Limited-edition anorak marks a first for Lululemon
Vancouver-based athletic clothing brand Lululemon has launched a first garment containing “enzymatically recycled polyester”.
A year ago, Lululemon became a minority investor in Samsara Eco, an Australia-based developer of plastic-eating enzymes that can break polyester back down into monomer form, promising what the clothing brand described at the time as “infinite textile-to-textile recycling”.
The first garment to use material emerging from this partnership is a limited-edition packable anorak. It contains material from a variety of inputs, including mixed plastic waste and previous Lululemon garments that have reached the end-of-life stage.
Founder and chief executive, Paul Riley, has described what Samsara Eco does as “putting waste to work”. He said the start-up was proud to be working with Lululemon “to create change and disrupt the linear economy of plastic”.
Lululemon’s packable anorak also contains polyester developed from converted carbon emissions. The raw material for this component comes from LanzaTech, a biotech company that the Canadian brand began working with in 2021. LanzaTech captures waste carbon from industrial sources and works with partners to convert the captured carbon into polyester.
On releasing the new garment, Lululemon’s vice-president for raw materials innovation, Yogendra Dandapure, said: “Our vision is to scale these technologies to address textile waste across our entire supply chain. This capsule product is a first step along this journey, helping us test and learn as we continue to advance circularity.”
