Hyosung to display eco-friendly denim solutions at Kingpins Amsterdam

It is important to provide the value chain with a complete offering of textile solutions when it comes to sustainability as the apparel industry has not quite decided which sustainable path it wants to follow—whether it is recycled, bio-based, recyclable—or something else coming along on the horizon, Hyosung said in a press release.

“While the industry is deciding which sustainable route to go, we are in a very strong position in that we can offer solutions across many of these categories,” said Simon Whitmarsh-Knight, Hyosung global marketing director - textiles. “We are looking forward to joining the wonderful community at Kingpins Amsterdam and sharing all we can do to help them with their sustainable denim needs. Overtime, we hope the industry will decide one sustainable path, but until then, we believe offering our customers a range of solutions is the way to go.”

At Kingpins, Hyosung will focus on the following sustainable denim solutions—creora bio-based elastane, creora regen elastane, and creora 3D Max elastane.

In 2022, Hyosung was the first global developer to commercialise bio-based elastane in the apparel market. Both United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and SGS certified, creora bio-based elastane, is made with 30 per cent renewable resources—and according to a recent third-party life cycle assessment (LCA), the manufacture of creora bio-based elastane reduces water use by 50 per cent compared to the production of regular elastane. Hyosung will offer creora bio-based elastane made with 70 per cent renewable resources the second half of this year.  

Hyosung’s creora regen elastane is a third-party-certified creora regen spandex made of 100 per cent reclaimed waste. It is the missing puzzle piece that allows denim brands to claim their jeans are fully made from recycled materials.

Keeping circularity in mind, denim brands and retailers are closely monitoring separation technologies and recyclable materials. For example, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Jeans Redesign project is helping denim brands and mills with guidelines to make products that are durable, traceable, recyclable, and made with safe materials and processes. According to the Jeans Redesign’s guidelines, only under 2 per cent of synthetic fibres in denim fabric are allowed for a garment to be recycled. Hyosung’s creora 3D Max elastane uniquely enables denim brands to design and develop jeans that align with these guidelines as the fibre delivers high-performance stretch and recovery with a very small portion of elastane content allowing the garment to be recycled.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)