Have Your Pineapples, and Wear Them Too
PIÑATEX™
is a much sought after solution to leather by vegans and environmentally conscious consumers alike. It is a soft, breathable faux leather made from pineapple leaves, sourced from the waste stream of pineapple harvest and processing. Ananas Anam and Dr. Carmen Hijosa poured seven years of R&D into this sustainable textile product that is steadily becoming available to the commercial soft-goods industry.
Currently, Ananas Anam does not sell product direct to consumers; though the consumer can find nearly all they would like to know about Piñatex™ leather from their website. They guide consumers to select stockists that sell products made from Piñatex™. In selling to a handful of designers that would have an understanding and know-how to work with faux leathers, Ananas Anam has greater control over the brand value of Piñatex™ and its perceived product performance.
Piñatex™ is a nonwoven, which inherently creates a level of technical difficulty in how to stitch and manipulate the fabric. For home and craft sewing consumer market, this product has the potential to deliver a very frustrating experience, and would necessitate careful marketing. Whether this was factored into the initial decision to refrain from selling to the public is uncertain. There is also the factor, apparent from their Facebook feed and user comments, that they are at the very beginning of their company and brand journey. They have a small team, and produce a small amount of material — and since the press release of their sustainable leather substitute, they have been inundated with queries for or about the product. However, should they be successful in scaling up their process while maintaining environmental sustainability as well as the healthy relationships they have engendered with pineapple farmers, there is a sizeable conscientious Craft and Maker market waiting for their product.
The information available on the website is targeted to both the consumer market and the business market, and offers extensive information on the thought and partnerships that went into the making of Piñatex™. It is key brand information for businesses focused on sustainability and ethics, and beneficial to consumer education and awareness.
NAE: fashion with compassion
NAE is a Portuguese shoe company that uses alternatives to leather in a shared interest with their consumers of environmental responsibility. They work with a vegan philosophy, but invite all who are concerned with animal rights, environmental sustainability or well-designed, stylish footwear to purchase their shoes. Among the alternative leather textiles they fashion their products from: cork, ecological microfibers, and PET — recycled plastic bottles, NAE offers a small line of shoes made from Ananas Anam’s Piñatex™.
The co-branding of these companies is wholly expected. Yet, the values of these two brands are so tightly aligned, that they may not garner any extra attention outside of the consumer base they already have. While it is beneficial for NAE to have a new textile material to fashion products from for their very specific niche market, and Piñatex™ would naturally resonate with the NAE consumer; it could be more beneficial for Ananas Anam to partner Piñatex™ with a brand that offers more diversity in the consumer base they attract. As trends in the luxury market suggest, there is an interest in the sustainable and ethical product. Real fur and leather consumption within this group has declined. It would be a ripe time for Piñatex™ to co-brand with a couture house, or mainstream luxury accessories line — or vice versa.
Other companies that have created consumer products from Piñatex™ include Vegatar, Po-zu, Ina Koelln, Rombaut, Vegemoda, Maravillas Bags, and Taikka.
Thank you for reading! This post was created as part of the Textile Technology and Apparel Management Program at the NC State College of Textiles. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #NCStatetextiles.
Sources that informed the writing of this Medium:
Ananas Anam: New Materials for a New World — Introducing Piñatex™
“From Pineapple to Puma” Crane.tv
NAE: Fashion With Compassion — Pineapple In Your Shoes!
“6 Key Luxury Trends That Will Make or Break Brands in 2016” by Erminia Blackden
