The Material Revolution is Here

It’s 2023 and, though we don’t have flying cars yet, we do have a tidal wave of innovation in the fabric and materials world of fashion and design. I’m excited to share some cool, emerging materials companies. But first, let’s run through why it’s needed.?

Second only to oil and gas, fashion is the most environmentally harmful industry in the world because of what materials are used, how they’re made, what happens when we wear them, and what happens when we’re “done” with them.?

Materials, or textiles, are either natural or synthetic. Natural fibers come from ecological sources like the earth or animals and are biodegradable. For example, linen is made from a flax plant and takes two weeks to decompose. Cotton is made from cotton plant fibers and takes one to five months to decompose. Wool comes from the hair of sheep, goats, alpacas, and llamas and takes between three and six months to decompose. Silk is produced by silkworms and takes up to one year to decompose. Leather is an interesting material because while it is the hide of a cow or other animal, it is treated to a harmful and dangerous tanning process and takes 50 years to decompose. The greatest issue in using these materials, aside from the use of animals, is the overconsumption and therefore depletion of these natural resources.?

By contrast, synthetic materials are human-made, produced with toxic chemicals, take up to hundreds of years to decompose, and release harmful chemicals into the environment during the process. For example, Viscose/Rayon is made from reconstituted wood pulp, sodium hydroxide, and carbon disulfide and takes up to one year to decompose. Cellulose Acetate is the synthetic compound derived from the acetylation of the plant substance cellulose and takes between one to three years to decompose. Nylon is a polymer, is derived from petroleum, and takes 30 to 40 years to decompose. Polyester is plastic, derived from petroleum, and takes 500 years to decompose. Polyamide, or Nylon, takes more than 500 years to decompose.?

Synthetic materials are created by and treated with toxic chemicals which contaminate the air, the water systems, and the ground which is then breathed, drank, and absorbed by garment workers, their families, and other people in the village where these sweatshops and factories operate. This contamination leads to extensive diseases, birth defects, and death. If you think this is a third-world problem, think again. In the past year, we’ve seen products hospitalize people from SHEIN to school uniforms.? Phthalates and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as Forever Chemicals, lead to cancer, reproductive and immune system harm, and other diseases. These are common in fast-fashion and are often used to make pieces waterproof and stain-resistant. These chemicals never decompose into the environment.

“Microplastics have been found at the top of Mount Everest and on the ocean floor. They’ve been found in a large, remote European ice cap. They’ve been found in the placenta of fetuses. They’re everywhere. We’re living in a bubble of plastic—our homes, clothes, cars, beds, cosmetics, cups, food, drinks, bottles and pacifiers—plastic is in everything,” says Philip Kuriakose, M.D., a hematologist and medical oncologist at the Henry Ford Cancer Institute. A little-known fact is that most of the plastic in the ocean is actually microplastic. When we wear and wash synthetic materials, we are shedding millions of microplastics anywhere we go. Our laundry wastewater is directly responsible for the overwhelmingly vast microplastic contamination in our oceans.

In the same way we look at ingredients and nutritional value when buying food, we must take that approach to understand the impact of the materials we wear. What ingredients are used? How is it made? Where does it come from? What happens when we throw it out?

Moving forward, we have to both return to using natural materials sustainably and design a new future by discovering, creating, and repurposing materials to replace the harmful materials we have grown accustomed to.?

Luckily, there are already a lot of players in the space, so let’s get to it.?

Leather

Don’t be fooled by “vegan leather” labels. More often than not, they are made from plastic and petroleum. I’m excited to highlight companies using natural, biodegradable materials as an alternative to traditional leather.

Mushrooms - MycoWorks is a biotechnology company founded by artists with the mission to create a platform for the highest quality materials using Fine Mycelium?.

Cow Cells - VitroLabs Inc is a lab-grown leather company. A single biopsy from a cow can make millions of handbags. All while she stays grazing in the grass where we left her.

Wool

Already a natural material, this company has found an innovative way to use an excess of naturally made creations and recyclables to create a material that feels and acts like wool.?

Oyster Shells - Seawool by EVEREST TEXTILE CO., LTD. is made from discarded oyster shells and combined with recycled PET bottles to create a brand-new functional product applied in the textile.

Cotton?

Not necessarily a new product but a sustainable approach to making something discarded new again, this company closes the cotton loop.

Recycled Cotton - Recover Fiber turns textile waste (industrial waste and used garments) into high-quality recycled fibers that can be used again to create new garments, closing the loop on fashion.

Viscose & Lyocell

Turning a negative into a positive.

Carbon Emissions - Rubi Laboratories is a planet positive viscose and lyocell made from carbon emissions. Rubi has developed a process for making textiles out of greenhouse gases, sequestering carbon rather than releasing it.

Fibre Fill

This synthetic material is what our pillows and stuffed animals are filled with, so finding a healthy alternative is high on the list.?

Made from Plants - Biopuff by Ponda created by growing plants using regenerative wetland agriculture. BioPuff? is a plant-based fibre fill material designed to keep you warm without harming the environment. This alternative to animal and petroleum-based products, is created by growing plants using regenerative wetland agriculture.

Plastic?

…but not. These companies mirror the traits of plastic without harming the earth.?

Seaweed - Sway harnesses the power of seaweed to create compostable replacements for single-use plastics.

Bio-based materials including Algae and seaweed - Notpla is a material made from seaweed and plants that disappears naturally.?

From Waste to Wear

Turning the problem into the solution.?

Plastic - The New Norm ’s signature sustainable yarn & fabric is made from recycled SOLO cups. Most plastics labeled with the typical triangle-logo indicating their recyclability cannot be recycled at scale. The New Norm addresses this issue head-on; we offer a solution that makes use of plastics that are not accepted by our existing recycling infrastructure. We transform plastic into sustainable, wearable fabric.?

Textiles & Paper - Infinited Fiber Company developed technology to recycle textile and paper waste into fibres that can be woven into new cloth, potentially helping textile production to become compatible with a circular economy. The company says it uses responsible chemistry and eliminates the need for carbon disulfide, a hazardous chemical used in conventional viscose production.

Asbestos - Cofalit by Boucheron , is a material produced from asbestos in a way that renders the notoriously hazardous substance safe.

Air Pollution - AIR-INK ? is a proprietary brand of ink and composites products made by condensing carbon-based gaseous effluents generated by air pollution due to incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. PANGAIA partnered with them for their latest capsule. They do a fabulous job of partnering with innovative bio-based startups to consistently re-iterate their products to become earth positive.?

Bananas and more - PYRATEX? replaces synthetic with natural, equally functional ones. Our fabrics are made from plants with properties that care of you, and we knit them in a way that preserves these properties in the final fabric. We develop innovative fabrics with responsible natural, regenerative or recycled fibers, produce them locally and supply them to brands, being their R&D partners.?

New Materials Entirely

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a… whole new thing. These companies step outside the box to design a new, sustainable material entirely.?

Simplifyber footwear (shoe “uppers”) and clothing are made with chemistry and biomaterials rather than with sewing machines, eliminating much of the waste, carbon emissions, and water pollution that have led to fashion’s devastating environmental and social impact.

Mirum by NFW leverages responsibly-sourced natural polymers which can be infinitely recycled or returned to Nature’s nutrient cycles. NFW? develops new manufacturing routes and material chemistry to unlock new levels of performance for natural materials. We believe that with the right science, anything synthetics can do, plants can do better.?

Evolved By Nature has developed ways to take compounds found naturally in silk and programme them to give fabrics and cosmetics the same properties as some of the world’s harshest chemicals.

Am I missing any other amazing innovative material science companies? Let me know at [email protected]?

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