brought to market a high-performance shirt made from the new material. The Canadian brand said the garment has the same feel as the lightweight, quick-drying material its customer had become used to in its nylon products.
Chief executive and founder of Geno, Christophe Schilling, said: “Today marks a major achievement: biotechnology has successfully fermented plant sugars into the chemical building blocks used to make nylon, bringing to life a renewable, plant-based nylon.”
He said this was only the beginning and that the partners were proud to be “disrupting the $22 billion nylon market”.
