The Seattle Startup Steering the Future of Apparel
Mark Twain once wrote, “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
Whether it was Twain’s words or masterful work by the Don Drapers of the world, society seems to have taken this quote to heart.
The Economist recently reported that global clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014. Our thirst for style has become a pressing issue.
“Why?”, you ask.
4 Main Reasons:
- Lots of energy
- Tons of water
- Nasty chemicals
- Waste “for days”
Much like our food, we can’t help but take our clothing for granted. We’re more likely to be thinking about urgent email while getting dressed than how our pants were made.
Year after year, we throw out clothes in favor of new ones. All the while, threads are piling up in our landfills.
Michael Kobori, the Vice President of Social and Environmental Sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co., puts it into perspective.
- 28 BILLION POUNDS of clothes are ditched from U.S. homes each year (that’s the weight of 33 Empire State buildings)
- ONLY 15% are recycled or donated
While old clothes pile up at an alarming rate, we continue to use water that we don’t have enough of, and primarily fossil-fueled energy to produce more clothes.
We have a grand problem and an equally grand opportunity.
Introducing Evrnu
This opportunity is now being addressed by Stacy Flynn and her team at Evrnu.
Flynn identified “the linchpin” of the entire clothing system to be fiber, and then set out to explore ways of developing technology that could take wasted garments and turn them back into fiber for reuse in clothing production.
Evrnu has done just that. Here is how their patent-pending technology works:
- Take old garmets
- Shred them
- Break down the molecules
- Engineer a new fiber
Imagine. You ditch last year’s jeans and they’re turned back into fiber for next year’s style.
Some fun facts about Evrnu’s Fiber Technology:
- 98% less water
- 90% reduced CO2 emissions
“Now that’s some earth-friendly fiber.”
In May of last year, Levi Strauss & Co. announced their partnership with Evrnu to create the first pairs of jeans from post-consumer cotton waste.
It’s innovation like this that has us so jazzed about a clean future.
Act on Climate
It may be some time before clothing that’s fully recycled is widely available. In the meantime, check out 40 Mindblowing Ways to Repurpose Old Clothing, and “vote with your dollars” by supporting Ethical Clothing Brands.
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