James&Co took the step in 2022 to end the use of partially plant-based textiles as the vegan leather textile for our outerwear and accessories. We did this because the other non-plant component of those textiles is polyurethane (PU) to some degree. Whatever the degree, the existence of PU means the textile still contains fossilfuels, potentially harmful chemicals like DMF, is still plastic and is not bio-degradable. Hence the fashion product it is turned into cannot return to the soil after use and can also not be recycled. That bag, jacket, shoe in vegan leather made partially from pineapple waste, apple waste, cactus leaves, grape waste and such is more than likely to still be part of fashion’s 2nd largest industry contribution to landfill.
It is our view repeatedly said that to bring an end to plastic in fashion pieces, and to meet the urgent calls by the IPCC for action for the planet by 2030, will require greater collaborative action by all stakeholders to transition out the actual manufacture of toxic PU and it’s use in manufacture and sale of fashion items. At the minimum it will require Government action to ban the making/import/use of PU, for retailers to cease purchasing ‘vegan leather’ fashion items made in PU and to set a deadline for the brands to transition their pieces to the truly sustainable and bio-degradable textiles, for brands to transition their products’ textiles. And that’s just on the Government and industry supply chain side. Consumer demand must be for no more plastics in fashion. And more.
An important report by Fashion For Good and Boston Consulting Group released in 2020 made the very important point that technological innovations to progress sustainability in the fashion industry was a huge investment opportunity and required urgent collaborative action by all fashion industry stakeholders.
‘To bring the necessary innovations to scale, fashion brands, supply chain partners, investors, and others need to step up to create the conditions that accelerate innovation. Financing will flow into the fashion space when investors are presented with manageable risk, attractive returns, and measurable impact. With its $2 trillion market size, the fashion industry offers major untapped opportunities for investors and companies. BCG and Fashion for Good calculate a financing opportunity of $20 billion to $30 billion per year to be directed toward developing and scaling the disruptive innovations and business models needed to achieve a step change in sustainability by 2030.’
James&Co welcomes any approaches to assist it in funding its transformation away from any PU-included materials for its brand.
Recent developments in Australia have revealed that whilst the emphasis can be put on packaging and getting rid of ‘single use plastic bags’ (SUPBs) by announcing the getting back and recycling of them – that’s actually not working too well.
Leaving SUPBs to one side for this blog, and also the partially plant-based fabrics – how is the world going in the quest to get rid of toxic PU plastic from fashion? What is the status of research, development, funding, awareness, availability, commercialisation of 100% bio plant-based textiles in lieu of PU?
This is skim over status in January 2023 of the circular alternative leather textile quests with which James&Co is familiar or has become aware of. All inputs for a more comprehensive dossier most welcome.
Cork leather
We lead with a generic material name rather than a brand name for a particular material. That is cork leather. Cork from the bark of the cork oak tree has been used for centuries to make products and by brands from different industries. For the purposes of this blog, cork leather can by itself be a 100% plant-based vegan leather, if made with no petroleum product input for appearance or utility and with a backing of cotton and not a synthetic like polyester, and hence bio-degradable.
Whilst called ‘cork leather’ there is no attempt to change the look of the material as harvested from the cork oak tree to more leather-look. The material has a smooth, shiny finish which improves over time. It is water resistant, flame resistant, hypoallergenic and durable.
Portugal is a leading country for the production of cork leather from its cork oak trees. There are many brands that source the material for fashion accessories as the perfect alternative to leather – bags, backpacks, shoes. James&Co has recently introduced a purse compact mirror made in cork and we will be bringing in more cork accessories.
MIRUM®
MIRUM® is the brand name of Natural Fiber Welding Inc (NFW) a company based in Peoria, Illinois, USA. *
In early 2022, James&Co became aware of the development of a 100% plantbased synthetic leather-look textile in the US called MIRUM®. MIRUM® is made only from bio-degradable materials with no component of PU or plastic and is said to have a carbon footprint 40 times smaller than conventional leather and 17 times smaller than PU-based faux leather.
