Material World: Arda Turns Brew to Bag, Melina Bucher’s Biobased ‘Dream’

Material World is a weekly roundup of innovations and ideas within the materials sector, covering news from emerging biomaterials and alternative leathers to sustainable substitutes and future-proof fibers.

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Arda Biomaterials

London-based Arda Biomaterials and sustainable accessories brand Been London announced the launch of the first product from their partnership: a snakeskin handbag crafted from brewers’ spent grain , sourced from London’s “Beer Mile” in Bermondsey.

“Launching this showpiece handbag with Been is a significant milestone for Arda. It demonstrates our ability to innovate and work toward commercializing high-quality materials that are not full of animals and plastics for consumers,” Brett Cotton, CEO of Arda, said. “We are excited to continue our journey with Been London, pushing the boundaries of sustainable fashion , home goods, sportswear, gaming and beyond.”

This first-of-its-kind purse—a version of Been’s Millais bag—marks the debut use of Arda’s leather-like material, New Grain, in an external product. New Grain is made from spent grain, a byproduct of the beer brewing and whiskey distilling industries. By leveraging a “globally abundant” source of plant proteins, the material innovation firm can replace plastics and mimic the structure of leather’s primary protein, collagen , while working closely with breweries to offer a “truly scalable material” across industries.

“We’re extremely proud to see our partnership with Been materialize into the first tangible product made from New Grain. The concept bag is the culmination of continuous R&D, where we experimented with various thicknesses, colors, patterns, material flexibility, designs and more,” said Edward TJ Mitchell, CTO of Arda. “Been’s expertise working with innovative materials enabled us to transform our next-gen material into a finished product in record time.”

The concept bag was enabled by an 800,000 pound (roughly $1.03 million) Innovate UK grant, which combined collaborators like Been with R&D partners, including Queen Mary University of London and King’s College London . The partnership underscores both companies’ commitment to transforming waste into “skip the cow” fashion.

“Collaborating with Arda has been a fantastic experience. This partnership allowed us to pioneer new materials and lead the charge in circular design and sustainable fashion,” said Genia Mineeva, founder of Been London. “As a brand making premium products entirely from materials that would otherwise be discarded, we’re really excited about the possibilities of Arda’s innovation. The New Grain handbag is just the beginning of what we can achieve together.”

Melina Bucher

German luxury startup Melina Bucher has debuted its first completely biobased and plastic-free bag, dubbed the Dreamer.

To create a “holistically better” product, Melina Bucher spent the last few years doing in-depth research and development, including in EU-funded projects and working together with material innovators worldwide. This included collaborating with Natural Fiber Welding , as Melina Bucher was allegedly the first to use its biobased Mirum material in a handbag in 2022.

“The last years, there was a tremendous debate about what is better—animal leather or synthetic alternatives. What no one wants to talk about: whether you prefer an animal leather or vegan product, all bags use various plastic-based components like reinforcements, threads, foams or fillings,” Melina Bucher, founder of the eponymous brand, said. “These components make it impossible for leather goods to be recycled—a $500 billion dollar industry creating products that can only go to waste.”

The result of the past five years of this collaborative work is the Dreamer, which uses BioPuff Original—a next-generation insulation made by Ponda —as filling material. Unlike conventional feather fillers, BioPuff Original is made by extracting fibers from the Typha plant, regenerating wetland ecosystems , sequestering carbon and enhancing biodiversity.

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The bag’s reinforcements are made from a non-woven material based on hemp residues from hemp fields in Germany by Revoltech , as well as pure mycelium Forager foam from Ecovative . Forager mycelium foam, grown in solar-powered vertical farms, requires minimal energy and water and is ready to harvest in nine days.

“This handbag could only be developed because there are people out there like our partners that are dreaming of a better future,” Bucher said. “The Dreamer handbag is encouraging everyone to dream big and work toward the brighter future we all wish for.”

Puma

Puma has scaled up its textile-to-textile recycling initiative, Re:Fibre , to create millions of replica football jerseys with at least 75 percent recycled textile waste and other waste material.

For the first time, the global sports company said, Puma football replica jerseys from the start of the 24/25 season—including those for the Euro and Copa America tournaments but excluding local replicas for Fenerbahçe SK, Shakhtar Donetsk and locally sourced kits—are made from Re:Fibre.

“Re:Fibre gives football fans a tangible example of how Puma is working toward creating a ‘Forever Better,’” said Anne-Laure Descours , chief sourcing officer at Puma. “Our wish is to have 100 percent of our polyester products created from textile waste. Rethinking how we produce and moving toward a more circular business model is important, and Re:Fibre is central to that.”

The upscaling builds on the 46,000 Re:Fibre jerseys produced last year and seeks to reduce textile waste and create less reliance on plastic bottles to produce recycled polyester products. Puma said it’s exploring “diversified ways” to recycle polyester, including thermo-mechanical and chemical recycling techniques to make this possible.

Ultrafabrics

Japanese and New York City-based leather alternative brand Ultrafabrics announced the relaunch of its biobased Volar Bio material. Initially introduced in 2019 with 29 percent biobased components, Volar Bio now features a 66 percent mix of recycled, renewable and biobased content.

“We are six years ahead of our initial sustainability goals and 19 of our fabric lines now have content that is recycled, rapidly renewable, or both in the backcloth,” said Nicole Meier, director of branding at Ultrafabrics. “With the relaunch of Volar Bio, our multiple sustainability ingredient partners and our move toward biobased products in the transportation sector, it’s clear you can achieve sustainability without sacrificing quality and performance.”

Volar Bio’s “evolution” in backcloth construction not only includes certified Repreve recycled polyester and Ecovero viscose in the backcloth but introduces Susterra propanediol biobased resin—a pure, petroleum-free raw material made from regeneratively farmed U.S. dent corn . Crafted in Japan, the material has a natural-feeling surface that can be used to upholster various products, from residential furniture to commercial-based surfaces.

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