Materials & Packaging Collaboration & Co-Creation

Modern Meadow Partners to Scale Sustainable Materials Development for Outdoor Apparel Market

The materials innovator and sustainable fabric giant Singtex are co-developing new biomaterials across a range of applications — starting with a sustainably produced, waterproof, membrane-based material for outdoor apparel.

Published 1 year ago | About a 3 minute read

Image: Aleksey Kuprikov

Purpose-driven biotech company Modern Meadow has launched a co-development partnership with Singtex — a pioneer in sustainable, functional textiles and global supplier to world-renowned brands. The two industry leaders will develop new biomaterials across a range of applications — starting with a sustainably produced, high-performance, waterproof, membrane-based material for outdoor apparel.

Apparel brands including Columbia Sportswear, G-Star RAW and The North Face have made strides in creating weatherproof garments made without the usual chemical suspects used to waterproof fabrics — including PFCs, Dimethylformamide (DMF — a potential liver toxin), and per- or poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS — whose nickname, “forever chemicals,” is self-explanatory) — but a sustainable, industry-standard solution remains elusive. Modern Meadow and Singtex aim to address the unmet needs of the outdoor apparel industry with a bio-derived, membrane-based material based on Modern Meadow's proprietary, protein-based Bio-Alloy™ technology — which will be engineered to bring the outdoor industry a sustainable solution at scale that protects human health and the environment while delivering superior product performance through waterproofing, breathability, abrasion and durability.

Known for its contribution to the BioFabbrica Bio-Tex™ material that has been shown to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 90 percent compared to traditional leather, Modern Meadow is on a mission to expand its commercial offerings to material families beyond alternative leather for greater impact. The company’s proprietary Bio-Alloy and Bio-F@rm™ technology platforms utilize the unique properties of tuned proteins to sustainably move the world away from petrochemical and animal-derived inputs without compromising on performance. Modern Meadow's technologies drop into existing infrastructures for immediate scalable adoption in textiles, beauty and other industries — a rarity in the sustainable biotechnology space.

“As the consumer demand for products that are environmentally friendly accelerates, this partnership is essential to deliver high-performing sustainable materials at scale to market, creating real-world impact,” said Modern Meadow CEO Catherine Roggero-Lovisi. “Modern Meadow and Singtex will engineer each aspect of the product to enable outdoor apparel and gear manufacturers to replace the use of harmful chemicals, petrochemical and animal byproducts with ethical and environmentally friendly inputs, meet more stringent consumer demands and achieve sustainability goals.”

Founded in 1989 as a producer of woven fabric, Singtex is now one of the most prominent suppliers of eco-friendly and functional textiles in Taiwan. In 2007, the group established a high-precision, eco-friendly dyeing and finishing R&D center; the company has also obtained global environmental certifications including bluesign, EOCA, OEKO-TEX, GRS and Higg Index.

"This is only the start of Singtex’s journey of collaborative innovation with Modern Meadow,” said SINGTEX Group Chairman Jason Chen. “It’s a pleasure to start working with Modern Meadow and play to each of our unique strengths to deliver true impact in this space. Together, we are excited to work towards unveiling our new environmentally sustainable, biobased product that is ready to ring in the next generation of sustainable, high-performance textiles.”