At the end of its life, MIRUM® can be recycled into new MIRUM® or ground up and returned to the earth. At last, a climate-friendly, plastic-free option.
We made contact with the company and consequently James&Co has begun the transition of our leather-look vegan leather fashion products to being tailored in MIRUM® and is in the course of working on accessories and footwear. The textile is not yet thin enough for apparel but we will be the leader of the style pack when it is available.
Significant investment has been secured for NFW to grow the business for At the end of its life, MIRUM® can be recycled into new MIRUM® or ground up and returned to the earth. At last, a climate-friendly, plastic-free option.from leading fashion brands such as Ralph Polo Lauren, Australian brand RM Williams and other major corporations.
Other large brands- Stella McCartney, Allbirds, Pangaia, Reformation – have recently announced partnerships with NFW to release products tailored in MIRUM® which is made with an organic cotton backing.
Another major step taken by NFW is the partnership with a leading sustainable factory Veshin Factory which will help brands looking for assistance in the manufacturing of 100% plantbased leather look bags for their business.
NFW has also been developing other sustainable and biodegradable textiles including rubber. All zero-plastic plantbased textiles.
TREEKIND®
TREEKIND® is the brand name of the plant-based plastic-free PU-free leather textile from UK company BIOPHILICA. It uses the sub-title ‘The leaf leather’.
TREEKIND® is described as being sourced from green waste and ‘made with lignocellulosic feedstocks from urban parks and gardens and inedible agricultural feedstock.’ It is said to be compostable, non-toxic, uses less than 0.1% of the water in equivalent to leather processing and has a very low carbon footprint.
The website advises the company/textile is currently in R&D and has recently closed their Seed round of funding.
In December 2022 it was announced that Biophilica is undertaking a pilot program to jointly create sample products together with BESTSELLER brand JACK & JONES to validate the use of Treekind® for footwear applications. Biophilica will continue to scale production with the ambition of having products in the market within the course of 2023.
Forager™
Forager™ is the brand of Ecovative which is a biotechnology company based in New York, USA.
The information on the website advises that the company is developing products for industries including food, beauty and fashion from ‘mycelium’ ie mushrooms. For the fashion industry, the site advises that its ‘forager hides’ are ‘leather’ and that it’s ‘forager foams’ are ‘high-performance foams’ for clothing, shoes and more. The materials are made using Ecovative’s AirMycelium™ technology and the website advises they are durable, synthetic-free, totally vegan and plastic-free. The hides and foams are said to be completely natural, circular and fully compostable after use.
On the supply side, the site advises that Forager is building ‘production capacity for industry-changing scale.’ This includes building new vertical farming infrastructure as well as adapting AirMycelium™ into existing mushroom farms. That is, instead of only building whole new facilities to produce the foams and textiles, the company can modify existing mycellium supply chains to produce forager in an integrated, shortened, localized supply chain.
It would seem that fashion products tailored in forager™ are not yet on the market. In 2021 it was announced that VH Corp.—the parent company of fashion brands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger— had ‘…joined the plastic-free vegan leather movement by partnering with biotechnology company Ecovative.’ At the time of blog-writing, products are yet to be seen.
A business which is more well-known for its mushroom-based vegan leather has not yet reached the stage where its mycelium-based material called MYLO™ is compostable – and as noted below that is why that material is not included in this blog post except to call it out as not reaching that level. That business name is Bolt Threads and it has attracted investment from a number of huge fashion brands some of which in 2022 released images of 2023 product potentialities.
Fleather
Fleather is the product of biotech company Phool based in Kanpur, India. The business of Phool started and continues with the collecting of enormous amounts of flower waste from temples in India – thereby avoiding dumping of the flowers in the Ganges River – and the flower waste is turned into top-selling charcoal-free incense sticks, oils, and such.
The founders of Phool then went on to use collected flower waste as a component for a bio-degradable vegan leather textile which they called ‘fleather’. The development of the textile had the support and leadership of the India Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and was announced as developed in 2021.
