Category: Textiles

Publications, Sustainable design, Textiles

Mosquito-resistant clothing prevents bites in trials

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Read the full story from North Carolina State University.

North Carolina State University researchers have created insecticide-free, mosquito-resistant clothing using textile materials they confirmed to be bite-proof in experiments with live mosquitoes. They developed the materials using a computational model of their own design, which describes the biting behavior of Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries viruses that cause human diseases like Zika, Dengue fever and yellow fever.

Ultimately, the researchers reported in the journal Insects that they were able to prevent 100 percent of bites when a volunteer wore their clothing – a base layer undergarment and a combat shirt initially designed for the military – in a cage with 200 live, disease-free mosquitoes. Vector Textiles, an NC State startup company, has licensed the related patent rights and intends to make clothing for commercial sale in the United States.

Fashion & beauty products, Sustainable design, Textiles

Your sneakers are polluting the planet. Adidas and Allbirds unveil an ultra-green alternative

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Read the full story at Fast Company.

In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the global sneaker house Adidas and the sustainable, direct-to-consumer shoe brand Allbirds announced they were teaming up to make the most sustainable sneaker ever. Today, we get a look at that shoe for the first time.

It’s called the Futurecraft.Footprint. And while an MIT study from 2013 found the average sneaker had a 30-pound CO2 footprint—about the same as eating about 3.5 Big Macs—the Futurecraft.Footprint comes in at under 3 kilograms of CO2 per pair. It’s 2.94 kilograms to be exact—a number hand written on every shoe.

Fashion & beauty products, Publications, Textiles

Your clothes spew microfibers before they’re even clothes

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Read the full story in Wired.

A new report from the Nature Conservancy picks apart the textile supply chain—from the manufacturer who makes synthetic yarn from little pellets of plastic, to the factory that stitches together the clothes—to estimate that this pre-consumer process releases 265 million pounds of microfibers each year. 

Sustainable design, Textiles

German textile fair Heimtextil launches online materials library

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Read the full story at Fiber2Fashion.

Heimtextil is extending its range of digital services and launching a new online materials library entitled ‘Future Materials Library’. In the online library, visitors can discover the potential of previously unknown textiles at any time. The ‘Future Materials Library’ invites visitors to open their minds to experimental approaches and revolutionary ideas.

PFAS, Regulation, Textiles

Dyeing, printing, & finishing: PFAS – a textile perspective

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Read the full story in Textile World.

Despite the textile industry’s limited use of PFAS materials, future regulation may impact producers of performance fabrics.

Circular economy, Fashion & beauty products, Textiles

Automating textile waste will change the game for clothing recycling

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Read the full story at GreenBiz.

Textile and fashion industry have a huge circular potential that has yet to be developed. One of the main issues holding back the application of the circular economy in this sector is sorting through textile waste, which requires a high degree of precision and is still performed manually. Being able to automate the process and launch it on an industrial scale therefore will be the key to a real revolution in the world of textiles.

This is the goal of German company Stadler and Norwegian company Tomra, both specialized in collecting and recycling systems, which have opened the world’s first fully automated textile sorting plant in Malmö, Sweden.

Circular economy, Green building, Sustainable design, Textiles

These Eye-Catching Bricks Are Made from Textile Waste

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Read the full story at Treehugger.

FabBRICK upcycles clothes into bricks that are great thermal, acoustic insulators.

Agriculture, Food and beverage manufacturing, Information tools, Sustainable design, Textiles

Hemp research a win-win for new Midwestern crop

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Read the full story from the University of Illinois.

Industrial hemp, used for fiber and food, is one of the newest crops in Midwestern fields, but high demand has outpaced available data. University of Illinois Extension commercial agriculture educators are working with growers to source field data and provide cutting-edge research through the new Midwestern Hemp Database.

Circular economy, Fashion & beauty products, Food waste, Sustainable design, Textiles

This innovator doesn’t cry over spilt milk. He turns it into T-shirts

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Read the full story at Beautiful News.

Around 1.3 billion tonnes of food are thrown out every single year. One of the most discarded items is expired milk. Yet innovator Robert Luo believes that everything should be given another chance. “Nothing is ever waste, but rather an opportunity,” he says. His answer to forsaken dairy? A T-shirt.

Fashion & beauty products, Illinois, Supply chain, Sustainable design, Textiles

Allbirds is investing in a plant-based leather substitute, plans faux-leather shoe drop in December

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Read the full story at TechCrunch. Natural Fiber Welding is based in Peoria.

The sustainability focused shoe maker Allbirds has taken another step to green its supply chain with a small $2 million investment in a new company called Natural Fiber Welding.

Announced this morning, the investment in Natural Fiber Welding will see Allbirds bring a vegan leather replacement option to customers by December 2021. It’s a natural addition for a company that has always billed itself as focused on environmental impact in other aspects of its apparel manufacturing.

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