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The future of alternative materials looks different depending where you look and who you ask.
Mycoworks, the Hermès-backed biomaterials startup based in California, released three new leather-like materials today that it says will soon be produced at scale. The company is also celebrating its latest market launch this week, as luxury hatmaker Nick Fouquet debuts his fourth collection of hats made with Mycoworks’s Reishi material.
The dual announcements come just weeks after Bolt Threads surprised the sustainable fashion community with news that it is halting production of its own leather alternative Mylo, which had been trialled by brands including Stella McCartney and Ganni.
Bolt Threads’s move set off alarm bells that more startups like it could soon show signs of struggle, throwing the future of fashion’s alternative materials into question. However, Mycoworks CEO Matt Scullin argues that the path to growth is actually clearer than ever. The key, he says, is matching quality with sustainability — and not allowing compromises on either.
“It’s all about product quality. Impact is going to be had, and materials are going to see adoption, based on their quality — and quality really means having an ability to create an emotional connection with the consumer, as well as scalability,” he says.
Facing pressure to reduce their footprint, fashion brands have flocked in recent years to startups that have promised to reduce the industry’s impacts by replacing some of its most commonly used — and most resource intensive — materials, with leather alternatives drawing significant hype because of the high carbon footprint of animal leather and the historically heavy reliance on plastic for alternatives. Yet, despite the abundance of collaborations between brands and material innovators, and the proliferation of capsule collections and prototypes, products actually available at retail are virtually nonexistent.
That’s why some saw the collapse of Mylo as an omen for other material innovations — that brands use them to dazzle on a runway and to try to convince the world that they are working on sustainability, but lack any meaningful commitment and aren’t ready to invest in real change. This can leave startups in what becomes a permanent pilot phase.
Others, though, point out that the real goal of material innovation is not to sit alongside fashion’s incumbent materials, but to replace them — and that takes time. Brands need to test and understand a new material from every angle, from supply chain compatibility to customer perception to product durability, before they can consider using it in products. There’s also a certain degree of chicken-and-egg that needs to play out between brands and innovators, because brands aren’t going to commit to using a new technology until they are convinced it has the quality, as well as the economic and commercial viability, to deliver; while innovators need brand buy-in to persuade not only investors but also suppliers, who they depend on to test and actually produce or manufacture with the material.
One point of contention on what happens next is where the money will come from for startups to keep working toward this goal. Bolt Threads CEO Dan Widmaier told Vogue Business that scaling production is the hardest and most expensive part of introducing a new material to fashion, and that inflation and waning funding opportunities were to blame for Mylo’s downfall.
Yet, a number of other material innovation companies say that while they definitely face significant hurdles — including brands moving slower than they would like, as well as an investment climate that has cooled in the last couple years — things are still moving in the right direction.
“I’d say in general, it definitely has become much harder to raise funds for new technologies across the board — not just sustainability. The venture market has seen a significant decrease in deal flow the last few quarters,” says Peter Majeranowski, CEO of fibre recycling startup Circ. “That being said, there’s still capital out there. I’m encouraged by the increase in funds looking to invest in sustainability. It just might take longer or require more diligence during these market conditions.”
Scullin says Mycoworks has recently completed two rounds of funding, “including during the market downturn in 2022”, with one dedicated specifically to commercialising production. That funding has financed the construction of a full-scale manufacturing plant in South Carolina, he says — where the three materials being announced today, called Reishi Doux, Reishi Natural and Reishi Pebble, will be produced. “The bottom line is there’s plenty of capital available for good products that are also scalable,” he says. The company’s focus on luxury is a strategic way to demonstrate it is able to deliver on quality, he says, but they’re already looking at future partnerships in luxury as well as the mass market. (He declined to share additional details.)
Survival of the fittest
Ecovative, another mycelium leather startup, along with other next-gen materials companies such as Circ, Renewcell and Infinited Fiber Company, have all raised funding recently or have production agreements with major fashion brands lined up for the long term, and say they are confident that they have a place in fashion’s future.
Rather than viewing the Mylo news as a canary in the coal mine for the future of sustainable materials in fashion, they see a positive spin: momentum is building, and it’s time for the industry to start separating the wheat from the chaff in terms of which materials and innovations it is going to embrace for the long haul, and which had potential worth exploring but should now be left behind.
“Markets naturally shift over time, and the last 18 months has certainly seen the environment become more challenging for many. This is part of a natural weeding cycle that often happens around new technologies,” says Eben Bayer, co-founder and CEO of Ecovative, which announced last month that it closed a Series E round of over $30 million. “The companies that make it through will be the ones with committed commercial partners who put high-quality products into consumers’ hands, at the right price, and at a profit to the whole supply chain.”
Commercialisation is about more than fundraising, however. Brands have a critical role to play, not only in buying — or committing to buy, through offtake agreements — the product that a startup is bringing to market, but in sending the market signals that will help it develop wings of its own.
“I don’t think the power and importance of offtakes is fully understood or recognised in the industry to help accelerate the scaling of new materials,” says Circ’s Majeranowski. “An offtake is literally something you can take to the bank. It helps unlock the capital required for new technologies to get to the scale we need if we’re going to stop the planet from warming more than 1.5°C.”
That kind of commitment from brands is helpful for innovators trying to scale — but it’s not a matter of altruism. Not making such commitments, Majeranowski argues, is a red flag that brands aren’t actually walking the walk. “In my opinion, if a brand makes a sustainability pledge and doesn’t follow up with an offtake or some kind of advance commitment, it’s not being sincere in showing a serious path toward achieving that goal.”
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