The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
German sportswear firm Adidas, which is seeking to increase the proportion of sustainable materials it uses in its products, is investing in Finland’s Spinnova, a company that makes textile fibre out of wood or agricultural waste.
Adidas has agreed to subscribe for €3 million ($3.65 million) worth of shares in the company’s planned initial public offering, bringing the total investment it has secured to €58 million, Spinnova said in a statement.
“We are an ideal match with the ambitious and pioneering Adidas sustainability strategy,” Spinnova chief executive and co-founder Janne Poranen said.
Spinnova is building its first commercial factory in Finland with strategic partner and wood raw material supplier Suzano, and is also building a pilot facility for fibre production out of leather waste.
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It said Adidas wanted to secure access to “significant volumes” of its patented fibre in future.
A €500 million sustainability bond Adidas issued last September was five times oversubscribed, with proceeds earmarked for investing in renewable energy production and projects to promote recycled materials.
Adidas has pledged to shift to using only recycled polyester from 2024 and is also involved in research cooperation with another Finnish start-up, Infinite Fiber, to develop a process that can transform used clothes into a cotton-like material.
By Emma Thomasson; Editor: Jason Neely
The outerwear company is set to start selling wetsuits made in part by harvesting materials from old ones.
The trial of Colombian designer Nancy Gonzalez for smuggling alligator and snakeskin handbags into the US shone a rare public spotlight on the trade in the exotic skins used for some of fashion’s most expensive and controversial products.
Europe’s Parliament has signed off rules that will make brands more accountable for what happens in their supply chains, ban products made with forced labour and set new environmental standards for the design and disposal of products.
Fashion’s biggest sustainable cotton certifier said it found no evidence of non-compliance at farms covered by its standard, but acknowledged weaknesses in its monitoring approach.