HeiQ, a Swiss high-tech company producing high performance sustainable effect for textiles, has collaborated with sustainable outdoor clothing brand Patagonia for an exclusive strategic research to explore novel ways for a sustainable textile finishing technology to achieve breathable and durable water repellence (DWR) with best-in-class performances.
Dr. Murray Height, Co-Founder and CTO, HeiQ Group is the company’s research leader for the project. “At HeiQ we are constantly researching new ways to achieve water repellency on textiles and have worked towards non-pfc DWR technology for over five years. This project aims to realize an improved non-PFC (perfluorinated chemistries) DWR technology and achieve a new level of performance in this field,” he said.
HeiQ’s current product, HeiQ Eco Dry is among the most effective non-PFC water-repellent textile technologies on market, capable of achieving water repellency performance identical to or better than PFC C6 levels.
“At HeiQ, we carefully choose our brand partners before initiating a cooperative research project to ensure that the joint effort is going to create the highest value possible for both parties, and more importantly, for consumers. Patagonia and HeiQ share the same vision that technology can perfect our every-day textile products. This formed the basis for this partnership,” said Colin Lantz, Vice President, HeiQ Brandforce.
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It may be mentioned here that numerous human health and environmental studies have quantified the hazardous impacts of PFCs and some brands in the outdoor industry have begun to switch to currently available first-generation non-fluorinated DWRs.
“A central component to Patagonia’s Material Innovation Strategy is to minimize the proliferation of toxic chemistries. However, we will not be successful unless we also achieve the quality and performance that our customers demand. Shattering this status quo for DWR is of paramount importance to Patagonia, and calculated partnership is a key means of doing so,” said Matt Dwyer, Director – Material Innovation and Development, Patagonia.
