The latest collaboration is between PUMA and Streamateria. They have partnered up to explore sustainable alternatives for making and dyeing textiles in its latest biodesign project, which features a biodegradable lifestyle and performance collection, named “Design to Fade”.
Thinking Outside the Box
The sports company and the Dutch project Living Colour and Swedish design studio Streamateria was a partnership built on the believe that collaboration and co-design is imperative. Together they have managed to catalyze the innovation project to challenge the status quo. They announced that some of the products are dyed using bacteria, while others are made of degradable materials, which are made in closed loops and can be manufactured locally and at short notice.
“Design to Fade” is PUMA’s third biodesign project since 2016, in which the company is presenting new ways to reduce the environmental impact of fashion and sportswear. Though none of these projects has yet reached a commercial-stage, they are an important step towards making PUMA more sustainable in the future.
Swedish design studio Streamateria makes fabrics in closed material loops, which become a source of raw material after they have been worn. This is made possible through a circular production chain with zero tolerance to waste. Streamateria materials are constructed out of a printed mesh-structure, which is coated with a bioplastic, creating a textile-like garment. Dutch design project Living Colour uses bacteria to dye textiles. The bacteria are fed with a nutrient which makes them produce a pigment, which can then be used to dye almost any kind of fibre.
For the Streamateria, their products are designed to perish after a predetermined period of use, and the cutting-edge bio-manufacturing methods ensure that they nourish the natural environment when they decompose and turn waste into energy. As for performance products, the biomaterial coating has the potential to cool athletes. they believe that all innovation projects that seek to challenge the status quo need at some point to be multidisciplinary collaborations.
Founding editor-in-chief of FashNerd.com, Muchaneta is currently one of the leading influencers writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology. She has also given talks at Premiere Vision, Munich Fabric Start and Pure London, to name a few. Besides working as a fashion innovation consultant for various fashion companies like LVMH Atelier, Muchaneta has also contributed to Vogue Business, is a senior contributor at The Interline and an associate lecturer at London College of Fashion, UAL.
