San Francisco-based footwear brand Allbirds is set to introduce what it claims is the first leather alternative entirely made from plant-based ingredients.<\/p>\n
The brand says that the compostable material, called Plant Leather, has a carbon impact that is 40 times lower than animal leather and produces 17 times fewer carbon emissions than plastic-based synthetic leather.<\/p>\n
The material contains natural rubber derived from the sap of the rubber tree as well as vegetable oil, citric acid and fillers like cork and rice husks plus natural pigments.<\/p>\n
Originally developed by material innovations startup Natural Fiber Welding (NFW) under the name Mirum, the plant-based leather is now set to be turned into footwear that will hit shelves by December 2021.<\/p>\n
Despite the rising number of leather-like products made from plants, NFW claims that rival materials often required plastic coatings or additives to ensure durability.<\/p>\n
“Mirum is unique in that it is the only plant-based leather replacement on the market that does not contain any petrochemicals,” the company said.<\/p>\n
It claims it is “the world’s first 100 per cent natural plant-based leather alternative”.<\/p>\n
The material is made from rubber, vegetable oil and citric acid among other plant-based ingredients
\nNews of the partnership with NFW comes after Allbirds invested $2 million in the startup at the end of last year to help it ramp up production and reduce prices.<\/p>\n
“Natural Fiber Welding is creating scalable, sustainable antidotes to leather and doing so with the potential for a game-changing 98 per cent reduction in carbon emissions,” said Allbirds co-founder Joey Zwillinger.<\/p>\n
“Our partnership with NFW and [the] planned introduction of Plant Leather based on their technology is an exciting step on our journey to eradicate petroleum from the fashion industry.”<\/p>\n
The material joins a growing number of plant-based leather alternatives. Among them are the Gucci and Adidas-backed mushroom leather Mylo and Pi\u00f1atex, which is made from waste pineapple leaves and has previously been turned into Hugo Boss trainers.<\/p>\n
But NFW claims that several of these alternatives include small amounts polyurethane (PU) film or plastic binder to guarantee their durability.<\/p>\n
“Many of the other plant-based alternatives on the market are ‘petroleum enabled’ \u2013 meaning that in order to function in products, they must use synthetic binders and coatings,” the company stated.<\/p>\n
A number of independent designers have experimented with plant-based leather substitutes that are made entirely without plastic, including Tjeerd Veenhoven’s Palm Leather and Don Kwaning’s Lino Leather, both of which were unveiled as early as 2018.<\/p>\n
The latter even has a similar composition as NFW’s Plant Leather, consisting of a mixture of linseed oil and powdered cork applied to a cloth backing in the same process used to make linoleum flooring.<\/p>\n
But Allbirds maintains that its version is the first that is scalable and affordable to mass produce, as it is made from readily-available materials like vegetable oil and rubber.<\/p>\n
“Other nature-based ‘leathers’ are interesting boutique solutions, but they are too expensive and slow-growing to reach mass viability,” a representative for the company told Dezeen.<\/p>\n
By the end of this year, NFW plans to open a large-scale factory to allow fashion, footwear and furniture brands to start placing wholesale orders.<\/p>\n
Once it reaches the end of its life, Plant Leather can be ground up and recycled or placed in an industrial composter, where it would degrade in a matter of months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
San Francisco-based footwear brand Allbirds is set to introduce what it claims is the first leather alternative entirely made from plant-based ingredients. The brand says that the compostable material, called Plant Leather, has a carbon impact that is 40 times lower than animal leather and produces 17 times fewer carbon emissions than plastic-based synthetic leather. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[13240,14859],"supplier":[14780],"class_list":["post-86426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-leather","tag-plantbased","supplier-allbirds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86426"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=86426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}