Resortecs, a Belgian start-up that produces dissolvable stitching thread, and Unspun, a robotics and apparel company based in Hong Kong and San Francisco, US, have developed digitally fit, dissolvable thread jeans.
Developed as part of a partnership inspired by circularity and sustainability, the garment – titled Rebirth – will act as the world’s ‘first commercially available’ jeans of their kind.
While typically the production and disposal of a pair of jeans can ‘easily’ emit 28kg of CO2, the Resortecs and Unspun-developed jeans have reduced this number to 15kg of CO2 – reducing pollution by almost 50%.
Both companies credit the development of the jeans to their individual technologies. The jeans are constructed using Unspun’s weaving technology and on-demand production methods while additionally utilising Resortecs’ dissolvable thread technology.
By applying heat to the Resortecs thread, manufacturers can dismantle garments at the end of its lifecycle to recycle or upcycle disassembled material. Unspun says it is the first company to launch a product to market that is manufactured with Resortecs technology.
In a previous interview with WTiN, Resortecs’ founder, Cédric Vanhoeck, explored the benefits of the thread: “It allows brands to be able to manage their assets – their materials – in a more efficient way. It allows for circular economy.”
Vanhoeck adds: “The small adjustment of changing the thread bobbin on the sewing machine results in a big emission reduction by making supply chains disruptively lean and by making it possible to design garments that are recyclable.”
Additionally, Unspun’s on-demand, 3D-automated technology allows the jeans to be customised to a person’s shape, the company says.
“Unspun’s software is the most precise, given the thousands of metrics they gather on a person’s shape that then fuse into a software design that plots thousands of data points around their digital shape,” Unspun says.
The collaboration between the two companies is cited to the Global Change Award that both companies have won in previous years. Additionally, both companies are part of the Fashion For Good accelerator of the C&A Foundation and the Tech Style incubator of The Mills Fabrica Hong Kong.
The announcement follows industry focus on circularity and efforts to extend the life of garments in the fashion supply chain to limit landfill waste and overproduction.
The jeans will be presented to a ‘select group of industry leaders’ on 22 November 2019.
The companies add that the greater public is also welcome to visit Rebirth’s pop-up store at Soho Yard G/F, 19 Old Bailey Street, Soho, Central, Hong Kong.
Source: www.wtin.com