One of the partnerships between the fashion and biotechnology industries intended to lessen the significant environmental impact of the former is that between the sportswear brand Goldwin and the Yamagata Prefecture-based biotech firm Spiber.
With the help of lab-grown and plant-based fibres that go through a microbial fermentation, or brewing, process, Spiber creates spun materials that resemble cashmere. Recently, it has collaborated with a number of businesses, including the upscale Japanese fashion label Sacai and the California-based Ron Herman.
According to the company’s 2022 sustainability impact assessment, which also discovered their products have lower associated carbon emissions, its offering, which it calls Brewed Protein, consumes 94% less water and contributes 97% less habitat destruction.
In 2015, the two firms worked together on a prototype of The North Face Moon Parka utilising Spiber-produced protein material that resembled the qualities of spider silk. Goldwin, which licences the North Face brand in Japan, has had an eight-year relationship with Spiber.
Goldwin, which aims to have 10% of its newly developed products use Brewed Protein by 2030, is clearly excited by the product.
Gen Arai, a brand director and general manager at Goldwin, said that until now, sports apparel products have typically been made using petroleum-based synthetic polymers such as polyester and nylon.