A recent Series A funding round is said to have raised USD8 million including from major Bollywood stars. Phool said it plans to use the funds to scale up its operations both in India and internationally and invest in more R&D to bring its vegan leather to global markets. The business has said that it will disrupt the global leather industry with fleather and that the fashion prototypes it has produced with the textile – from wallets to shoes – are highly successful.
Of interest, of course, is that the country which has developed fleather viz India is one of the leading producers of real leather. And fleather is hence positioned as the viable alternative to real leather. Perhaps the emphasis the similarities and differences in composition, the brand highlights that both real leather and vegan leather fleather contain natural proteins giving them each the same durability, and same delicate and smooth touch. In the case of real leather, it is the collagen protein and in the case of fleather it is the chitin protein.
Nova Milan
Nova Milan is a company in Costa Rica which describes itself as
‘The first full supply chain ecosystem creating petroleum-free plant-based vegan leather at scale.’
With a huge export industry of its pineapples, the company’s website says that it takes the waste and turns it into ‘premium, plant-based leathers’. It also advises that it can make leathers and ‘biobased plastics’ from mushrooms, hemp, water hyacinth, oranges and cotton.
There is no information on the website or on social media about any particular name given to the materials or for which intellectual property protection applies, the stage the business is at or any brands that have tailored products in their textile.
Bananatex®
Bananatex® is the brand name of the textile produced in the Philippines that is described on the business website as the ‘…technical fabric made purely from the naturally grown Abacá banana plants.’ The textile is 100% compostable.
The brand and its textile were developed by Swiss bag brand QWESTION in collaboration with a Taiwanese yarn specialist and a weaving partner.
The word ‘leather’ is not used in description of the textile and its texture is akin to a canvas – which we say having receiving a swag of Bananatex® swatches.
Bio-Tex™
Bio-Tex™ is the brand name of bio technology company Modern Meadow. It is the name of a material which is totally made in a laboratory to replicate the look and feel of real leather. Called ‘bio-fabricated leather, ‘bio-fabricated material’ or bio-based ‘leather’. Not using real plants as components but the technology developed by Modern Meadow known as Bio-Alloy™ – said to be composed of a unique alloy of proteins and bio-based polymers to create the unique lightweight materials with the natural look, feel and patina of real leather.
The website of Modern Meadow claims that their technology creates
‘…abrasion-resistant, water-resistant, breathable, lightweight, and durable materials with long-lasting performance. Their strength and resilience are like that of cartilaginous materials, and they age naturally and soften with oils similar to natural leather. The result is a material that is supple to the touch and versatile across countless applications.’
It is further said that Bio-Tex™ material reduces GHG emissions by over 90% compared to traditional chrome-tanned leather. Information on the website does not make reference to the compostability of the material.
The first launch of Bio-Tex™ products was in early 2022 with the release of the ‘New Day’ tote bag by Everlane. The product is available online at the price of AUD465. It is described as ‘71% Bio-Alloy and Bio-PU leather alternative from plant-based proteins, 29% FSC-certified Lenzing™ viscose’. It’s not spelt out, but presumably the ‘bio-PU’ alternative is still a plastic and hence the bag is not biodegradable?
Summary
- Cork leather continues as it has done and is (by most brands) plastic-free and compostable. Products made from the bark of cork oak trees are not claimed to replicate the look or feel of real leather, they are accepted as alternative materials to real and vegan leather in their own right and are truly circular as they degrade.
- Similarly the material made from bananas only – Bananatex® – does not replicate the look or feel of real or vegan leather being more akin to a canvas look. The products made in this material are also truly circular as they return to the earth. Bananatex® is the sole brand in this overview which has 3rd party vertification.
- The materials made from plant or flower waste and without the PU component are Fleather, Forager™, TREEKIND®, Nova Milan and MIRUM®.
- The first 3 of these brands have attracted interest and funding in their development but branded products not launched yet.
- A brand of sandles made in Nova Milan material is apparently to be released in early 2023.
- The lab-grown material Bio-Tex™ has been developing for some years. Questionable whether it should be included in this overview given the component of bio-PU and it’s commercial take-up also appears slow in the fashion world.