FEEL RESPONSIBLE. ACT SUSTAINABLE.

Responsible & Sustainable

Right from the start, FashionPower has made functional sportswear. Technically, polyester is an ideal fabric for making functional sportswear: the yarn is very strong and easy to work with, good (and repeatedly) washable and holds color. A little disadvantage is that, untreated, the fabric doesn’t breathe or absorb moisture. To solve those two things, we started using chemicals that ensures the fabric to breathe and absorbs moisture. A study of fitness clothing, stated that the smell of sweat from neighbors in the gym is most annoying. There are  chemicals that can solve this problem.

Even though the chemicals we use aren’t directly harmful to the environment, we went on the search for natural products that have the same effect. That’s how we discovered bamboo carbon and later also coffee (the drape) and coconut (the shell we normally throw away). We also had carbon made from the latter two, all of which was added to the polyester yarns.

All three materials have the same functionality as the chemicals we first added, with the only difference them being natural products. The process is called upcycling (recycling into an improved version). With this solution we had created a win-win situation.

Recycling and Upcycling

Polyester belongs to the group of polymers. These are granules that, after heating, can be sprayed into yarn. It is also easy to heat polyesters and turn them into granules again.

Recycling is the process of converting discarded clothing or PE bottles back into granules and then turn them into yarns. This way, the materials get a second life, which means we no longer have to buy earth oil (the base for making new yarns).

By adding carbon made from bamboo, coffee residue or coconut shells to these fabrics, we can use a fabric that is better than the standard. A fabric with functionalities that it didn’t have before and the perfect base for sportswear. That is what we call winning times four.

 

Dope Dye (spin dyeing)

The clothing industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. We are not proud of that. But we can’t live without clothes either, so we feel we have to find a solution to prevent or reduce pollution.

The biggest problem is the dyeing process of fabrics. This requires a lot of water and it also results in polluted water. Especially dark fabrics, black in particular, need to be dyed several times to get the beautiful deep color that we like to see. Where normally dyeing once is enough, dyeing three or four times is needed for a black color, after which rinsing is needed every time. ‘Unfortunately’ – black is one of the best-selling colors in the industry!

We are now converting the traditional dyeing process to Dope Dye: painting without water and therefore with minimal pollution. What happens is that the granules from which polyester yarn is made are already colored. Initially, this means that the color palette is slightly more limited than we are used to, but the reduction in pollution is so enormous that we would like to accept it. We are also convinced that the colors will grow in the future.

In that case, we have won everything.

EUROPE
International Head Office
& Showroom
Hofdreef 28
4881 DR Zundert
The Netherlands
T: +31(0)76 596 8737

CHINA
Office & Showroom
Room 1103-1104,
Hua Chen Building
No. 19 Shenjüren Xiang
210029 Nanjing
Jiangsu Province, China
T: +86(0)25 847 015 82

GERMANY
Showroom                                                    Freunder Landstraße 114
52078 Aachen
T: +49 241 93688807
Germany

CONTACT
backofficesales@fashionpower.nl