Fashion brands are on a constant quest for newness, including scoping out emerging materials. But they also have a crucial role to play in supporting and bringing material innovations to market.
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Taking new fibers and materials from prototype to consumer product takes significant funds and time, but it also requires collaboration. During a panel at Kingpins New York , moderated by Tricia Carey, who was formerly at circular pulp producer Circulose (née Renewcell), executives working in material development and manufacturing shared their challenges and how the supply chain should step up to scale technologies.
“It’s always going to be a slow road,” said Billy McCall, CEO and co-founder of Kintra Fibers. “Anything in the material space just takes time. I mean, look at even polyester, which is the most mass-produced fiber out there, and it took a while to get to where it is today.”
On the panel was Ecovative, which is using mycelium—the root structure of fungi—to grow foam and leather alternatives. While it serves other industries—with products including meat alternatives and packaging solutions—Ecovative’s attentions have recently been focused on fashion. The company received a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2012 to create plastic-free foam for shoes. Following further investments, the Forager foam and leather alternatives were commercialized in 2022, and now the company has partnerships with about a dozen brands, with capsule collections expected to hit the market later this year or in 2025.
At Kingpins, Ecovative showcased its collaboration with manufacturer AGI Denim to create padded denim garments using its foam. Working with manufacturers, including tanneries, is a key piece in supporting brands’ product development. “We can’t just show up with a material and go, ‘Here, please use this and make it happen.’ We’ve really put in that back-end work to make sure everyone gets success,” said Lacey Davidson, director of marketing communications for Ecovative.
Brooklyn-based Kintra Fibers has developed a bio-based, compostable polyester. The company—founded in 2018—has attracted investment from b r a n d s l i k e Bestseller . Having early integrations with brands has been a benefit, with Kintra’s McCall noting that it is now scaling up to larger batches of fiber, with the intent to create 30 to 50 tons of yarn in the first quarter of 2025. Laying the groundwork for an eventual plant and capsule collections, Kintra Fibers is partnering with mills. And later this year, it will create a few hundred meters of knit fabric. “In the early stages of developing a material, you burn through a lot of capital just figuring out what formulation works, where to make this stuff, suppliers that you trust,” said McCall. He explained that Kintra has focused on one product type to streamline its production and iterations.
Mills are integral to translating material concepts into marketable collections, but they must prioritize their resources. Denim mill Siddiqsons’ president of sales and marketing Scott Gress estimated that it takes roughly $10,000 to create one new fabric, between the costs for production, machine downtime during development and labor. It can also take up to a year from concept to tangible samples.
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When choosing which “shiny penny” to chase, Siddiqsons weighs aspects like cost efficiency, since small price differences can prevent downstream adoption by retail buyers. One of the solutions that made the cut is CleanKore , a sustainable indigo dyeing technology that uses existing equipment and is cost neutral while also saving energy and water. “We can’t invest our time and energy in something that isn’t truly commercial,” said Gress. “If it isn’t commercial from the first look, we have to steer away from it, and that’s sad because some of these things over time could become very viable.”
Per Gress, another way to make a new material more enticing is to ensure exclusivity or early access so manufacturers have less competition when they launch.
Given the investment needed to bring new innovations to market, Gress said brands shouldn’t be so quick to balk at slight cost differences and need to be open to try new things and see how the consumer responds. One way to reframe added expenses would be to look at it as a marketing tactic, aligning a brand with newness.
To help get brand buy-in and feedback, Ecovative created a cooperative that would send samples to companies like PVH, Vivobarefoot and Reformation each month. The brands would test the material and send back their results, allowing Ecovative to adapt its material to fit market needs. This not only shared costs but also sped the process to reach commercial scale. Ecovative is also providing resources to brands so they can communicate about the material to consumers on aspects like biodegradability.
Ecovative is also giving some students and independent designers access to its foam and faux leathers through its Forager Fashion Art and Design Program (FFAD). “We want to make sure that this material is for everyone,” said Davidson. “We really wanted to have something that wasn’t off limits.”
What may speed up change and drive brand adoption is government regulation. Davidson pointed to Circulose—which went through bankruptcy—as a cautionary tale and an example of why acceleration is needed. “If we aren’t continuing to fund these innovative materials and innovative ways of making, we’re going to lose them,” she said. “That’s the hardest part, is not having that runway of funding at a government level, at a brand level, at a venture capital level, to really give these the time and support that they need.”
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